Nobody likes being stuck in traffic. I should know; I lived in a big suburb of a major city for 30 years (Denver) and worked in many much bigger cities (Boston, Chicago, San Francisco, Los Angeles) as well. Many of our big cities just don't do traffic very well.
A recent study on the best and worst American cities for drivers, though, provides us with some interesting results.
There’s no place better to drive in the U.S. than Corpus Christi, Texas.
That’s according to a WalletHub study, which puts five Texan cities in the top 10 of 100 cities.
California didn’t fare as well, with four cities landing in the bottom 10 of the "Best and Worst Cities to Drive In" study. But even 93rd-ranked Los Angeles did better than the City of Brotherly Love.
Philadelphia is America’s worst city for driving, according to the study.
The rest of the bottom 10 are Seattle at No. 90; Baltimore, 91; San Jose, Calif., 92; Detroit, 94; San Francisco, 95; Chicago, 96; New York City, No. 97; Washington, D.C., 98; and Oakland, 99.
Now, let's engage in a little mental gymnastics here. Philly's the worst, in a swing state, although the city government is reliably blue. But the others? Seattle is in Washington, a blue state, thanks mostly to the Seattle area. Baltimore? Maryland, reliably blue. San Jose, San Francisco, Chicago, New York City, Washington, D.C., and Oakland, all in blue states. Only Detroit, a deeply Democratic city, joins Philly in being located in a swing state.
The best states, other than Corpus Christi? A total of five of the top ten are in Texas.
Only one city in the Southwest broke into the top 10: Scottsdale, Arizona, at No. 4, right after No. 2-ranked Greensboro, N.C., and No. 3-ranked Boise, Idaho. The rest of the 10 top consisted of Laredo, Texas at No. 5; Lubbock, Texas, 6; Birmingham, Alabama, 7; Plano, Texas, 8; Austin, 9, and Winston-Salem, N.C., 10.
Arizona, well, it's a red state that has been trending purple. North Carolina and Idaho? A swing state and a pretty reliably red state.
Now, to be fair, the cities rated as good to drive in are also smaller cities than the megacities of LA, Frisco, and Chicago. Although the blue-state metropolises have other issues; Los Angeles has a much higher rate of everything from carjacking to uninsured (and illegal) motorists.
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Oh, and Denver? Not so good; the Mile High City comes in at 80. The suburb of Aurora, where we lived for 30 years, is only marginally better at 77. They are only staying out of the bottom 10 because so many other big cities are even worse.
There are a lot of other factors - road maintenance, gas prices, and so forth. It's been some years since I drove anywhere in California, but I remember the roads being in pretty pitiful shape. When I was working in the LA area in 2007-2009, I used to drive up into the mountains around Ojai to wander around and, in the fall, do some quail hunting, and I remember the roads as being pretty bad. And in the Bay Area? If possible, even worse, even in uber-wealthy Silicon Valley, where I stayed and worked for a year.
Of course, these things are highly subjective. One man's traffic jam may be another man's routine commute. Case in point: We have our own traffic problems here in the Great Land, as well. Just the other day, when pulling out onto the highway off of our little dirt side road, I had to stop and wait as four cars went by on the highway. Four! Imagine that! All at once! It's just like living in a big city around here these days.
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