New York Ranked 96th Worst City To Drive In: Study

NEW YORK, NY — New Yorkers all know driving in the city is difficult. But a new study ranking the best and worst places found it's even worse than they likely imagine.

The city ranked 96th out of 100 large U.S. cities overall, according to WalletHub. It doesn't fare much better in individual rankings, which were based on 30 different metrics.

New York ranked 97th in auto maintenance costs, 98th in auto repair shops per capita, 80th for average parking rates, 69th for average gas prices, 66th for annual hours spent in congestion per auto commuter and 52nd for accidental likelihood weighed against the national average, according to the study.

And as far as the city's overall traffic and infrastructure score: dead last.

Advocates such as those with Transportation Alternatives have pressed for sweeping changes to the city’s infrastructure that shift the city’s reliance on cars toward public transit, bicycles, and walking.

Doing so would not only make the city more livable, but also reduce pollution, help curb climate change, and halt “traffic violence,” they argue. The city in 2021 is poised to break a record for traffic deaths, despite Mayor Bill de Blasio’s “Vision Zero” program that aims to eliminate them altogether, a recent Transportation Alternatives study found.

In total, 124 New Yorkers died in fatal crashes through June 30, according to the study. The study pushed a proposal called NYC25x25, which calls for the conversion of 25 percent of space for cars in the city to pedestrian-oriented spaces by 2025.

New York City wasn't the only major metropolis to score near the bottom in the WalletHub study.

Oakland, California had the lowest overall score, ranking last in cost of ownership and maintenance, 91st in safety and 70th in cost of traffic and infrastructure. Oakland’s neighbor across the bay San Francisco barely squeaked above, ranking 98th overall.

New York City did manage to outperform Philadelphia's 97th ranking, but scored lower than Chicago's 95th and Los Angeles' 94th.

Smaller cities performed the best in the study.

Raleigh, North Carolina — whose population is 464,000 is just five percent of New York’s — as the best city to drive in. Other top spots went to Lincoln, Nebraska; Greensboro, North Carolina; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina.