At the third Paws on the Plaza event at One Arts Plaza, Dallas dogs and their owners flocked to the Arts District to brunch and play. Paws in the City was also there with several four-legged friends, hoping to find them a good home.
odd, but okay
Dallas roadways are no picnic, but in one neighboring town, it's easy street: A new report by WalletHub puts none other than Plano on its list of the top 10 best U.S. cities to drive in for 2025.
The annual report examined 100 of the largest U.S. cities to determine their "driver friendliness" using 30 relevant metrics across four key dimensions: Costs for vehicle ownership and maintenance, traffic and infrastructure, safety, and vehicle and maintenance accessibility.
Plano came in as the 8th most driver-friendly U.S. city with high marks on areas like road safety.
No. 1 on the list: the Gulf Coast city of Corpus Christi, which came in as the No. 1 best city to drive in nationwide. Other Texas cities that made the top 10 include Laredo (No. 5), Lubbock (No. 6), and Austin (No. 9).
According to WalletHub's findings, Plano's driver and road safety is the 15th best in the country. This category analyzed factors like traffic fatality rates per capita, the proportion of uninsured drivers, rate of car thefts and larceny, the strictness of DUI punishment, and other metrics.
According to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, about 87 percent of a household's daily travel is done in personal vehicles, underscoring just how dependent Americans are on their cars rather than public transportation methods like busses and trains.
"Drivers annually spend an average of more than 369 hours on the road," the report's author wrote. "That’s 15.4 days. Add the costs of wasted time and fuel due to traffic congestions, and our collective tab comes to about $771 per driver each year."
Dallas ranked as the 47th best U.S. city to drive in. That's a great improvement over last year when Dallas ranked 60th on the list. But it's not shocking that the city still ranks low on the list considering its continuous road projects, closures, and dangerous freeways. Driving in Dallas really isn't enjoyable.
Fort Worth beat Dallas handily, ranking as the 27th best city to drive in. Three more DFW cities that earned spots on the list include Arlington (No. 18), Garland (No.24), and Irving (No. 29). Garland also earned a small shout out in the report for having the 5th-most auto-repair shops per capita in the nation.
Poor Houston was No. 66, the lowest-ranked Texas city on the list for 2025.
WalletHub's top 10 best U.S. cities to drive in for 2025 are:
