Road Warriors
These Texas cities top the list of best places to be behind the wheel
You might expect driving conditions to be tough in Boston or New York, but where is it good to be behind the wheel? A couple of places in Texas, according to WalletHub: Lubbock and Corpus Christi rank Nos. 1 and 2 on a recent list of the best cities to be a driver.
For its study of the 100 most populated U.S. cities, WalletHub looked at 21 key metrics, including average gas prices, average annual traffic delays, rates of car theft and car clubs per capita to determine scores for costs, traffic and road conditions, safety, and driver and car wellness.
Three Texas cities (Lubbock, Houston, San Antonio) have some of the cheapest gas in the nation. Car theft, parking rates and maintenance costs are pretty low too in some parts of the Lone Star State.
As for how other Texas locales rank overall, Laredo and El Paso show up in the top 20, at Nos. 13 and 14, respectively. Austin is the best among the big cities, at No. 23. San Antonio comes next, at No. 39.
North Texas rankings include Plano (54), Arlington (60), Irving (61), Fort Worth (65) and Dallas (68). Houston actually comes out ahead of Dallas-Fort Worth at No. 63.
WalletHub estimates that we spend an average of 200 hours a year on the road commuting and an additional 40 hours just stuck in traffic. If you're in Lubbock or Corpus Christi, however, it sounds like that time might not be quite so bad.