odd, but okay

Dallas suburb proclaimed 8th best U.S. city to drive in, per report

Plano is a pleasant city to drive in, according to WalletHub.

David Downs/Visit Plano

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:

No. 1 – Corpus Christi, Texas
No. 2 – Greensboro, North Carolina
No. 3 – Boise, Idaho
No. 4 – Scottsdale, Arizona
No. 5 – Laredo, Texas
No. 6 – Lubbock, Texas
No. 7 – Birmingham, Alabama
No. 8 – Plano, Texas
No. 9 – Austin, Texas
No. 10 – Winston-Salem, North Carolina

plano dallas wallethub reports traffic highways

Texas Tragedy

Camp Mystic files for bankruptcy one year after deadly Texas floods

Funeral Held For Sisters Killed During The Flooding At Camp Mystic In Hunt, Texas

Photo by Ron Jenkins/Getty Images

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Camp Mystic filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization on Wednesday, June 24, nearly a year after catastrophic floods killed 25 girls and two teenage counselors at the all-girls Christian camp in Texas.

In paperwork filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of Texas in Houston, the camp listed its debt as more than $10 million. The camp along the Guadalupe River said it had assets in the range of $100,001 to $500,000.

Families of the victims filed a lawsuit in November seeking more than $1 million in damages, saying the camp operators failed to take the necessary steps to protect the girls as life-threatening floodwaters approached on July 4. Camp owner Richard Eastland also died in the flood.

All told, the destructive flooding killed at least 136 people along a several-mile stretch of the river, raising questions about how things went so terribly wrong.

The Associated Press sent emails and left phone messages Wednesday requesting comment from an attorney representing Camp Mystic and the Eastland family. A phone message seeking comment also was left for a spokesperson for the families who sued the camp.

The bankruptcy filing comes weeks after Camp Mystic halted plans to reopen this summer in the face of outrage from victims’ families and lawmakers that the century-old camp intended to welcome girls back while lawsuits and investigations remained ongoing.

Camp Mystic's attorney had said it was ready to reopen for business for nearly 900 campers before the camp's reversal in April. The decision followed weeks of testimony in court hearings and legislative investigations that laid bare the camp’s lack of detailed planning for a flood emergency and its reliance on poorly trained staff.

Families of the victims packed the hearings, often wearing “Heaven’s 27” pins with photographs of their daughters. They listened to the details of missed flood warning signs, the descriptions of the flood, and the decision to leave the girls in their cabins until it was too late. Testimony included video of the raging floodwaters as a girl repeatedly screamed for “help!” somewhere in the distance.

Before halting the reopening plans, Camp Mystic invited journalists and lawmakers to review safety improvements at the camp and promised that no camp activities would take place in the low-lying area that was devastated by the flood. The Eastland family also stressed that hundreds of families wanted to return and described it as a special place for generations of Texans.

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