COLUMBUS – When you’re stuck in a traffic backup or inching through a construction zone or frustrated over the price of gas, you might think there’s no place worse than Ohio in which to drive. But, you would be mistaken.
In fact, almost every place else is worse.
Ohio came in second place to Iowa on a list of the Top Five Best States to Be a Driver, compiled by Bankrate.com.
Best States to Drive
1. Iowa
2. Ohio
3. Maines
4. Wisconsin
5. Vermont
Worst States to Drive
1. California
2. New Mexico
3. Nevada
4. Louisiana
5. Wyoming
Drivers in the U.S. spend an average of 17,600 minutes — the equivalent of 12 full days — in their cars, and the average annual cost of owning and operating a vehicle is currently $8,558, according to AAA.
But some places are just more difficult to own a car than others.
The personal finance website used six criteria — including fuel expenses, insurance costs, car thefts and auto-related fatalities – to evaluate all 50 states and only Iowa scored higher than Ohio.
Ohio by the numbers (46.2 on scale of 0-60)
Commute time….23.4 min.
Insurance cost….$709/yr
Gasoline Cost…..$1,058/yr
Avg. repair costs…..$356
Car thefts….148.4/100K pop.
Car fatalities….0.9/100M miles driven
California fared the worst, with a 26-minute average commute time, compared with South Dakota’s 16.9, still better than New York’s 33 minutes.
Massachusetts is the safest state in which to drive, while South Carolina is the most deadly.
Ohio’s 23.4-minute average commute was close to the national average and the state ranked below the average in all six categories.
The average American driver spends 24.3 minutes commuting, $887 per year on insurance; $1,127 for fuel and $392 per repair. On average, states reported 199.6 car thefts per 100,000 population and 1.1 fatalities for every 100 million miles driven annually.
To compile the rankings, the website used data from the U.S. Census Bureau, Transportation Depart, National Association of Insurance Commissioners and other sources and assigned a score of 0-10 on each of the criteria. A state had the potential to earn a perfect score of 60, though none did.