Washington State 3rd Worst for Driving

Washington State was recently ranked as the 3rd worst state to drive in after a study was done by the personal finance website WalletHub.

The study compared all 50 states across 31 key metrics. Some of that data for Washington State were as follows:

Driving in Washington (1=Best; 25=Avg.):

• 41^st – Share of Rush-Hour Traffic Congestion
• 41^st – Car Theft Rate
• 20^th – Auto-Repair Shops per Capita
• 48^th – Avg. Gas Prices
• 36^th – Auto-Maintenance Costs
• 43^rd – Road Quality
• 21^st – Car Dealerships per Capita

States were then ranked in four categories: cost of ownership and maintenance, access to vehicles and maintenance, traffic and infrastructure, and safety.

Washington was 13th-best in safety, but ranked just 48th in cost. Only Hawaii and California were ranked as worse states overall. As for the other states in the northwest, Oregon came in at 37th and Idaho was 8th.

In 2019, traffic congestion cost U.S. drivers $88 billion.

WalleHub's full study can be found here.