What Are the Best and Worst US States to Drive In?

As office culture makes a comeback, Americans are spending more time commuting by car. The experience of driving varies wildly from state to state. Factors like traffic, transportation costs, safety, road infrastructure and weather differ depending on your location and affect how pleasant (or unpleasant) it is to drive there.

MoneyGeek analyzed data from the Federal Highway Administration, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, U.S. Census Bureau, FBI and more to rank the states with the best and worst driving experiences based on these five factors.

Driving has its perks, but it also comes with challenges. This is especially true in California, which takes the top spot as the most challenging state to drive in the U.S. California ranked third for worst road congestion and is the fifth most expensive state for motorists. Drivers here pay gas prices of $5 per gallon, yearly maintenance costs of $416 and annual toll costs of $497. These factors firmly place it at the top, despite the state offering some of the nation's cheapest full coverage auto insurance options. Residents of high-cost states can compare quotes from the best car insurance companies to save money on driving costs.

Louisiana ranks as the second-worst state for driving. The state has the sixth-highest rate of fatal car accidents, with nearly 20 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents. The state's road quality ranks seventh-worst in the country, with only 71% of its roads in acceptable condition. Maryland, taking the fourth spot on the worst states for driving list, is also the priciest state for drivers. Beyond high gas and maintenance costs, it carries the second-highest annual premium for comprehensive auto insurance at $1,191.

Minimal traffic, smooth highways and economical fuel costs aren't a pipe dream for drivers in Nebraska. Claiming the top spot on our list of the best states for drivers, Nebraska offers the second-most economical car expenses in the country. Gas prices are just $3.47 per gallon, and the sixth-lowest annual insurance premium is $488. With over 90% of its roads and bridges in prime condition, Nebraska ranks as the ninth-best state for infrastructure quality.

North Dakota and South Dakota have the least congested roads in the country and placed in the top 10 states for best driving conditions. North Dakota sits in third place, while South Dakota takes seventh. The morning commute in these states averages 20 minutes, less than the national average of 26 minutes.

MoneyGeek looked at five categories of data to identify the best and worst states to drive in across the U.S. Those categories include:

• Congestion: This category includes indicators like average morning commute times and vehicle miles traveled per lane mile, which measures how many vehicles are using a particular length of road over a certain period of time.
• Cost: This category includes factors like gas prices per gallon, annual car maintenance costs and annual toll expenses per vehicle comprise this category; it also includes average annual premiums from the cheapest full coverage auto insurance options available in each state.
• Infrastructure: This category includes the percentage of roads and bridges in acceptable condition in each state.
• Safety: For this category, MoneyGeek analyzed fatal crashes per 100,000 people and car thefts per 100,000 vehicles.
• Weather: For this category, MoneyGeek analyzed the total number of fatal car crashes per 100,000 people in both snowy and rainy conditions.

Within these five categories, we broke down the best and the worst states across different data points and highlighted them below.

Choosing where to drive (or live) matters more than most people realize. Your daily commute, insurance costs and even your safety change dramatically depending on your state. We analyzed 12 metrics across five categories to show you exactly where drivers get the best and worst experiences: congestion, cost, infrastructure, safety and weather.

Each metric received a specific weight based on its impact on your daily driving experience, then we calculated a final ranking score through a weighted average. The state with the lowest final ranking score ranks as the worst place to drive.

• Congestion (25%) measures how much time you lose sitting in traffic. We tracked vehicle miles traveled per lane mile—how many vehicles use each mile-long stretch of road annually—using 2022 data from the Federal Highway Administration (12.5%). We also measured average commute times in minutes from the Census Bureau's 2022 one-year American Community Survey (12.5%).
• Cost (20%) captures what you actually pay to drive. Gas prices per gallon for mid-grade gas came from CollectAPI's Gas Prices API accessed in July 2024 (5%). Annual toll costs per vehicle divided government highway spending funded by toll revenue by the number of registered vehicles per state, using 2021 Federal Highway Administration data. Delaware's 2021 vehicle registration came directly from Delaware State Police's Reports/Statistics due to discrepancies in FHA data showing an unexplained drop from 2020 to 2021 (5%). Annual auto insurance premiums used the cheapest full coverage option in each state from state insurance departments and Quadrant Information Services, with quotes current as of July 2024 (5%). Annual maintenance costs came from CarMD 2021 data (5%).
• Infrastructure (20%) shows whether you're driving on smooth roads or dodging potholes. The percentage of roads in acceptable condition used the International Roughness Index (IRI), where lower values mean smoother roads. "Acceptable" means an IRI ≤170, covering roads rated "Good" and "Fair" in 2022 Bureau of Transportation Statistics data (15%). The percentage of bridges in acceptable condition counted bridges scoring at least 5 out of 10—excellent bridges score 7+, poor ones score 4 or less. This rating assessed the driving surface, underlying structure and other components using 2023 Bureau of Transportation Statistics data (5%).
• Safety (25%) tracks your risk of accidents and theft. Fatal car crashes per 100,000 people divided crash fatalities by population using 2022 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data (18.75%). Car thefts per 100,000 vehicles measured theft-related arrests per 100,000 vehicles from the FBI's 2022 Crime Explorer (6.25%).
• Weather (10%) measures how dangerous conditions affect your drive. Both car fatalities in rainy weather per 100,000 people (5%) and car fatalities in snowy weather per 100,000 people (5%) came from 2021 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data.