California is the worst state in the Union for drivers, according to a new study by Bankrate.com — and Iowa is the best.
The study considered the following criteria, and scored states on a 50-point scale:
To rank the best and worst states for drivers, we looked at a number of criteria to capture the overall experience of being behind the wheel in each state, including:
- Average commute times, from the census.
- Average annual auto insurance costs, from the National Association of Insurance Commissioners.
- Estimated average annual spending on fuel, using data from the Oil Price Information Service and the Department of Transportation.
- Average cost of a car repair, from CarMD.
- Rate of car thefts relative to population, from the FBI.
- Motor vehicle deaths relative to miles driven, from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
First-place Iowa scored 48.0; California only scored 21.0. New York had the longest average commute time — which was, at 33.1 minutes, by far the longest commute of any state. Iowa benefits from relatively low commute times and low car repair costs. California also won the dubious honor of having the highest rate of car thefts, at 436.8 thefts per hundred thousand people. South Carolina had the highest level of car fatalities, with 1.7 deaths per 100 million miles driven.
Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown tried and failed to push a new transportation funding bill through the state legislature. Newly-installed Democratic leaders in Sacramento have made new transportation funding a top priority for next year. The perilous state of California’s roadways is a frequent cause for local complaint.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the “most influential” people in news media in 2016. His new book, See No Evil: 19 Hard Truths the Left Can’t Handle, is available from Regnery through Amazon. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.