Detroit is known as “The Town That Put the World on Wheels,” but a new analysis of the “Best & Worst Cities to Drive in 2024” makes it clear there’s plenty of better places for motorists.
WalletHub points to Bureau of Transportation Statistics that show 87% of daily trips take place in personal vehicles, with drivers spending nearly 370 hours a year on the road at a cost of about $733 annually per driver.
In an analysis released Tuesday, the personal finance website compared 100 of the largest U.S. cities across 30 indicators of driver-friendliness – from average gas prices, to hours in traffic, to likelihood of accidents – to determine which cities provide the best driving experience. In addition to the overall ranking, the findings include individual rankings for cost of ownership and maintenance, traffic and infrastructure, safety, and access to vehicles and maintenance.
“Living in one of the best cities to drive in can make owning and maintaining a car much cheaper,” said WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo. “However, costs aren’t the only factors that matter; the best cities for drivers also minimize commute times and traffic congestion, have accident rates well below the national average and keep their roads in good condition.”
The results put Detroit among the worst cities for drivers with an overall rank of 96th, behind all but the notoriously congested cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, and Oakland.
Only Memphis ranked worse for safety, with Detroit ranked 99th in that category, though the Motor City was ranked slightly better for traffic and infrastructure in 89th, cost of ownership and maintenance in 77th, and access to vehicles and maintenance in 50th. Raleigh, North Carolina ranked first, while Boise, Idaho came in second.
All of the cities in the bottom 10, with the exception of Oakland, have much larger populations than Detroit, with others including Denver, San Jose, Seattle, Washington, DC, New York City, and Chicago.
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The findings, however, are likely not surprising to Detroit residents, or Michiganders in general, who pay the highest auto insurance rates in the nation to drive on deteriorating roads that are taxing motorists in a variety of ways.
Despite Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s claims that auto insurance reforms she approved in 2019 “put money back in people’s pockets while helping to attract new businesses and jobs to our state,” a report from MarketWatch Guides in August found “Michigan drivers of all profiles pay the highest average car insurance rates in the country for full and minimum coverage.”
“Michigan car insurance rates are as much as 81% to 117% higher than the national average,” researchers wrote.
An investigation by The Markup and Outlier Media shows the situation is especially bad for Black residents in Detroit, who continue to pay exponentially more than White residents just a few miles away.
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The insurance expense is in addition to others tied to Whitmer’s unfulfilled campaign promise to “fix the damn roads.”
A study by the national transportation research nonprofit TRIP released in July found “roads and bridges that are deteriorated, congested or lack some desirable safety features cost Michigan motorists a total of $17 billion statewide annually … due to higher vehicle operating costs, traffic crashes and congestion-related delays.”
In Detroit, where 70% of roads are in poor or mediocre condition, the problem is costing each motorist an estimated $3,005 a year, according to the report.
“Infrastructure is the backbone of Michigan’s economy,” said Ed Noyola, chief deputy and legislative director of the County Road Association of Michigan. “The problem is not going away and we cannot continue to allow Michigan’s critical roads and bridges to fall into poor condition. We must invest in our transportation system to ensure that it is safe and reliable for generations to come.”
Michigan’s 2023 Road & Bridges Annual Report put it another way: “Roads are deteriorating faster than agencies can repair them.”
While the state improved 16.2% of roads eligible for federal aid between 2021 and 2023, 21.2% of those roads declined. It’s the same deal for non-federal aid roads, of which “47% were found to be in poor condition … (or) 2% more than from 2021 and 2022.”