(NEXSTAR) – For many Americans, no matter what family situation or job they do, the worst time of the day is the same: commuting.
What exactly makes it so miserable – especially Those who commute by car – A combination of bumper to bumper traffic, wasted time on the road and high gas bills. Moreover, driving is one of them. the most dangerous thing we do Regularly.
Individual financial site money geek We explored all of these anomalous aspects of our daily commute and ranked the cities that suffered the worst.
The first metric they measured was “commuting pain,” which combines two particularly frustrating components of commuting: long distances and slow speeds.
This list of frustrating commuter spots includes four metropolitan areas each in Texas and Florida.
Rank | metropolitan area | Average one-way commute time (minutes) | Average rush hour speed (mph) |
1. | New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania | 37 | 29 |
2. | Houston – The Woodlands – Sugar Land, TX | 32 | twenty five |
3. | Dallas – Fort Worth – Arlington, TX | 29 | twenty five |
Four. | Austin, Texas – Round Rock | 28 | twenty five |
Five. | Lakeland, FL – Winter Haven | 31 | 27 |
6. | Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV | 34 | 29 |
7. | San Antonio – New Braunfels, Texas | 28 | twenty five |
8. | Port St. Lucie, Florida | 31 | 27 |
9. | Miami – Fort Lauderdale – West Palm Beach, Florida | 31 | 27 |
Ten. | Cape Coral – Fort Myers, Florida | 31 | 27 |
Another part of what people complain about when it comes to commuting is the cost of gas. Granted, gas prices aren’t as high as they were this time last year, but they’re still not cheap. AAA estimates his average price per gallon nationwide in early June 2023 to be around $3.50.
But in some cities, $3.50 gas is nowhere to be found. In San Francisco, for example, gas prices are about $4.96 a gallon in early June.
With that in mind, MoneyGeek also ranked cities by how much commuters spend on gas each year. California cities dominate the top 10 (or should I say bottom 10) on this list.
Rank | metropolitan area | annual gas bill |
1. | Stockton Lodi, California | $1,968 |
2. | Riverside – San Bernardino – Ontario | $1,946 |
3. | San Francisco, CA – Oakland – Hayward | $1,843 |
Four. | Modesto, California | $1,821 |
Five. | Los Angeles – Long Beach – Anaheim, California | $1,789 |
6. | santa rosa, california | $1,628 |
7. | salinas, california | $1,623 |
8. | New York-Newark-Jersey City, New York-New Jersey-Pennsylvania | $1,616 |
9. | Sacramento, CA – Roseville – Arden – Arcade | $1,566 |
Ten. | Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue, WA | $1,562 |
And then there’s the fact that commuting can be life-threatening if those two factors aren’t bad enough. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, crashes are one of the leading causes of death for Americans under the age of 54.
To determine where commuting is most dangerous, MoneyGeek looked at the cities with the most fatalities during the morning rush hour, which is between 6am and 8:30am.
According to MoneyGeek’s analysis, many of the cities with the most dangerous commutes are in the South.
Rank | metropolitan area | Morning fatalities per 100,000 inhabitants |
1. | Jackson, Mississippi | 2.5 |
2. | Visalia Porterville, California | 2.2 |
3. | Lakeland, FL – Winter Haven | 2.2 |
Four. | Columbia, South Carolina | 2.1 |
Five. | Myrtle Beach – Conway – North Myrtle Beach, SC – NC | 2.1 |
6. | Memphis, Tennessee-MS-Arkansas | 2.0 |
7. | Greenville, South Carolina Anderson Mauldin | 2.0 |
8. | Deltona – Daytona Beach – Ormond Beach, FL | 2.0 |
9. | Lexington, Kentucky – Fayette | 2.0 |
Ten. | Birmingham, Alabama – Hoover | 1.9 |
who is the best? The analysis found that residents of medium-sized cities across the country had the most reasonable commute times.
Des Moines, Iowa, ranked first as the best place to commute, has relatively cheap gas and people commute only about 20 minutes each way. In second place, Anchorage, Alaska, fatality rates during peak morning rush hours are almost non-existent.
Santa Barbara, California. Buffalo, New York. And Omaha, Nebraska occupies the top five.
Want to know how your city fares when it comes to commuting nightmares? MoneyGeek evaluated 127 metropolitan areas and data can be found on their website.
Copyright 2023 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. You may not publish, broadcast, rewrite or redistribute this material.