Florida City Ranked in Top for ‘Best Cities to Drive In’

To be honest, most drivers in the Tampa area would not consider it one of the best places to drive in the US. It might come as a shocker to many, but the Florida city ranked in top for best cities to drive, was Tampa. 

Driving through downtown Tampa can be a nightmare especially during the rush hour commute. Based on this survey done by WalletHub, they rank Tampa at number 13 and St. Petersburg at 28. 

The WalletHub survey looked at many different factors when putting together this list. What is the cost of ownership and maintenance of a car in Tampa? What is the traffic and infrastructure like? How safe are the roads? What is the access to vehicles and maintenance like?

What was it that made Tampa such a good city to drive in? Well, Tampa had an overall score of 62.35. This is a D- Average right? Actually, Corpus Christi, TX earned the number 1 spot with a score of 68.50 which isn’t much higher than Tampa. Tampa ranks 34th of cost of ownership and maintenance, 26th in traffic and infrastructure, and 56th in safety (yikes). But why does Tampa rank so high in the overall score? Tampa lands the number 3 spot for access to vehicles and maintenance.

To make this list, WalletHub took the 100 largest cities in the USA and compared them across 30 different key indicators. The data in this set consists of things like the average gas prices, annual hours in traffic per commuter, and the amount of auto shops per head. They based each ranking on a 100 point scale and took the weighted average of all key indicators to determine the final rankings.

Top 15 cities to drive in:

For the full breakdown of the best cities to drive in, click here.