TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Florida is home to many people, many airports, and many, many roads.
In a new ranking of the best and worst places to drive in America, multiple Florida cities made the list for quality, maintenance costs, and repair shops per capita.
The ranking, produced by WalletHub, gave Jacksonville, Orlando, and Tampa slots in the top 15 cities for best places to drive in the U.S. in a list of the top 100. St. Petersburg wasn’t too far behind at No. 25.
For the Tampa Bay area cities, St. Pete and Tampa both had mid-level scores for cost of ownership, but higher for safety. Of the Florida cities, Orlando and Jacksonville ranked highest on the list, with Jacksonville taking No. 7, with the lowest cost for ownership but more safety risks. It was near the middle of the pack for access to vehicle maintenance and near the top for traffic levels and infrastructure.
Orlando, by comparison, ranked lower when it comes to affordability for ownership and maintenance at No. 37, but had great scores for traffic and infrastructure, and access to repair shops. Still, Orlando’s safety for drivers was low, ranking No. 88 out of 100.
Tampa, instead, was middling for everything but access to repair shops. With an overall rank of 12, Tampa was listed as No. 32 for cost of owning and maintaining a vehicle, No. 23 for traffic and infrastructure, but No. 61 for safety on the road.
St. Pete was ranked No. 28 for costs, a bit better than Tampa, but slightly lower than its neighbor with a No. 28 for traffic and infrastructure. When it comes to road safety and access to repair and maintenance, St. Pete was listed at No. 60 and No. 38, respectively, adding to its No. 25 overall score.
Miami made the list for a tie with Boston, Philadelphia, New York City, and Chicago for longest time spent in traffic, while also tying with Orlando, Tampa, Las Vegas, and Atlanta for most car washes per capita.
St. Pete ended up tying with Anaheim, California, for the fourth lowest parking rates in the country, behind San Jose, California; Corpus Christi, Texas; and Reno, Nevada.