Photo by Henner Zeller, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wiki.

Traffic and driving go hand in hand with rage and a resentment for everyone else on the road, so why do we do it so much? Although public transportation and alternative methods of getting from one place to another have never been more popular, “comfort and reliability” are the main reasons we stay on the road.

According to Bureau of Transportation statistics, 87% of daily trips occur in personal vehicles. American drivers spend 200 hours a year in their car, and 41 hours in gridlock. For a full-time worker, that’s the equivalent of a 6-week vacation…

In a new study conducted by Wallethub, San Francisco tops the list as the worst city to drive in, with Oakland right behind it. The study looks at 25 key indicators that range from average gas prices, car-theft rate, traffic and infrastructure, and precipitation.

And the top 10 worst cities to drive in are (drumroll):

1. San Francisco, California
2. Oakland, California
3. Detroit, Michigan
4. Washington DC
5. Seattle, Washington
6. Boston, Massachusetts
7. Honolulu, Hawaii
8. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
9. Baltimore, Maryland
10. Los Angeles, California

Note: the methodology behind Wallethub’s study stretched across 4 key factors: 1) Cost of Ownership & Maintenance, 2) Traffic & Infrastructure, 3) Safety and 4) Access to Vehicles & Maintenance.

Everyone thinks that traffic is the worst in their own city, but we in the Bay Area can rest easy knowing that science has our backs.