SoCal and the Bay Area alike show no reprieve from the traffic madness that is urban California.
The Central Valley on the other hand might be closer to what you’re looking for. That being said, it is still far from the best.
Of the 100 cities surveyed by WalletHub, Fresno was the highest overall ranking California city with a 50/100 ranking. Not the best, and it only got worse. San Francisco is the lowest CA city at 97th position, just above Philadelphia, Washington DC, and New York City.
In total, 8 CA cities occupy positions in the bottom 20.
But that is just the tip of the iceberg, the finer grain details offer glimmers of hope locally, but louder groaners when looking at the state on the whole.
When looking at the average hours of traffic delays annually, Bakersfield and Stockton come in at 1st nationally, plus Fresno at 3rd! But then there are Los Angeles, Long Beach, San Francisco, AND Oakland, all tied for 2nd worst ahead of Washington DC.
San Francisco also made the bottom-5 in the Highest Accident Likelihood category.
Irvine led the nation with the lowest rate of auto theft, but Oakland and San Bernardino have the 2nd and 3rd highest. And on the flipside, don’t breakdown in Irvine, because they are bottom-5 in Auto Repair Shops per Capita.
The real eyesore on the report is the Highest Average Gas Prices category. Want to guess how California did? We will give you a second … ok, ready?
California cities swept the bottom-5 with Los Angeles and Long Beach. San Francisco, Chula Vista, and San Diego rounded out the tour de force on the gasoline prices.
For the full report to see which California City placed where, see here.
Image Credit: Flickr User florian_the_great, https://flic.kr/p/97CMci via (CC BY-ND 2.0)