NEW YORK – New York ranked as the fourth-worst city in the country to drive in among the nation’s 100 largest cities, according to a new WalletHub study.
The personal-finance website ranked New York 97th overall in its 2026 list of the Best and Worst Cities to Drive In. The study compared cities across 30 measures involving driving costs, traffic and infrastructure, safety, and access to vehicles and maintenance.
New York received an overall score of 38.27 out of 100.
Why New York ranked near the bottom
What we know:
New York ranked 100th for traffic and infrastructure, the lowest score in that category among the cities studied. It also ranked 87th for the cost of owning and maintaining a vehicle and 83rd for access to vehicles and maintenance.
The city’s safety ranking was notably stronger, at 21st overall.
Among the individual measures, New York ranked:
65th for annual hours spent in congestion per auto commuter
52nd for accident likelihood compared with the national average
19th for car-theft rate
100th for auto-repair shops per capita
64th for average gas prices
100th for auto-maintenance costs
79th for average parking rates
WalletHub said Americans lose an average of $894 each year because of time spent in traffic.
New York ranks among the five worst U.S. cities to drive in for 2026, but it’s not No. 1
