For most Americans, getting anywhere means getting in a car. And getting in a car is getting more expensive. Owning and operating a new vehicle now costs an average of $12,863 a year, or about $1,072 a month, according to AAA's 2026 Your Driving Costs analysis. Depreciation alone eats up roughly $4,422 of that.
Then there's the time. The average U.S. driver lost 49 hours to traffic congestion in 2025, up from 43 hours the year before, according to the INRIX 2025 Global Traffic Scorecard. Nationally, that added up to $85.8 billion in lost time. In the most congested cities, drivers lost more than twice that.
But the burden isn't spread evenly. Where you live shapes what you pay at the pump, how long you sit in traffic, how likely you are to crash, and how hard it is to find a parking spot or a mechanic.
Stacker listed the 10 worst cities to drive in the U.S. using the 2026 edition of WalletHub's Best & Worst Cities to Drive in, released in October 2026. WalletHub compared 100 of the largest U.S. cities (city proper only) across 30 metrics in four categories: cost of ownership and maintenance, traffic and infrastructure, safety, and access to vehicles and maintenance. Metrics include average gas prices, annual hours spent in congestion per auto commuter, road quality, accident likelihood, and car theft rates. A rank of 1 is the most driver-friendly; a rank of 100 is the least.
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1 / 10#10. San Francisco
- Total score: 43.37
- Cost of ownership and maintenance rank: 88
- Traffic and infrastructure rank: 80
- Safety rank: 52
- Access to vehicles and maintenance rank: 47
San Francisco ranks in the bottom 20 for both cost and traffic and infrastructure. Drivers lost 112 hours to traffic in 2025, the third-highest total in the TomTom Traffic Index, KRON4 reported. That's about 14 workdays. The streets are getting safer, though. Traffic deaths fell from 43 in 2024 to 25 in 2025, the biggest annual drop since the city adopted Vision Zero in 2014, according to the San Francisco Examiner. The city credits its 33 speed cameras in part.
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2 / 10#9. Baltimore
- Total score: 42.87
- Cost of ownership and maintenance rank: 50
- Traffic and infrastructure rank: 89
- Safety rank: 97
- Access to vehicles and maintenance rank: 55
Baltimore's safety rank of 97th is among the worst in the study. The city recorded 43 traffic deaths in 2025, including 11 pedestrians, The Baltimore Banner reported. Its draft Vision Zero plan aims to eliminate traffic deaths by 2041. Infrastructure remains a sore spot more than two years after the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse. The replacement span is now estimated to cost $4.3 billion to $5.2 billion and won't open until late 2030, according to Roads & Bridges.
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3 / 10#8. Seattle
- Total score: 41.33
- Cost of ownership and maintenance rank: 82
- Traffic and infrastructure rank: 88
- Safety rank: 71
- Access to vehicles and maintenance rank: 79
Seattle ranks 71st or worse in every category. Rain is part of the story (the city has among the most days with precipitation in the study). Traffic is the bigger one. Seattle drivers lost about 66 hours to rush-hour traffic in 2025, roughly six more than the year before, per the TomTom Traffic Index, the Anchorage Daily News reported. Thirty people were killed and 221 seriously injured on Seattle streets in 2025, according to KUOW.
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4 / 10#7. Oakland, California
- Total score: 40.24
- Cost of ownership and maintenance rank: 91
- Traffic and infrastructure rank: 37
- Safety rank: 90
- Access to vehicles and maintenance rank: 44
Oakland ranks 91st for cost and 90th for safety. The city is trying to change the second number. Oakland is installing 35 speed cameras on 18 corridors that make up just 8% of its streets but 60% of its severe and fatal crashes, according to a City of Oakland release. Progress is showing. Traffic deaths fell from 36 in 2022 to 22 in 2025, KALW reported.
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5 / 10#6. Chicago
- Total score: 39.23
- Cost of ownership and maintenance rank: 80
- Traffic and infrastructure rank: 99
- Safety rank: 63
- Access to vehicles and maintenance rank: 57
Chicago is the most congested city in the country. Its drivers lost 112 hours to traffic in 2025, costing each one $2,063, according to the INRIX 2025 Global Traffic Scorecard release. In WalletHub's study, Chicago ties for the most annual hours in congestion per auto commuter (14 times more than Lubbock, Texas, which has the fewest). Pedestrian deaths fell from 38 in 2024 to 28 in 2025, by Streetsblog Chicago's count.
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6 / 10#5. Detroit
- Total score: 38.41
- Cost of ownership and maintenance rank: 78
- Traffic and infrastructure rank: 84
- Safety rank: 100
- Access to vehicles and maintenance rank: 53
The Motor City ranks dead last for driver safety. It's also one of the priciest places to insure a car. Full-coverage insurance in Detroit averages $6,289 a year, more than double the Michigan average of $2,950, according to NerdWallet. Rough roads cost Detroit-area drivers another $2,921 a year in repairs, crashes, and lost time, the most of any Michigan urban area, per TRIP data reported by the Detroit Free Press. The city is spending $58 million in 2026 to repave 17 miles of major roads and 27 miles of residential streets, Axios Detroit reported.
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7 / 10#4. New York
- Total score: 38.27
- Cost of ownership and maintenance rank: 87
- Traffic and infrastructure rank: 100
- Safety rank: 21
- Access to vehicles and maintenance rank: 83
New York ranks last in the study for traffic and infrastructure. INRIX ranked it the second-most congested U.S. city in 2025, with 102 hours lost per driver. But it was one of the few big cities where congestion didn't get worse, and INRIX pointed to congestion pricing as a likely factor. In the toll's first year, 27 million fewer vehicles entered Manhattan's congestion zone (an 11% drop), and Holland Tunnel trips got 51% faster, according to the New York governor's office. The program raised $518 million in net revenue.
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8 / 10#3. Los Angeles
- Total score: 36.50
- Cost of ownership and maintenance rank: 98
- Traffic and infrastructure rank: 90
- Safety rank: 66
- Access to vehicles and maintenance rank: 33
Los Angeles ranks 98th for the cost of owning and maintaining a car. Only Santa Ana, California, and Chula Vista, California, rank worse. LA also ties for the most annual hours in congestion per auto commuter in WalletHub's study, and INRIX found the average driver lost 87 hours to traffic in 2025. The roads remain deadly. Traffic collisions killed 290 people in Los Angeles in 2025, more than 150 of them pedestrians, The LA Local reported. That's 60 more deaths than homicides.
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9 / 10#2. Washington, D.C.
- Total score: 36.36
- Cost of ownership and maintenance rank: 73
- Traffic and infrastructure rank: 97
- Safety rank: 96
- Access to vehicles and maintenance rank: 61
Washington ranks in the bottom five for traffic, infrastructure, and safety. The average D.C. driver lost 70 hours to congestion in 2025, at a cost of $1,289, placing the city ninth in the U.S. in the INRIX scorecard, Northern Virginia Magazine reported. Traffic deaths fell sharply, though, from 52 in 2024 to 25 in 2025, according to the Washington Informer. "We've made such big investments and the improvements are showing," said Sharon Kershbaum, director of the District Department of Transportation.
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10 / 10#1. Philadelphia
- Total score: 36.35
- Cost of ownership and maintenance rank: 76
- Traffic and infrastructure rank: 96
- Safety rank: 95
- Access to vehicles and maintenance rank: 77
Philadelphia edges out Washington by 0.01 points for the worst city to drive in America. Congestion is surging. Philadelphia drivers lost 101 hours to traffic in 2025, up 31% from the year before and third-most in the nation, according to INRIX. The city also had a traffic fatality rate of 9.04 deaths per 100,000 residents in 2024, the highest among the major cities compared in a report from City Controller Christy Brady, FOX 29 reported. Chicago's rate was 7.15. New York's was 2.86.
