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SALT LAKE CITY — With Thanksgiving barely in the rearview mirror and another major travel holiday just up the bend, it might be comforting to know that a new ranking shows Utah in the No. 1 spot in the country for the best driving experience.
Utah has long been dinged for supposedly having the worst drivers around, but a new analysis shows it's the overall leader for its short commute time, road conditions and other factors.
Mechanicbase.com assessed driving conditions in all 50 U.S. states using 12 key criteria, each assigned a weighted score between 40 and 100 for its impact on the driving experience. The individual scores were then normalized and aggregated to produce a final composite score, ranging from 40 to 85, that provides a comprehensive overview of each state's driving conditions.
Utah scored 85, the highest of any state.
The study used data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics, World Population Review, the Reason Foundation's Annual Highway Report, the Department of Energy's Alternative Fuel Data Center, AAA gas prices, the United States Census Bureau, the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System, and a study from Insurify.
Key findings include:
- Short commutes: Utah, Nebraska and North Dakota have the shortest average commute times, under 25 minutes;
- Safety variance: Utah and Hawaii have low fatality rates, while Arizona's and North Dakota's are higher;
- Gas prices: Nevada and Arizona offer low gas prices, while Hawaii is on the expensive side;
- High fatality rates: Mississippi and Arkansas have extremely high traffic fatality rates, at 24.4 and 20.5 per 100,000 residents, respectively;
- Congestion: New Jersey and New York suffer from the longest average commute times, exceeding 30 minutes, with high numbers of registered vehicles, adding congestion;
- Alternative fuel stations: Utah ranked better than most states for the number of stations in offering biodiesel, compressed natural gas, ethanol (E85), electric vehicle charging, hydrogen, liquefied natural gas, propane, and renewable diesel; providing insights into the availability of infrastructure for vehicles powered by alternative fuels; and supporting eco-friendly transportation options.
The analysis noted 80% of Utah's road area was deemed acceptable and 99.2% of roadways in good and fair condition. The safety record is strong, with 8.7 fatalities per 100,000 people. It noted, too, that Utah has a relatively low motor vehicle theft rate of 242.6 per 100,000. The average yearly costs for insurance, tax, gas and maintenance stand at $4,946.
In an unrelated report presenting grim news, a personal injury law firm noted that Utah is the most dangerous state in the country for young drivers.
It said between 2017 and 2021, there were 1,258 fatal crashes in the state, with 200 of these involving a young driver.
The study by New Orleans Personal Injury Lawyers Cueria Law Firm analyzed the latest data available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to see which states had the highest percentage of fatal crashes involving young drivers for those years.
