Bay Area city is nation's worst to drive in: study

America’s worst city to drive in is located in the Golden State, but it might not be the city you’re thinking of.

According to a recent study from Forbes Advisor, the worst city to drive in is Oakland.

The study evaluated 47 metro areas and took a number of factors into account, including driving experience, safety, cost of car ownership and access to car maintenance.

Oakland received the inauspicious top ranking for several reasons, including the high number of fatal crashes, high gas prices and long average commute times.

“The Town” ranked second-worst for overall cost of car ownership and ninth overall for driving experience, which factors in commute distance and how much time is wasted in traffic.

Just across the bridge, “The City,” aka San Francisco, didn’t fare much better.

San Francisco came in at No. 3 on the ranking of worst cities to drive in, driven, so to speak, by exceedingly slow commutes and the highest gas prices among all cities listed.

The entire Bay Area also ranked fourth in its rate of car thefts.

Los Angeles wound up in 11th on the list, with cost of car ownership the biggest contributing factor. Safety and overall driving experience were also on the wrong side of the equation, the study shows, but the city is rife with auto shops and other amenities that gives it a good score for access to car maintenance options.

Long Beach landed at 20th on the list with similar marks.

Of the 47 cities researchers evaluated, five California cities were among the worst to drive in, but three found themselves among the best.

San Diego (6th), Fresno (9th) and Bakersfield (11th) all performed well in the study, particularly due to the overall driving experience. Fresno and Bakersfield, however, did not perform well under the safety category.

The best city to drive in, according to Forbes Advisor, is Raleigh, North Carolina, with good marks for safety and driving experience, but particularly for cost of vehicle ownership.

Forbes Advisor used information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the National Insurance Crime Bureau, the U.S. Census Bureau and American Automobile Association, among other sources, to compile its list.

To see the complete ranking and read more about the methodology used in the study, click here .

While driving in these metro areas might not be the most enjoyable, a previous study by Forbes Advisor found that some of the nation’s best drivers actually call those cities home.

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