4 NC cities, including Charlotte, named among best places to drive in the US

CHARLOTTE — It may or may not be hard to believe, but multiple cities in North Carolina have been named the best places to drive in the United States.

According to a new report this week from WalletHub, three NC cities were ranked in the top five places to drive based on driver behaviors and local infrastructure.

The report says Raleigh is the best place in the country to drive in. Greensboro came in at number four, and Winston-Salem was right behind at number five.

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Charlotte wasn’t one of the top five, but the Queen City made the list at number 26.

According to WalletHub, the study focused on four factors to determine the rankings: cost of ownership and maintenance, traffic and infrastructure, safety, and access to vehicles and maintenance. The traffic and infrastructure category measured things like road congestion, days with precipitation, average commute time, and quality of roads. The safety category took into account the likelihood of getting into an accident, traffic fatality rates, seat belt usage, and the number of insured drivers, among several other statistics.

Based on those statistics, Raleigh is still the safest place to drive in North Carolina.

Chicago, San Francisco, Oakland, Detroit, and Philadelphia rounded out the bottom of the rankings. See the full list below.

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