According to WalletHub, Philadelphia is the worst city in the Untied States to drive in.

This does not surprise me.

Way back in the day, before I moved to this city, I used to like to drive. I gave up my car when I moved here because initially I couldn’t afford to keep it on my starting salary.

Over the years I got used to not having a car, but when my job moved to the northeast section of the city, I decided that it was easier to drive there than to rely on public transportation. So I bought a car.

And discovered that I really hated driving in this city.

I mostly put it down to having gotten used to a lifestyle without a car for so many years, and there was that. But it was also true that Philly is simply plain awful to drive in.

Of course, the northeast section of the city, while it might have pleasures of its own for those who live there, is especially bad for driving. Make a wrong turn and you’re likely to end up on a dead end street. If you’ve ever heard the expression “you can’t get there from here”, that was invented for Northeast Philly. I swear there are streets where you can get lost and never find you way out of. At least not in any reasonable amount of time.

The personal finance website compared the country’s 100 largest cities across 30 indicators, including congestion, vehicle ownership costs, infrastructure, safety and access to maintenance.

Philly finished dead last with a score of 36.35 out of 100, narrowly trailing Washington at 36.36. Los Angeles ranked 98th and New York City 97th. Pittsburgh fared considerably better at 62nd.

Scottsdale, Arizona, ranked first in the country, scoring 63.32 out of 100.

So, what’s making Philadelphia such a headache for drivers?

The city ranked 96th for traffic and infrastructure, 95th for safety, 76th for ownership and maintenance costs and 77th for access to vehicles and maintenance.

Among individual measures, Philadelphia tied for 91st in car theft rates, ranked 78th for average parking rates and tied for 65th in annual hours spent in congestion per automobile commuter.

Traffic safety statistics offer additional context. According to PennDOT data reported by WHYY, 89 people died in traffic crashes on Philadelphia streets in 2025, down from 120 deaths in 2024.

Read the whole article.

There are plenty of things that I like and even love about living in this city, but driving is definitely not one of them.

Which is why I got rid of the car shortly after I retired and no longer needed to drive to the northeast section of the city.