North Carolina city ranks as the nation’s best place to drive. Yes, you read that right

North Carolina is home to the nation’s top-ranking city for drivers.

Yes, you read that right.

Raleigh landed the No. 1 spot on a list of places with conditions that are favorable to those behind the wheel.

While that could be a surprise to drivers who have traveled on Wade Avenue during rush hour, Raleigh wasn’t the only North Carolina city to earn a top spot on the nationwide list. Greensboro ranked No. 4 and Winston-Salem was No. 5 in the rankings, according to results published Tuesday, Oct. 11.

The personal finance website WalletHub said it created the list after studying the nation’s 100 most populous cities. Using data from the U.S. government and other resources, it then scored each place in four categories: safety, affordability, traffic and infrastructure and access to vehicles and maintenance.

Raleigh came out on top after it received one of the highest scores for safety, a category that focused on the presence of uninsured drivers, seat belt use, traffic-related deaths, driving laws and the rate of car thefts.

The city also made its mark when it came to affordability, which weighed the costs to own and maintain a car. That category considered the prices of new cars, gas, insurance, upkeep and parking, according to WalletHub.

Though Raleigh earned top 10 scores for safety and affordability, it didn’t fare as well in the other two categories.

It landed at No. 27 for traffic and infrastructure, which considered weather and road conditions in places across the nation. Within that category, Raleigh drivers faced one of the the lowest amounts of time spent in traffic congestion each year, results show.

Raleigh also took the No. 43 spot for access to vehicles and maintenance, a measure of the number of car shops, gas stations and other related businesses per capita.

The results were released a day after Raleigh received another nod. WalletHub named the city one of the safest places in the country in a report that considered traffic deaths, among other dangers.

This time around, other North Carolina cities that landed in the rankings were Charlotte at No. 26 and Durham at No. 31.

Overall, the cities rounding out the nation’s top five best places to drive were Plano, Texas, and Corpus Christi, Texas. The least driver-friendly city was Philadelphia.

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