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Is your state one of the worst for drivers? Here are the bottom five.

Whether planning a road trip or taking that morning commute, drivers in these five states have the roughest go of it, according to a new study from Bankrate.com. Can you guess which state came out on top (er...bottom)?

5. New Jersey

Charles Fox/AP/File
A driver stops her car at a closed road after a violent storm Tuesday night downed poles and power lines in Gibbstown, N.J. New Jersey is among the worst states for drivers based on commute times, insurance costs, and several other factors.

  • By Corey Fedde Staff

Commute (each way in minutes): 27.70 

Insurance premium (5-year average): $1,265.87

Gas prices (annual): $940.84 

Car repair costs (cost per job): $447.19 

Car thefts (per 100k people): 154.47

Fatal crashes (per 100M miles driven): .74

Is New Jersey, birthplace of the electric train, the worst state in the United States for drivers?

Not the absolute worst, but in the bottom five (and that’s without factoring in a certain traffic jam allegedly created for political reasons), according to a recent release of Bankrate’s “Best and Worst States for Drivers” rankings.

Driven by a desire to see a ranking system depicting the “overall experience for motorists in each state,” Bankrate ranked all 50 states based on several different factors including: number of fatal crashes (per 100M miles driven), car thefts (per 100k people), repair costs (per job), gas prices, insurance premiums (five-year annual), and commute times (each way in minutes).

The data gathered for the rankings also come from reliable governmental and private agencies. Highway Safety, CarMD, the US Department of Transportation, and the FBI all provided pieces of the data used.

"The best states for drivers have lots of wide-open spaces, whereas the worst states tend to be filled with people and cars – a bad combination for drivers’ wallets,” Bankrate senior analyst Chris Kahn wrote in an e-mailed report. 

Although unhampered by extraordinarily high gas prices and boasting mid-range numbers for car thefts and fatal crashes, New Jersey was pushed into the bottom five by large insurance premiums and long commute times.

For various reasons, the rest of the states on this list are ranked even lower than New Jersey.

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Mark Sappenfield
Editor

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