“We’re number ten,” Houstonians can proudly proclaim, according to an analysis assembled by “Insure My Rental Car.com” for the benefit of travelers wanting to know what to expect when they arrive at a strange city. They’re in Britain. We’re in Texas. Though recently constructed freeways are great, side roads take an enormous bite from the wallets of commuters because potholes and dips take a real toll on their cars. Those are the roads we drive on.
They looked at the top 20 U.S. cities by population and ranked them based on the number of fatalities per 100,000 residents, the average increase in commute time due to traffic, percentage or roads rating poor, the percentage of drivers with DUIs, and the number of uninsured drivers.
Houston was ten out of 20. Yippee. We’re guessing they didn’t drive on Richmond Avenue.
Ask Houstonians which of the roadways are the worst and you’ll get a laundry list from parts north, south, east and west. And don’t even get us started on downtown. The top ten cities are:
1.) Charlotte, NC
2.) Fort Worth, TX
3.) Chicago, Il
4.) Philadelphia, PA
5.) Columbus, OH
6.) Denver, CO
7.) New York City, NY
8.) Dallas,TX
9.) San Antonio, TX
10.) Houston, TX
The survey finds our saving grace in Houston is our low number of DUI’s, with less than one percent of drivers having a record. We also are found to have a low number of roads that are rated “poor,” but again…there’s Richmond Avenue to make up for it.