A ranking of the one hundred best and worst cities in which to drive has Houston in the middle, 48th. They considered things like accident likelihood, congestion, car thefts, and gas prices.
iHeartradio traffic guru Sky Mike says it's a better ranking than he expected.
"I would expect us to be around the three or four worst in the entire nation."
During the pandemic streets were sometimes nearly empty and Sky Mike says some of us kind of missed traffic.
"It's almost as if a few of us are kind of glad to see traffic tangled up again; it kind of shows us we're getting back to our old Houston normal again."
Low gasoline prices certainly helped Houston avoid the bottom of the list; prices are their lowest entering a Labor Day weekend in 16 years.
One of the other criteria is auto repair shops per driver. The amount of repair shops needed is supposed to indicate the danger of driving on Houston streets. But Sky Mike looks at the bright side.
"Actually I think that would be a good thing for consumers, to give you more variety, more choice, more competition; I don't really see how that could be a bad thing."
Houston is near the bottom on maintenance costs and average parking rates.