Financial website 24/7 Wall St. published an article titled “Worst Cities to Drive in Every State”, and St. Cloud was identified as the winner of that dubious title in Minnesota.

The folks at 24/7 Wall St. created an index that takes-into-account several driving-related measures to identify the worst metropolitan statistical areas to drive in each state.  The components of the index — which include average commute time, gas prices, and accident rates — were selected to capture an area’s safety, convenience, and cost of driving. Here’s how St. Cloud ranked:

> Traffic fatalities per 100,000 people: 11.1 (state: 6.4)
> Avg. commute time: 20.9 min. (state: 23.8 min.)
> Commuters driving to work: 89.6% (state: 86.2%)
> 2017 car thefts per 100,000 people: 151.2

To identify the worst cities to drive in every state, 24/7 Wall St. created an index based on measures of safety, cost, and the convenience of driving, normalized to be comparable with one another. Total fatalities and traffic fatalities involving drunk drivers per 100,000, is from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) for 2017. Mean travel time to work and the percentage of the working-age population with a commute of 60 minutes or longer came from the American Community Survey (ACS) 2017 1-year estimates. The rate of car theft per 100,000 people is from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) Hot Spots report for the year 2017. The average price of gasoline from Q2 2017 to Q2 2018 is from the Council for Community and Economic Research’s (C2ER) cost of living index for metropolitan statistical areas.

I have to admit, I get nervous driving in the twin cities, but St. Cloud is truly a tough place to drive. Division Street in particular is a mess, and the entire area by the mall is always congested and hard to get around in. I suppose every city can be a challenge from time to time, (any Friday in the summer on the 371 corridor) but St. Cloud seems to be hard to get around every day. Just another good reason to shop Lakes Proud!