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HOUSTON (KIAH) — When it comes to Houston roadways, we all know it’s more than just a challenge to say the least. And rush hour, it’s even worse.

Now a new study shows there’s a reason for the frustration. According to a new survey, Houston is one of the top 5 cities in the U.S. with worst drivers.

To determine which cities and states are home to the worst drivers, the study was conducted by The Clunker Junker reviewed thousands of tweets from across the U.S. to reveal where drivers have the most negative things to say about fellow motorists.

They reviewed over 250,000 driving-related tweets from across the country containing the word “drivers” followed by each state’s name (or demonym), the top 100 cities in the U.S. and a list of the top car brand names. Then they analyzed the sentiment of each tweet using an algorithm and ranked states, cities, and car brands based on the percentage of driving-related tweets that have a negative sentiment.

Houston came in 3rd with the worst drivers with 75.10%. The city was only beaten by Tucson, Arizona 75.65% and Glendale, Arizona at 75.61% .

Key Findings

  • The state with the worst drivers is Rhode Island. On Twitter, 71.0% of tweets about the Ocean State are negative.
  • Many of the states with the worst driver reputations have fast-growing populations and increasing traffic congestion. In 6 of the 10 states with the worst driver reputations, the average travel time to work grew faster than the U.S. average from 2016 to 2020.
  • A majority of the 20 cities with the worst driver reputations are in the Sun Belt states of Arizona, Texas, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, and Georgia.
  • Urban traffic congestion may increase the negative perception of other drivers. Houston and Miami rank as having the 8th most hours lost due to traffic congestion of any city and rank as having the 3rd and 4th worst drivers.
  • Luxury sports car brands like BMW, Maserati, Lamborghini, and Mercedes have some of the worst driver reputations.

For more information on this study, go to the The Clunker Junker link.