With better roads, cheaper gas and relatively lower costs for repairs than in most other states, Tennessee motorists enjoy the lowest average costs for owning and maintaining a car, according to a new study ranking driving conditions among the 50 states.
The personal finance website WalletHub again rated Tennessee No. 1 for the cost of ownership and maintenance of a vehicle based on gas prices, road conditions, insurance premiums and repair expenses. Tennessee was judged to have the best road quality among all states, with only 14% of Tennessee’s major roads in poor or mediocre condition.
A report by the Road Information Program estimates that driving on deteriorated roads costs Tennessee motorists $1.1 billion a year – $209 per driver – in the form of additional repairs. But that is less than half of the U.S. average of $564 a year for the average extra costs for repairs for driving on aging roadways, and in some states, the extra costs total nearly $1,000 a year.
“In Tennessee, we do have good roads because it’s been a priority of the state to stay on a regular resurfacing and maintenance cycle,” said Kent Starwalt, executive director for the Tennessee Road Builders Association, in a phone interview. “If you defer maintenance, it ultimately becomes more expensive to maintain that road.”
As a less densely populated state in the South, Tennessee also suffers less from traffic congestion than most urban states and has fewer potholes and weather damage to roads than what Northern states must deal with from more ice, snow and freezing temperatures. Even then, Tennessee’s budget for fixing potholes this year of nearly $9.2 million is up 2.8% from last year and is up nearly 28% from three years earlier.