NEW: How Miserable Are Rhode Island’s Drivers?
Monday, September 17, 2012
How miserable are Rhode Island's drivers? With the #15 highest gas prices and #9 highest car insurance rates, the outcome is pretty miserable. Photo: AgentAkit
Rhode Island ranked #29 on the website's new Automotive Misery Index ranking, which took the price of gas and insurance as of September 1 and weighed those numbers against average income and miles driven in each state. With these figures, carinsurance.com was able to calculate the percentage of household income required to drive. In Rhode Island's case, that number came out to 6.6% (For exactly how the calculations were conducted, check out the methodology, here.)
Pricier gas + really pricey car insurance
Rhode Island's ranking derived from a gas price of $3.87 per gallon and an average annual car insurance bill of $1,837. RI's gas price was the #15 highest among all 50 states, bested by West Virginia, Michigan, Alabama, North Dakota, Indiana, California, Delaware, Iowa, Oregon, Wisconsin, Hawaii, Washington, and neighboring Massachusetts and Connecticut. Hawaii tagged the highest gas price of the sampling, at $4.34 per gallon.
The insurance price tag was compiled by a standard of one year's worth of insurance for a 2012 Honda Accord (as was the estimation of a year's worth of fuel). RI's $1,837 price tag was again among the highest in the nation, at #9 nationally.
Most miserable
The #1 most miserable state for drivers in the ranking was Mississippi (11.6% of household income required to drive), followed by Oklahoma, Louisiana, West Virginia and Georgia. The least miserable state was New Hampshire, where it only costs 4.4%. The national average of the survey was 7.0%.
In general, New England states fared well in the misery ranking. Rhode Island's #29 ranking was the region's most miserable, followed by Maine at #36, Vermont at #40, Massachusetts at #45, Connecticut at #49, and New Hampshire at #51 (the survey included Washington, DC).
For all the rankings, go here.
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