I'm going to go out on a limb and say you read that headline, shook your head, and chuckled a little in disbelief because you've sat in long lines of traffic on the Lloyd, Burkhardt, or Green River Road more times than you can count. While that can be and is insanely frustrating when we're in the middle of it, especially if we need to be somewhere by a certain time, or we find ourselves getting a little "hangry," the truth is, when it comes to going places around the area, we have it pretty good compared to other states, and now there's data to prove it.

The website, Wallethub, recently looked at a variety of what they call "metrics" under the categories of "cost of ownership and maintenance, traffic and infrastructure, safety, and access to vehicles and maintenance" from each state, grading each on a scale of zero to 100 (zero being the worst, 100 being the best). For example, metrics under cost of ownership and maintenance include average gas price and average insurance premium price among others. The average of those grades determined each state's ranking on the list.

When the math was all said and done, the Hoosier state found itself in second place, just .72 points behind Texas who landed in the top spot.

Again, that may seem a bit unbelievable, but my guess is you're basing your thought on your personal experiences here in the Tri-State. Keep in mind the results are based on statewide data, not just our corner of it. In my opinion, our gas prices around here are reasonable, and our roads are in pretty good shape overall (road quality is one of the metrics under the traffic and infrastructure category).

Broken down by category, we rank around the middle of the pack in both the traffic and infrastructure and access to vehicles and maintenance categories at 22nd and 19th, respectively. In terms of safety, we're 33rd, putting us roughly in the bottom third of the country, but what saves our average and shoots us up to the number two overall spot is the cost of ownership and maintenance category where we rank second.

You can see the full breakdown of metrics, as well as where other states rank, including our friends to the south in Kentucky, and our friends to the west in Illinois on the Wallethub website.

Even through we rank near the top of this list, it doesn't mean things are perfect around here. For example...

Worst Intersections In Evansville

And our parking options are always the greatest either.

13 of the Tri-State's Worst Parking Lots

[Source: Wallethub]

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