Scottsdale was named the best city to drive in across the U.S., an increase in ranking from 2025.
WalletHub's 2025 ranking named Scottsdale the fourth best city to drive in across the U.S. But something changed from 2025 to 2026, resulting in Scottsdale being named the best city in the U.S. for drivers.
If you live in the Valley, you are constantly hearing about how bad Arizona drivers are. However, WalletHub's study measured specific metrics to reach its conclusion.
WalletHub measured 100 of the most populated cities across four categories: cost of ownership and maintenance; traffic and infrastructure; safety; and access to vehicles and maintenance. The four categories were each scored and points added up, for a possible total of 100.
Those points
determined Scottsdale was the best in the U.S. Here's why and how the city compared with last year.
Why Scottsdale is the best place in US for drivers
WalletHub claimed that Scottsdale is a great city to drive in because it is inexpensive, claiming the city is the second cheapest when it comes to average costs for a new car and the 13th cheapest in average parking rates out of the 100 cities analyzed.
For many Arizonans, Scottsdale and inexpensive may not go together, but according to WalletHub, Scottsdale ranked 43rd out of 100 cities in the cost of ownership and maintenance. This was Scottsdale's lowest ranking across the four categories. It was still an improvement though; in 2025, the city ranked 54th in this category.
Scottsdale ranked second in traffic and infrastructure, with WalletHub noting that Scottsdale was among the cities with the best bridge quality. However, this ranking is actually slightly lower than Scottsdale's ranking in the previous year. It was No. 1 in this category in 2025.
Scottsdale also moved down one spot in the access to vehicles and maintenance rank from the No. 26 spot in 2025 to 27th in 2026.
However, Scottsdale improved greatly in safety from 18th in 2025 to No. 9 in 2026. WalletHub claimed that Scottsdale's traffic fatality rate ranked 33rd out of 100 and that it had the sixth lowest number of uninsured drivers.
Scottsdale also has the 12th lowest motor vehicle theft offenses, according to WalletHub, giving it an overall score of 63.32 out of 100. Yet, Scottsdale's overall score in 2025 was 63.62 out of 100.
So, did Scottsdale become a better city for drivers or did other cities just get worse?
How did other Arizona cities rank?
Here's how there Arizona cities ranked in the nation-wide ranking and its score out of 100:
- Chandler ranked 13th with a total score of 58.75.
- Tucson ranked 18th with a total score of 58.62.
- Mesa ranked 20th with a total score of 57.81.
- Gilbert ranked 23rd with a total score of 57.37.
- Glendale ranked 40th with a total score of 54.91.
- Phoenix ranked 46th with a total score of 53.80.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: This Arizona city ranked best in US for drivers, WalletHub study says
