Is New York State the Best Place For a Summer Road Trip?

While gas prices remain a concern for many, there are those looking to get away somewhere for the summer. New York state has hundreds of miles of unique scenery, with plenty of forests, mountains, and state parks to visit here in the coming months. But is it really the best state for a road trip? The experts have weighed in, and this is what they found.

Where Did New York Rank? 

The website WalletHub has compared all 50 states, using three key dimensions: 1) Costs, 2) Safety, and 3) Activities. When all those factors were taken into consideration, it looks like New York did quite well. And while a category such as safety may make some living here not believe these findings, New York state ranked #1 overall when it came to the best states for a road trip. Some metrics of safety that were ranked include; quality of roads, low car thefts per 1,000 residents, and traffic-related fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled:

Other Nearby States

Maine ranked #5, Pennsylvania #17, Vermont #25, Massachusetts #35, New Jersey #45, and Connecticut all the way down at #49. Smaller, more densely populated states with not a lot of open land didn't do so well.

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New York is a Safe State? 

It may seem like we're hearing about more violent crime in and close to New York City over the past year? Is the Empire State an unsafe place to live? According to one study, the state, as a whole, isn't so bad after all. In fact, according to ConsumerAffairs, eight of the top ten safest states in the country are in the Northeast. New Jersey even topped the list at #1.

ConsumerAffairs said that they took into account violent crime, property crime, the number of law enforcement officers, and law enforcement spending using data from the FBI and Census Bureau. Overall, New York ranked as the eighth safest state to live in, according to the methodology they used. We ranked high due to the number of law enforcement officers to residents (1 per 335). We also had low property crime rates, according to the data.

Some Hudson Valley Towns Among the Safest

But if you're thinking this only applies to small, rural communities upstate, the study took into account safety in cities and towns of all sizes. Two Lower Hudson Valley spots even made the list as the state's safest places to live. ConsumerAffairs goes on to say that the safest largest city in the state is actually Yonkers. The Town of Mamaroneck was named the safest midsize town.