Washington named worst state in Lower 48 to drive in; Oregon the best?

SEATTLE -- We're not sure what's so magical about the Washington/Oregon border, but apparently crossing said border transitions from one of the worst states to drive in... to one of the best.

A new study by WalletHub named Washington the worst state in the Lower 48 to drive in, only better than Alaska and Hawaii and even worse than California. The study used 30 key sets of data ranging from average gas prices to share of rush-hour traffic congestion to road quality.

Washington, as you might expect, scored below average in several of their categories, including average gas prices (48th of 50), road quality (44th), car theft rate (44th), auto maintenance costs (37th) and share of rush hour traffic congestion (33rd).

Where did the state shine? Ok, "shine" might be a bit of an overstatement, but we did come in slightly above average in car dealerships per capita (20th) and auto repair shops (21), so at least it's somewhat easy to find and maintain a car to have the worst driving experience.

But on the other side of the coin, the state that rated the best in the survey? Oregon.