Selection Process for Insurify’s 2021 Best Cities for Road Trips Awards
To determine the best city in each state to visit on a road trip, the research team at Insurify, a site to compare auto insurance quotes, referred to proprietary and publicly available data. They rated cities on hospitality and tourism industry size, historic landmark presence, travel affordability, and driving safety.
Insurify’s data scientists referred to data from the U.S. Census Bureau to identify the number of employees in the hospitality and tourism industry across metropolitan areas. The number of designated historic landmarks by city was derived from the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places, an official list of preserved historic landmarks in America. Cities with a higher proportion of employees in the hospitality and tourism industry and a higher number of historic landmarks received a higher score.
Insurify’s research team determined travel affordability by city based on regional gas prices and meal costs. Regional gas prices were derived from GasBuddy, a travel app that publishes timely data on fuel costs across U.S. cities, and restaurant meal costs were derived from Numbeo. Cities with lower gas prices and meal costs received a higher score.
Insurify’s data scientists referred to their database of over 4 million car insurance applications to determine citywide rates of dangerous driving. In this study, dangerous driving behavior was determined using the proportion of drivers in each city with one or more of the following violations on their record: at-fault accidents, DUIs, and speeding tickets. Cities with a lower share of drivers with these violations received a higher score.
States with insufficient municipal data (Maine, New Hampshire, North Dakota, and Vermont) were excluded from the analysis.
In 2021, these are the best cities in each state to go to on a road trip. These cities have lower rates of dangerous driving, highly prevalent hospitality and tourism industries, affordable gas and restaurant prices, and a higher number of historic landmarks.
