#1 overall state
New Jersey leads the ranking with an overall score of 83.00.
This 2026 state ranking compares road quality, crash safety, gas access, auto repair density, scenic byways and campground access to reveal where U.S. road trips are most likely to go right.
Drag the car across the highway to compare every state from the top result to the bottom of the list.
New Jersey leads the ranking with an overall score of 83.00.
Kansas has the highest share of acceptable roads, at 97%.
Rhode Island has 248.32 auto repair shops per 1,000 km².
New York has 5.25 road fatalities per 100,000 vehicles.
Rhode Island has 3.73 scenic byways per 10,000 km².
New Jersey has 116.66 gas stations per 1,000 km².
Maryland has 21.88 National Park Service campgrounds per 10,000 km².
Each state received a percentile rank across six metrics, then those ranks were averaged into the final score.
This study ranks the best states for road trips using six metrics: percentage of acceptable roads, auto repair shops per 1,000 km², road fatalities per 100,000 vehicles, scenic byways per 10,000 km², gas stations per 1,000 km² and National Park Service campgrounds per 10,000 km².
Higher values were treated as better for every metric except road fatalities, where lower values were treated as better. The individual percentile ranks were averaged to produce each final road trip score.
Scan all 50 states and compare the metrics behind the final road trip score.
| Rank | State | Score | Acceptable roads | Repair shops | Fatalities | Scenic byways | Gas stations | NPS campgrounds |
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