Where Is It Most Expensive To Commute? These U.S. Cities Are Priciest Because Of Gas

New York City may be known as one of the more expensive places to try to live and work. But it isn’t the most costly place to commute to, since many are able to go to the city without using their cars — and are therefore not necessarily feeling the impact of high gas prices.

The average price per gallon of gas in the U.S. has reached a new high, with AAA reporting an average price of $4.45. Some states have much higher prices than that, and within states prices can vary widely depending on location.

However, when it comes to breaking down which cities seem to have the most expensive commutes with current gas prices, a new study by Clever, an online real estate brokerage service, found cities that are most often associated with the expensive cost of living like New York aren’t among the top 15.

Using a methodology of different factors for rankings, including the annual cost to commute as a percentage of average income, the annual fuel cost of a workday commute per resident, annual hours lost to traffic and congestion, the annual maintenance cost of commuting, the distance of commute, average annual insurance premium, how much potential annual income is lost due to commuting, time to work and the average miles per hour achieved during a commute, Clever found that, unsurprisingly, five of the cities that cracked its list were all in the same state that is currently paying the highest price per gallon on average — California.

According to AAA, the average cost for a gallon of gas in California is $5.93, and the cities of Riverside, Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco and Sacramento all cracked the top 10 of most expensive commuting cities.

Riverside, which sits east of Los Angeles and south of San Bernardino, took the top spot on the list, with Clever estimating those in the city spend about $1,225 a year on work commutes. Los Angeles ranked at No. 3 with a cost of $1,211, while San Diego came in at No. 5 with a cost of $1,156. San Francisco ranked at No. 7 with an annual cost of $1,077.

Other states that had the most expensive gas price averages with cities in the top 15 were Arizona (Phoenix ranked No. 2 with a price of $1,224), Illinois (Chicago came in eighth at $1,058) and Washington (Seattle ranked No. 12 with a total cost of $1,001). Washington D.C., which also carries higher gas prices, also ranked on the list, closing out at No. 15 with an annual commute cost of $903.

Other cities that ranked on the list, but were in states with a lower average price per gallon, were Houston (No. 6 at $1,080), Dallas (No. 9 at $1,055), Nashville (No. 11 at $1,019), Detroit (No. 13 at $989) and Birmingham, Alabama (No. 14 at $924).

The most surprising ranking came from Atlanta, which ranked No. 4 with an average annual cost of commuting of $1,180. However, Georgia is the state with the cheapest gas in the U.S., with an average price of $3.97 a gallon.