America’s drivers have become increasingly aware of their effect on the environment in recent years. While many of them are changing their driving habits in order to reduce their impact on the world, it's inevitable that some states will be changing the way they drive more than others. But which states have the most environmentally-friendly driving habits?
We decided to delve into the data and find the answer to this question. To do this, we collated a variety of data points by which we could rank the fifty states, such as:
• Average annual mileage
• Electric vehicle and charging station density
• High-speed driving tendency
• Carpool tendency
Below you can find state rankings for all these factors and more, as well as a final table in which every state is ranked by the overall eco-friendliness of its drivers. Read on to discover how your state fared…
Average Annual Mileage
我们首先研究了每个州驾驶员驱动的英里数量。期望我们必须考虑州的规模，但事实证明，每个州的平均水平与其总陆地质量没有相关。
年平均里程最低的州被证明是阿拉斯加的9,915英里，这是一个令人惊讶的结果，因为它是美国最大的州。当然，该州的恶劣气候和条件可能意味着与其他州相比，居民将其驾驶量保持在最低限度。随后是夏威夷第二，康涅狄格州在第三名（相反，美国两个较小的州）。
怀俄明州是年平均里程最高的州，平均每辆驾驶员21,821英里。该结果更为可预测，因为它在美国的人口密度最低。佐治亚州紧随其后，而俄克拉荷马州最终排名第三，落后桃州不到30英里。
Electric Vehicle Density
Next, we moved on to each state’s adoption of electric vehicles in relation to population size.
加利福尼亚has the highest density of EVs versus population. The state’s love of electric vehicles is well known – for instance, we found that Californians are the second biggest lovers of EVs in our 2018 study,‘Which States Love Electric Vehicles the Most?’
EV密度最低的州被证明是密西西比州。与加利福尼亚州相比，每场EV的人数约为277人，每场只有28人。
EV Charging Station Density
研究EV密度后，研究EV充电站密度也很有意义。
有趣的是，加利福尼亚在电动汽车充电站密度方面排名第二。取而代之的是佛蒙特州，他以EV密度排名第五。该州一直在鼓励电动汽车使用this year, in a bid to reduce emissions.
It’s understandable that many of the top ten states from the previous data point (EV density) finished in a similar position for this one as well. Aside from Vermont and California, other states that appeared in both top ten lists include Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Maryland and Massachusetts.
At the other end of the ranking, we can see more similarities with the previous data point. Repeatedly low-ranking states include Alaska, Louisiana, North Dakota, Alabama, Arkansas and Kentucky.
Driving Time Spent Above 70mph
Driving speed is a relevant factor in fuel consumption. The US Department of Energy found thatgas mileage decreases more rapidly at higher speeds; this means that states spending less time at high speeds will likely consume fuel at a slower rate.
夏威夷人花费最低的时间开车超过70英里 /小时，其次是阿拉斯加和俄勒冈州。必须说，我们当然不希望夏威夷拥有最慢的驾驶员，但已经发现阿拉斯加和俄勒冈州都在我们以前的研究中都有更严格的速度限制，‘Which States Have the Strictest Driving Laws?’
At the other end of the table, Wyoming drivers spend over a fifth of their driving time above 70mph! This is even more problematic considering the fact that AAA data shows Wyoming to beone of the more expensive states for gas prices.
Carpooling Tendency
We followed up on high-speed driving tendency by looking into each state’s willingness to carpool to work, as opposed to driving alone.
夏威夷再次获得第一名 - 近18％的车手拼车工作。值得注意的是，这是该州第五次进入本研究的前十次。这次阿拉斯加在整个研究中也脱颖而出（不包括其低电动汽车和充电站密度）。
Alabama came last for this data point, with only 8.35% of its drivers carpooling to work. However, it was closely followed by Wisconsin in second and New Hampshire in third – there’s a very small difference of less than 0.1% between the three of them.
Online Interest in Electric & Hybrid Vehicles
最后，我们认为根据Google趋势数据，包括每个州对电动和混合动力汽车的在线兴趣水平。
考虑到它的声誉，这两个主题都是加利福尼亚州首先成为电动汽车和混合动力汽车最大的在线兴趣的第一名，这并不奇怪。
金州之后是华盛顿和夏威夷。在整个研究中，这两个州都始终跻身前十名。因此，他们对更环保的运输形式（如电动汽车）会引起极大的兴趣，这并不震惊。
密西西比州的总利息最低，其得分仅占加利福尼亚总数的25％！尽管其对混合动力汽车的兴趣实际上是路易斯安那州在第二位的兴趣，但它的电动汽车兴趣最低。
Methodology
收集上述数据点后，我们使用MinMax归一化给出了每个州的每个州分数中的每个州分数。结合这些结果给出了总体得分，使我们能够与最友好的驾驶员一起发现该州。
Below is the formula that allowed us to generate these scores:
Result = (x-min(x))/(max(x)-min(x))
Defying expectations, California didn’t manage to take first place, instead finishing in fifth. It did well for most data points but had middling scores for average annual mileage and percentage of driving time above 70mph.
The state that did come first was in fact Hawaii. Of course, this isn’t that surprising after looking through all the individual data points in this study. The state was incredibly consistent throughout – it reached the top three for every single ranking. Washington and Oregon, in second and third respectively, were almost as reliably high-ranking, but both suffered a little due to their average annual mileage scores.
在桌子的另一端，密西西比州在底部完成。它持续了两个数据点，并将其他四个的最低点置于最低点。除此之外，它的总得分低于夏威夷的大小！阿拉巴马州的表现并没有更好，最终在几乎每个排名中都排名最高。北达科他州位于第48位，尽管没有第五个排名，但它的得分始终不佳，这使它成为环保驾驶员最糟糕的州之一。
In this study, we investigated the factors that we felt were relevant to eco-friendly driving in the USA. If you would like to see the full rankings of each data point as well as the sources of the information found in this piece, clickhere.
