EL PASO, Texas (KFOX14\/CBS4) \u2014 El Paso ranked 94th among the 100 largest U.S. cities for sober travel, scoring 33.1 out of 100 in a study released during Sober October.<\/p>\n
The Sober Getaway Index was compiled by THE BALANCE, a private residential treatment clinic for addiction and mental health. The study assessed how easy cities make it for visitors to plan a trip without alcohol.<\/p>\n
El Paso was the second-lowest-ranked Texas city in the study, ahead of Laredo, which ranked 95th with a score of 33.0. <\/p>\n
No Texas city made the top 40. Lubbock ranked highest in the state at No. 48, with a score of 43.5. The study put the average score across all cities at 43.4.<\/p>\n
Among other major Texas cities, Dallas ranked 78th, Houston 81st and San Antonio 83rd. Austin ranked 60th. Three Dallas-area suburbs \u2014 Frisco, Plano and Arlington \u2014 ranked ahead of Dallas.<\/p>\n
Dr. Sarah Boss, clinical director at THE BALANCE, said sober travel can be challenging during stretches of downtime, particularly in cities that offer fewer ways to fill the day.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my experience, a sober trip usually gets hard in the quiet stretches, not at the bar itself,\u201d Boss said. \u201cTexas\u2019s biggest cities don\u2019t give people as many ways to fill those hours, so a trip there can take a bit more thought. It just means the evenings matter more.\u201d<\/p>\n
The index ranked cities using six equally weighted factors: the share of adults who binge drink; the number of bars, attractions, cafes, coffee shops and juice bars per resident; parks and nature areas per square mile; and the number of weekly in-person and hybrid recovery meetings per resident.<\/p>\n
The study used data from sources including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Overture Maps, U.S. Census Bureau ZIP code business patterns, and directories from Alcoholics Anonymous, Recovery Dharma and SMART Recovery. Each factor was scored on a scale from 0 to 1, with cities\u2019 overall scores reported out of 100.<\/p>\n
The full rankings and methodology are available on THE BALANCE\u2019s website. <\/a><\/p>\n RECOMMENDED: Organization plans two ‘No Kings’ protests in El Paso this weekend<\/a><\/p>\n