Driving fears can hit no matter where you live, but that doesn’t mean driving conditions or the drivers you encounter are the same across the nation. Allstate Insurance Company likes to point that out every year with its annual Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report, the eighth version of which examines drivers across the nation with a two-year average ending in 2012.
While Allstate plugs the list as a way to applaud the best drivers with the longest time between collisions, the typical bent of many news sources is to look at the bottom of the list and instead point out the worst drivers.
Just so we’re not total Negative Nellies, we shall give a nod to the best drivers – before plunging into the gritty side of the worst. Please note these lists are not meant to exacerbate your driving fears and phobias, just give you a big picture of some of the hazards specific cities pose.
Allstate looks at cities of all sizes, although bigger cities typically have a higher risk of driving mishaps than their smaller-city counterparts. That’s simply because they have more people. More people means more vehicles on the roads as well as more bicyclists, pedestrians and other potential hazards milling about the sides of them.
Just remember no matter what the statistics say, you can do your part to drive safely anywhere you live, the same way you can live anywhere and still work on alleviating your driving fears. In other words, don’t turn to the statistics as an excuse not to do what you can to drive safely and fear-free.
Allstate’s Best Driver List
The list includes the city, followed by the likelihood of getting in a crash in that city compared to the national average. The number after the percentage is the average years between crashes for drivers in that particular city.
Cities with a population of less than 1 million
- Sioux Falls, SD: 27.6 % less likely to crash than national average, 13.8 years between crashes
- Boise, ID: 27.3% less likely, 13.8
- Fort Collins, CO: 26.7% less likely, 13.6
- Madison, WI: 23.0% less likely, 13.0
- Lincoln, NE: 19.3% less likely, 12.4
Cities with a population of more than 1 million
- Phoenix, AZ: 1.6% less likely, 10.2
- San Diego, CA: 14.0% more likely, 8.8
- San Antonio, TX: 20.4% more likely, 8.3
- Chicago, IL: 25.9% more likely, 7.9
- Houston, TX: 25.9% more likely, 7.9
Allstate’s Worst Driver List
Forbes posted the worst 25 list it amassed from the Allstate survey, again noting the city as well as the chance of drivers in that particular city being involved in a crash as compared to the national average.
- Washington, DC: 112.1% more likely
- Baltimore, MD: 87.9% more likely
- Providence, RI: 80.9% more likely
- Hialeah, FL: 77.6% more likely
- Glendale, CA: 77.5% more likely
- Philadelphia, PA: 64.1% more likely
- Alexandria, VA: 62.6% more likely
- Newark, NJ: 59.4% more likely
- Miami, FL: 58.4% more likely
- San Francisco, CA: 54.6% more likely
- Jersey City, NJ: 53.9%
- Arlington, VA: 53.0%
- Tampa, FL: 50.2%
- Los Angeles, CA: 48.5%
- Paterson, NJ: 46.9%
- Fullerton, CA: 42.7%
- Garland, TX: 41.6%
- Elizabeth, NJ: 41.5%
- Bridgeport, CT: 41.2%
- New York, NY: 41.1%
- New Haven, CT: 37.5%
- Torrance, CA: 36.7%
- Norfolk, VA: 36.3%
- Yonkers, NY: 36.2%
- Arlington TX: 35.4%
Top 25 worst driver list posted by Forbes with data from Allstate
Not the Full Picture
While the annual Allstate survey does contain interesting statistics, they are rather limited in their scope. Slate.com notes Allstate does not serve up the full nationwide picture since:
- It only insures about 10 percent of drivers in the U.S.
- It doesn’t offer any coverage whatsoever to the entire state of Massachusetts
- It only looks at collision statistics, failing to explore other factors that result in poor driving habits and performance
- It doesn’t look into total miles driven each year by the surveyed drivers, as logic tells us that fewer miles driven means less risk of collision no matter where any particular driver may live
Thus Massachusetts becomes exempt from ever making it onto the Allstate worst drivers list, even though Slate notes Boston is notorious for less-than-stellar driving habits.
Expanding the Scope
Slate thus went about expanding the scope to include other factors that contribute to bad driving. They additionally kicked out areas with fewer than 150,000 residents due to limited data, kicked out the top five on Allstate’s list due to their high overall ranking and put Boston back into the mix. The final list of candidates was pared down to 39 cities.
Slate mixed average annual mileage into the equation to provide equal footing for all 39 cities still in the running. It then gave various weight to each of the four factors it examined:
- Number of years between traffic accidents
- Vehicular fatalities
- Driving deaths related to alcohol
- Collisions with pedestrians
Slate’s Top 5 Worst Driving Cities
You’ll recognize a few of the same cities ranked worst by both Slate and Allstate. While Slate did not provide a percentage comparing the risk of a crash with the national average, it did offer a few tidbits on each locale.
- Miami, FL: Slate said Miami pretty much blew all other cities out of the water for worst drivers, topping the list most pedestrian strikes as well as traffic fatalities. Slate also gave Miami motorists the top honors for “obscenity laced tirades” of their fellow drivers.
- Philadelphia, PA: Philly ranked a firm second place in the categories of collisions and hitting pedestrians.
- Hialeah, FL: Perhaps its proximity to Miami helps influence Hialeah drivers. The city ranked third for overall fatalities and high on the pedestrian strikes.
- Tampa, FL: Yet another Florida city slithers into the top of the list due to its consistently bad driving across the board.
- Baltimore, MD: The considerably collision rate merited Baltimore a place on the top five worst list.
Again, don’t think just because you live in Miami or don’t live in Phoenix that your driving has to be full of hazards and fear. You can drive safely – and even serenely – no matter where you live, provided you follow the rules of and keep your eyes on the road and take measures to alleviate your driving fears.
SOURCES:
- http://www.allstatenewsroom.com/channels/News-Releases/releases/where-do-american-cities-rank-in-eighth-annual-allstate-america-s-best-drivers-report
- http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2013/07/which_city_has_the_worst_drivers_boston_baltimore_washington_d_c_miami.html
- http://www.forbes.com/sites/jimgorzelany/2012/08/28/cities-with-the-worst-drivers-2012/
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