Ask someone living in or around New York City and they might tell you the Belt Parkway at rush hour is the most miserable place on earth. Someone living in Los Angeles might say it’s the 405, any time of day or night.
But no – New York isn’t even near the top “worst” at #31 on the list of best and worst drivers in American cities, according to a new report by QuoteWizard. (Los Angele is #23.) The results were compiled using the amount of crashes, speeding tickets, DUIs and citations.
Five worst:
Portland, Oregon
Boise, Idaho
Virginia Beach, VA
Columbus, Ohio
Sacramento, California
Let’s look at each city to discover particulars as to how they got their ranking.
PORTLAND
Portland cracked the top ten “worst” in 2018, but got the top boobie prize this year by the amount of speeding tickets issued, surprising since Portland is also known for the gridlock on I-5.
BOISE
Boise? Really? Really. Despite having a better-than-average ranking in recent years – it was #27 in the “worst” category in 2018 – it sped up to #2 this year because of skyrocketing rates of DUIs, along with making the top 15 in speeding tickets.
VIRGINIA BEACH
Virginia Beach has never cracked the top 10 on this list, but this year it has the dubious honor of landing in the top three “worst” with overall low marks for speeding tickets, DUIs and other citations. The state of Virginia itself is moving up in rankings, but the city of Virginia Beach has definitely taken a plunge this year.
COLUMBUS
Columbus has found itself in the “top ten worst cities to drive in” for a long time, and this year it finishes fourth for the second year in a row. It’s actually #1 worst in the state of Ohio – but Cleveland’s a close second.
SACRAMENTO
Sacramento used to rank #1 on this list due to its crashes and DUIs, but this year it gets a slightly better assessment due to its fewer speeding tickets. It’s no great honor, though – statewide, it pretty much ties San Francisco for most cloddish drivers.
Best Driving Cities:
Detroit, Michigan
Louisville, KY
Chicago, Ill
Miami, Fla
Grand Rapids, MI
Reasons for rankings:
DETROIT
Detroit continues to enjoy a great driving rep – it ought to, being the Motor City – but it’s also got some of the highest numbers of reported insured drivers, with staggering estimates of anywhere from 40% to 60% of motorists leaving themselves unprotected.
LOUISVILLE
Louisville is blessed with great roads and great drivers who drive sanely, end of story. The only demerits come in the form of citations, meaning failing to signal, or texting while driving.
CHICAGO
The city that birthed the Blues has its problems, but bad drivers aren’t one of them.
MIAMI
Though Florida itself has a rep for being “out there,” Miami’s ranking is a result of reasonable speeds, courtesy and general chill, perhaps because there are so many exotic cars in the city and folks are careful not to get caught like Justin Bieber who was cited for drag racing his Lambo in 2014.
Grand Rapids
Grand Rapids is a pleasure to drive in, but it lost its #1 ranking from 2018 due to its high level of uninsured drivers. (Michegan has some of the highest insurance rates in the country.)
The QuoteWizard research team evaluated driver quality from the 75 largest cities in America, analyzing 2019 data from millions of insurance quotes from drivers in the 75 cities. Cities considered the worst drivers had the highest rate of incidents among drivers.
