Top 20 Cities with the Worst Drivers in the US
This article covers the Top 20 Cities with the Worst Drivers in the US, with detailed insights into the past trends of car crashes in the US and the rising car insurance premiums. For a quick overview of the top 5, read our article Top 5 Cities with the Worst Drivers in the US.
Every time we get behind the wheel, there is a possibility of a car crash. It is not surprising that cars collide at least every five seconds, and someone gets injured at least once after every ten seconds.
As a result, there are five million car crashes annually in the United States alone, as estimated by TeenSafe in 2018. It further revealed that more than 50% of these occur due to speeding and aggressive drivers.
When thinking of bad driving, it is natural to picture the streets of large cities, like New York and Chicago, with horrifying car crashes. However, these places have long been ruled out as one of those cities with the worst drivers.
Consumer Affairs report ranks Memphis, Baton Rouge, Albuquerque, Macon, and St. Louis as the top US cities with the worst drivers in 2023. Another report by Allstate (NYSE:ALL) ranked Oakland, California as one of the top cities with the worst drivers, followed by Alexandria, Virginia, and Providence, Rhode Island.
The Leading Cause of Bad Driving
According to Insurify, around 17.2% of drivers in America have one at-fault violation on their records. While that may not be a shocking figure, it may have something to do with motor vehicle crashes being the primary reason why people aged 54 and below lose their lives in the States.
Bad driving causes a significant number of injuries and fatalities in the US. The U.S. News & World Report’s Driving Habits Survey 2022 revealed that 64% of drivers stated that they experienced road rage when driving.
Meanwhile, 27% said that they have traveled with passengers who would act out. The study further concluded that speeding was another issue associated with impaired driving, which 51% of people admitted to doing.
A Look into Auto Insurance Industry
The auto insurance industry is also seeing a rise at the moment, whereby car insurance premiums are significantly increasing. As per 2023 ValuePenguin report, car insurance premiums are bound to go up further by 8.4%.
The rise is unsurprising given that in 2023, Mississippi recorded a per capita deaths due to a car crash at 0.023, followed by Wymoning at 0.020, Arkansas and South Carolina at 0.019, and others not far behind.
According to Geico, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, (NYSE:BRK.A), four factors that are likely to cause the insurance premium rates to go up are high-tech vehicles, deadlier accidents, which lead to costlier care, and weather conditions.
Allstate (NYSE:ALL) believes that factors like driving habits, coverages, deductibles, limits, and demographics can cause fluctuation in car insurance premium costs. In addition, the Insurance Information Institute revealed that due to policy premiums falling behind the inflation rate back in 2020 and 2021, market forces have covered the difference with the rising rates in 2022 and 2023.
Consequently, various auto insurance companies, including Allstate (NYSE:ALL), are considering raising their policy rates and modifying claims. While Geico, a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway, (NYSE:BRK.A), has already renewed its policies at increased rates in 2023. The subsidiary of Hathaway (NYSE:BRK.A) is currently charging $1,1716 per year whereas the national average auto insurance cost is standing at $2,150 annually. Here is a breakdown of what major players in the market are currently charging.
Apart from auto insurance companies, the biggest player in the auto insurance market is artificial intelligence (AI). The industry is readily adopting AI and its various branches to manage risk and improve efficiency. A study by Rackspace Technology revealed that 65% of the respondents are implementing the power of AI to streamline operations.
Consequently, 10 to 20 years from now, the landscape of auto insurance industries will look different than what it is today, as businesses of all sizes are making efforts to implement AI readily.
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Methodology
For our list of the top 20 cities with the worst drivers in the US, we considered locations that have a population of 100,000 people or more.
Our research involved evaluating four primary metrics for conclusive results: Deaths caused due to driving, public perception score, annual insurance premiums, and the number of uninsured people in each city.
To help maintain the accuracy of the calculations, we used relevant reports and rankings by Clever Move, U.S. News, and Bankrate. Each city against each metric was first assigned a score from 1 (most worst) to 20 (least worst).
After that, we calculated weighted averages to refine the rankings, while giving each metric a weight depending on its relative importance, i.e., driving deaths was assigned a weight of 0.4. Meanwhile, annual insurance premiums, uninsured rate, and perception score have been weighted at 0.3, 0.2, and 0.1 respectively.
Finally, we ranked cities in descending order from 20 (the least worst on our list to 1 (most worst on our list), based on weighted average results.
Below is our list of the top 20 cities with the worst drivers in the US.
The Top 20 Cities With the Worst Drivers in the US
20. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
In 2021, the city reported 21 fatal accidents and the number of vehicles involved in fatal accidents was 36. Unsurprisingly, 22 people lost their lives to bad driving.
19. Columbus, Ohio
The hub of the US Midwest and the capital of Ohio, Columbus is an unfortunate number on the list of cities with the worst drivers in the US. It was also ranked at number 41 by the U.S. World & News Report as the riskiest city in the country to drive in. Such rankings of Columbus are not surprising after accounting for the fact that in the year 2021 alone, the city reported 8,046 vehicular injuries and 117 fatalities.
18. Providence, Rhode Island
ValuePenguin has estimated that car insurance costs will rise by 8.4% in the US in 2023 as previously mentioned, which is likely to make the costs in Providence go up too, especially since it is on the list of top cities with the worst drivers in the US. Research reported 22 vehicles involved in car fatalities, which led to the death of 12 people.
17. Richmond, Virginia
In December 2022, rhpolice.org reported 77 crashes in Richmond, up by 68 from December 2021. Because of this rising percentage which indicates bad driving, car insurance in Richmond is 4% above the national average. Currently, State Farm and USAA are the only companies offering $35 to $36 a month on average, while the others offer more than $50.
16. Charlotte, North Carolina
In 2019, Charlotte was the only city in North Carolina to be ranked in the list of cities with the worst drivers in the US. Two leading factors of the staggering statistics in Charlotte are traffic congestion and under-constructed roads. Around 44% of the roads in the city are mediocre or in poor condition, causing people to suffer a loss of $1,342 in time and fuel costs.
15. Hartford, Connecticut
According to data from Quadrant Information Services, car insurance rates in Connecticut and all its cities have gone up by around 58% in 2023. One of the reasons for this rise is the increasing risk of accidents in crowded areas, such as Hartford. In 2022, the city recorded 3,662 crashes and 10 deaths from January to October, attributed to bad driving.
14. Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Earlier this year, Forbes conducted a study on the worst drivers by state in 2023, which led to Oklahoma being number 4. Consequently, the numbers for Oklahoma City in 2021 were staggering, which reported 83 fatal accidents caused by 153 vehicles.
13. Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City houses the largest number of residents in Missouri. This contributes to the fact that the traffic fatalities in the city rose by 25% in August of 2022, as compared to the previous year. By the 4th of July this year, Kansas City had reported 390 traffic crashes, which led to the death of 8 people.
12. Nashville, Tennessee
More than a decade ago, the average cost of car insurance in the US increased steadily and impacted various states, which included Tennessee. Consequently, premiums rose to two main factors, the increasing number of claims and the cost of these claims.
In Nashville, full coverage of car premiums costs around $913, with GEICO, a subsidiary of Berkshire (NYSE: BRK.A), offering cheaper rates at $894 and USAA at a higher percentage, standing at $954.
11. Sacramento, California
Unsurprisingly, when searching for what city has the worst drivers in California, Sacramento comes out at the top for reasons like DUI and distracted driving. In the year 2021 to 2022, 11.8% of the total crashes in the city were due to DUIs alone, as reported by the Transportation Injury Mapping System. The overall fatal accident count for 2021 was 70, which involved 115 vehicles.
10. Detroit, Michigan
Consumer Affairs ranked Detroit at number 7 on the list of the top 20 US cities with the worst drivers. This was mainly because it has 12 fatal crashes for every 100,000 residents and, overall, around 23 fatalities due to accidents. Consequently, the crash score for the city stood at 47.1.
9. New Orleans, Louisiana
A report in 2021 revealed that the year itself had been one of the deadliest years for the city in over a decade. The Louisiana Highway Safety Commission revealed the death of 69 people due to car accidents. Moreover, the fatalities had risen by 25% as compared to 2020. In 2023, New Orleans’ Transportation Safety Dashboard shed further light on the data from 2020 and 2021, depicting a 32% increase between them.
8. Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is home to more than 498,000 residents, but that also means that traffic on the roads is high. As a result, car accidents also tend to rise. In 2019, a total of 34,446 crashes were reported, followed by 21,478 in 2020. While the number had significantly fallen, it was still deemed to be bleak due to the fact that the city had been on lockdown for most of the year.
7. Riverside, California
In the year 2018, Riverside had 15,359 victims of car accidents, and alcohol contributed to the death or injury of 1,794 of these victims. On the other hand, 3,592 fatal accidents were due to speeding.
6. Memphis, Tennessee
When categorizing the worst drivers in America by city 2023, Memphis reports the most collisions on account of bad drivers. Data reveals around 32 fatal accidents for every 100,000 residents. Furthermore, the U.S. Department of Transportation reported that 238 fatal car crashes occurred in the year 2021 alone.
Click to continue reading and see the Top 5 Cities with Worst Drivers in the US.
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Disclosure. None. The Top 20 Cities with Worst Drivers in the US is originally published on Insider Monkey.
