(Credit: Kevin Moloney for The New York Times)The July Fourth weekend is often one of the deadliest in terms of car accidents, but some towns are safer than others. A new report compiled by insurance giant Allstate has ranked the car safety of various towns compared to national accident rates.
The average driver in the United States has a collision every 10 years. But the average driver in Sioux Falls, S.D., experiences a car accident every 14.6 years. That means a Sioux Falls motorist is 32 percent less likely to have an accident than the national average. Drivers in Fort Collins, Colo., rank second, reporting collisions every 13.4 years.
For the past four years, Allstate actuaries have analyzed the company’s claim data to determine the likelihood drivers in America’s 200 largest cities will experience a vehicle collision compared to the national average. Allstate’s auto policies represent about 12 percent of the United States total, and the company says the report gives a realistic snapshot of what’s happening on America’s roadways.
But the traffic challenges in Sioux Falls are far different than those faced by drivers in larger cities, so Allstate has also listed the safest urban areas.
Among cities with more than 500,000 residents, Detroit has the safest drivers, with accident rates that are 20 percent below the national average.
For cities with more than 1 million residents, Phoenix has the safest big-city commuters, with accident rates about equal to the national average.
Drivers in New York City ranked 126th out of 200 cities studied by Allstate. There, the average time between accidents is 8.8 years — about 13 percent higher than the national average.
Drivers in the Texas cities of Houston, San Antonio and Dallas are 24 percent to 28 percent more likely to have accidents compared to national averages. Los Angeles drivers crash about every 7 years, putting their risk at 41.5 percent higher than the rest of the nation. And Phildelphia drivers, with accidents every 6.6 years, are 50 percent more likely to crash.
To see all the charts compiled by Allstate, click here.
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From 1 to 25 of 71 Comments
Hopefully this will induce more drivers to start driving in Souix Falls and Fort Collins instead of here.
They’re a real menace in NYC!
— MrManhattanIt does miss all of Massachusetts. I’m curious where Boston would appear.
FROM TPP — That’s true — apparently Allstate doesn’t write policies in Massachusetts.
— JesseI guess I am doomed living in Los Angeles county. I guess it is good that gas is nearly $5/gallon since we have been driving much less (walking the kids to school, walking to work, telecommuting, walking to the beach on weekends, etc.). Otherwise, we would really be in trouble. However, I guess I am surprised that we are only 41.5% more likely to have an accident here with the kind of driving I see. Coming to work this morning at 5:30AM on a surface street, some guy in a souped up, bright yellow Civic with a ridiculous looking spoiler just about took me and several other cars out swerving back and forth (and into the oncoming lane) to get through the pretty light traffic. Good think rush hour hadn’t started!
— LisaI definitely believe the Los Angeles stats. Driving in L.A. is an adventure and a lesson in stress management.
— RunningFinally something good about Detroit!
— betsyoh cool.. so now when i drive in sioux falls, i can relax 32 percent more.. and still hope to get where i am in one piece!..
— GreatWell, I don’t see San Francisco on the list, but San Jose shows up with some frequency, and it’s probably a good surrogate. Maybe our new hands-free cell phone law will help several CA collision rates fall a bit.
As for the the “where does MA” fall question, I can guess it’s pretty high as my insurance rates actually went down last year when I moved from Boston to SF, even though I report higher milage and much more traffic (ice/snow/weather related accidents strike me as probably the biggest factor, as the big coastal cities here suffer from very little of those).
I find a different type of bad driving here, moving from jerks who believe 10 feet is enough room to merge to flakes that will not merge because the space is under 50 feet and/or cannot secure items on their vehicles–there is a lot more debris on the road (yesterday’s traffic report included boxes and pillows on the road, the day before “a lot of broken glass,” and before that “metal objects.” Ladders make the news with some frequency, too.)
— Driving Thru SFMassachusetts has some strange laws regarding how insurance is underwritten. The laws make it particularly difficult for insurers to make a profit in the state, so many just don’t write there. The confusing roads and stereotypical driver don’t really make insurers happy either.
Driving through Boston I once saw a sign reading ‘Joe’s Guitar Supplies and Auto Insurance.’
— JaredI’m glad to know MA is not included. We moved from suburban Boston to Philadelphia four years ago, and, much as I love Massachusetts, Philadelphia is an easy and mellow city to drive in, not just compared to Boston, but to Boston’s suburbs as well.
There is a stop sign or a stop light on just about every corner in Philly, so you’re rarely moving very fast; most of the danger on the local streets is watching out for pedestrians and bicyclists. The problem is, when you get on the highways, including the ones that circle Philadelphia and are within its boundaries, people cut loose and start driving like maniacs.
— rmsI’m disappointed that there’s no comparison with my home state of Massachusetts. I’ve driven in a number of cities and Houston and L.A. are the worst, worse than NYC. L.A. is bad because everyone is in a hurry (since everything they are going to is 50 miles away) and a lot of people seem to want to weave in and out of lanes at 90 mph. Houston is bad because everyone wants to go first. When a space opens up in a lane, the driver in the car behind the space floors it to get in the space, so you can’t switch lanes.
— MayHaving driven in Michigan and in Detroit on numerous occasions, I’m surprised at the results of this survey. It seems to me that in Detroit and in Michagan, their speeds are far above average. Which, on the other hand, once again shows that speed limits are not so much safety issues as they are revenue enhancement opportunities for governments.
— Mike W.#7. As for the the “where does MA” fall question, I can guess it’s pretty high as my insurance rates actually went down last year when I moved from Boston to SF, even though I report higher milage and much more traffic (ice/snow/weather related accidents strike me as probably the biggest factor, as the big coastal cities here suffer from very little of those).
I find driving everywhere I’ve ever been to be an adventure in people’s bad habits, and bad timing (I’ve driven in NYC, Boston, Miami, DC (generally up & down the East Coast), SF, England & Wales, Israel). I don’t think that is always the main factor driving insurance rates though.
I think you’ll find that if you were to move back to MA that your rates would fall dramatically this year. It has to do with a change in the underwriting rules that is allowing the insurance companies to be more competitive. My rate is going down $500 from last year. (and yes, MA is always challenging for drivers).
— DonI’ve driven in Sioux Falls–a piece of cake. But then again, I live in San Diego, where it is nearly as stressful as driving in LA. My brother-in-law moved to LA, and he now appreciates San Diego traffic (with a nod to Running, Comment #4).
— Guy SolsaaI would concur based on my own driving. I’ve driven in every state and numerous foreign countries, and every region and city has its own style of driving. There are also regional differences in how roads and highways are designed and how law-abiding the drivers are.
I finally got to spend some time in the upper mid-west. Those drivers are mostly sticklers when it comes to staying close to the speed limit. And they’re not agressive (little tailgating). It must be the egalitarian values of the Scandinavian immigrants. The Dakotas don’t have enough cars to collide with.
In Texas high-speed tailgating is a sport. In Dallas they see how close they can get to your bumper before they do a “sling-shot” pass. Cops rarely enforce speed limits in Texas urban areas but on country highways they do. Turn signals are basically unheard of in Texas (and NYC). Texans will continue through red lights but be very polite at 4-way stops. Texas also has a wide disparity between vehicle sizes. Monster trucks are always tailgating compact cars making drivers very nervous. The bumpers are higher than your roof. Dallas designs highways so you abruptly end up in Exit-Only lanes with no safe way to get out of them. Austin, a Liberal bastion in a Conservative state, has fewer crazy drivers. People actually let you merge into traffic.
In Hawaii there’s no such thing as road rage. If somebody gave you a hand gesture it would mean “hang loose” you go first.
Drivers in Detroit probably have to slow down because of all the potholes. Phoenix drivers probably have the biggest, newest, straightest roads compared to cities built before cars. If you take the wrong turn on a highway in Chicago it’s almost impossible to get back to where you wanted to go. Californians see nothing wrong with passing on the right even when people in front of them are trying to move over to get to an exit.
The biggest safety problem now is missing, erroneous, or misleading highway signs. People hate having to go miles out of their way because they missed the correct exit. That’s a big problem just south of Wash. DC and on the Interstates around Charlotte NC and Columbia SC. We need some experts in ergonomics to help us interpret which route to take when one sign says go right and the other says go left. I laugh when I see a sign with an arrow pointing down telling me to be in a certain lane and the arrow is straddling 2 lanes. Nothing like being an out-of-towner and seeing a sign asking you to choose between 2 local destinations in a fork and not knowing if Dime Box or North Zulch is in the direction of the city you want to visit 3 states away.
Our skimping on highway maintenance is making things dangerous. Fix the signs first. Then fix the dangerous and confusing stretches of highways. And start enforcing laws against dangerous driving practices like tailgating or forgetting turn signals.
— Johnny EHere’s an interesting perspective on traffic accidents in the US:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/traffic
“…over the past five years I’ve split my time between England and the United States … Often when I return to the U.S., I see a fender bender or two within a few days. Yet I almost never see accidents in the U.K.”
— hyperlinkNormalizing by time is a very distorted way of doing this. For a driven driver,
accident likelihood in a year
is directly proportional to the risk per mile (the driver factor, with some environmental factors like weather, road quality, amount of other traffic etc)
TIMES
distance driven.
New York drivers move fewer miles/year than Houston drivers, which may explain totally the different frequencies.
— lee schipperWithout normalizing for distance, the comparisons are almost moot
Lee Schipper
UC Transportation Center
Berkeley CA
So silly. We worry about our kids getting killed in a war and we compare death rates by car as if they mean something to us as a guide to where we should drive.
Drive anywhere you want as long as the price of gas is equal to or less than you paid last year.
And while doing so, read the NYT articles about the American oil companies arrangments being made by all the President’s and VP’s (oil) men in Iraq with State Department assistance.
Let’s see. Right, we went to war to:
1) Eliminate Iraq’s WMD (real threat to America)
2) Eliminate Saddam (who nationalized the oil in Iraq many years ago)
3) al Quaida must not win (keep them fighting over there)
4) Bring the backward Arab countries democracy
5) Save the oil (?)
Talk about flip-flopping!
Anyway. Now get those engines racing.
— ed gFor the perfect trifecta of danger, try Florida.
A deadly combination of elderly drivers (who were likely poor drivers when younger as well) driving incompetently because they ‘can’(they are passing thru their 2nd adolescence on their way to 2nd childhood), and people out for a damn fast good time all going unnoticed by law enforcement.
As a 42 year old white male, I drove as I pleased, knowing that I would attract little attention from the cops. After all, I’m not a pretty girl and don’t appear to be ferrying drugs or doing anything else too notable. But attention must be paid, since incompetence abounds.
— JayWhat I am going to be fascinated about…is will the national traffic accident and fatality rate drop as we cut back on our mileage…will it be proportional? What a grand national experiment. So if we cut back 4% for miles driven will our fatality rate drop 4%.
Does it ask if the per million miles accident rate is a worth while tool and is accurate?
Thanks,
Mike Mulligan
— Mike MulliganHinsdale, NH
I’ve driven in several east coast cities and Detroit, and Detroit is by far the easiest and most comfortable to drive in. But it’s not because the drivers are safe. It’s because Detroit’s road system was created to handle population density that it hasn’t had since the 1970’s. The main thoroughfares are all several lanes wide and mostly empty most of the time. You can’t collide with other drivers because there aren’t any. I think it’s an unusually positive by-product of the city’s extreme decline.
The real threat to Detroit drivers is the potholes. We’ve got these great big streets, and no money to maintain them through the harsh Michigan winters.
— MollyThere is a new question, that perhaps Allstate could help with. How many soon to be reposessed gas pigs are getting totaled?
— barry ex seattleI’m surprised Miami is not mentioned — I experienced the worse driving of my 20 years behind the wheel in South Florida. The daily traffic report there is 10 nonstop minutes of accidents.
— tyler durdenBoston (and nearby sections of the state) are bad both because of erratic drivers and also because of extremely poor signage and road conditions. For example, many roads lack lane markings, even in areas where they are needed like intersections and narrowings. Outside of city center, street signs are optional, especially on side streets. The majority of lane markings use non-reflective paint that is nearly invisible on a rainy night. I could go on.
LA and NYC suffer from aggressive drivers, but aggressiveness is predictable. You will be cut off. You can plan for that. Boston gets unpredictable drivers who makes turns and lane changes for no apparent reason and with no warning. I’d rather drive in LA or NYC.
I’d rather see lists of the least safe cities. The safest cities will pat themselves on the back. Meanwhile the least safe cities could and should be looking at what they could do to make their streets safer. Put some attention where it is needed.
— JDHaving spent seven years in Atlanta, I am stunned that it was not on the list. It was a lethal combination of sprawl, inadequate roads, incompetent drivers and a huge cadre of “supercommuters” coming in from Northern GA or even South Carolina. My wife and I have driven for 25 years each and were involved in two accidents and NONE before or after our time there. I am curious about Allstate’s methodology.
— Giri VenkatramanNotice that the oldest drivers, the pre-baby boomers, had the fewest collisions.
— Kevin