When I was a kid, roaring around the gravel and dirt roads of Allamakee County, Iowa, in a 1966 Ford, my observation of traffic laws was a bit… fluid. Like everyone else in the county, I drove down the middle of the road unless a car was coming the other way, and my friends and I viewed speed limits as kind of a broad guideline, maybe more of a suggestion. Turn signals were used infrequently, generally only when we went to town. I remember one girl I took out for a Sunday drive remarking on the dust gathering on my old Ford’s turn-signal lever, and my telling her, “I’m out of turn-signal fluid – have to stop next time in town and buy some.” I don’t think she believed me.
I suppose that, by current standards, that made me a bad driver. Now, a survey published by Forbes Advisor is checking drivers against 19 indicators to determine which states have the best – and worst – drivers. The results are interesting.
The behaviors included running a red light, eating while driving and texting behind the wheel. Other behaviors were changing lanes without signaling, cutting other drivers off and “honking/cursing/gesturing at another driver in anger.”
The study also considered drivers who caused accidents, reported speeding in a school zone and drove under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
They seem to have sampled a pretty broad range of folks:
Each participant was at least 18 years old and had a driver’s license, and the study’s margin of error is ± 1.4 points with 95% confidence.
The best state to drive in? Tennessee. I haven’t driven much in Tennessee, mostly just passing through on my way to other places, so I won’t offer any speculation there. The top five best states to drive in are rounded out by Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Georgia.
The five worst states? The states that you, as a driver, want to avoid? Hawaii (the worst), Oregon, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Alaska.
Alaska? Seriously?
It’s a little baffling to consider that New Mexico and Wyoming could be places where one runs any risk while driving; in big swathes of both states, there are few people around and nothing to run into. Alaska, of course, is all of those things and then some, but we do have our oddities in driving, one being the “Alaska Roll-Through,” where we tend to see stop signs as optional; if there is no car in sight when, for example, pulling out of the side road onto the highway, we generally just roll right on out, sometimes without even slowing down. And it’s pretty common to have no car in sight, especially now that the tourist season is drawing to a close.
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In fact, one thing I have discovered in my travels is that every state and every city has its driving idiosyncracies. In Minneapolis, for example, people slow to an agonizing crawl when taking a street corner. This is somewhat understandable, given that Minnesota streets are covered in ice and snow a good part of the year. In New Jersey, where I worked on a project for a few months, drivers on the turnpikes seem to regard speed limits as a challenge, presumably to see if they can double or triple it. And don’t get me started on Saudi Arabia, where the locals pass on the highway by straddling the center line, flashing their lights, and honking their horns – until they find themselves facing a massive, five-ton, U.S. Army truck with a huge winch full of 3/4″ steel cable on the front. I never saw a speed limit sign in that country, but one local assured me that “there is a speed limit, but nobody makes a car that will reach it.”
Take a look at the list, and see where your state rates. You may be in for a surprise. And when you sally forth onto the highways and byways – buckle up!
