Which State Has the Best Drivers? Florida Beats Georgia, Oklahoma Tops Texas, New York Wins in Tri-State Area
Henry Hoenig
· 5 min read
- Moving Violations
- Accidents
- East Coast Vs. West Coast
- NYC Tri-State Area
- New England
- Border State Rivalries
- Methodology
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Florida vs. Georgia. Texas vs. Oklahoma. Oregon vs. Washington. These and other interstate rivalries aren’t limited to college football. Border rivalries also play out on the streets and highways, where we’re most likely to encounter people from neighboring states — and complain about their driving. Who hasn’t claimed, at least once, that people from the next state over are the worst drivers?
With these rivalries in mind, we decided to look at the data to determine which state does have the worst drivers in the country, and which ones could claim bragging rights in head-to-head matchups with their neighbors. Here’s what we found.
Connecticut drivers earned the lowest overall safety scores in the country, due to low scores for speeding and distraction. They were followed by drivers in New Hampshire and Maryland. All of the 10 states with the lowest overall scores are located east of the Mississippi River and seven are on the East Coast.
State | Overall | Acceleration | Braking | Turning | Speed | Distraction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Connecticut | 3.36 | 4.69 | 4.49 | 4.8 | 3.64 | 4.21 |
New Hampshire | 3.43 | 4.68 | 4.67 | 4.79 | 3.65 | 4.33 |
Maryland | 3.43 | 4.68 | 4.54 | 4.79 | 3.8 | 4.09 |
Pennsylvania | 3.5 | 4.66 | 4.53 | 4.78 | 3.91 | 4.16 |
Georgia | 3.53 | 4.71 | 4.5 | 4.8 | 3.99 | 4.1 |
Massachussets | 3.71 | 4.74 | 4.18 | 4.59 | 4.81 | 4.19 |
New Jersey | 3.57 | 4.66 | 4.51 | 4.8 | 4 | 4.22 |
Tennessee | 3.59 | 4.78 | 4.57 | 4.79 | 4.01 | 4.14 |
North Carolina | 3.6 | 4.75 | 4.53 | 4.76 | 4.11 | 4.12 |
Mississippi | 3.61 | 4.86 | 4.69 | 4.08 | 4.89 | 3.98 |
Moving Violations
Jerry
also looked at which states had the highest percentage of drivers with at least one moving violation on their records. Wisconsin scored worst, with 33.1% of its drivers having a blemished record, followed by motorists in Virginia (32.8%), Ohio (31.3%) and Iowa (30.4%).Wisconsin | Virginia | Ohio | Iowa | Wyoming | Minnesota | South Carolina | Idaho | Nebraska | New Jersey |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
33.1% | 32.8% | 31.3% | 30.4% | 29.2% | 28.8% | 28.3% | 27.9% | 27.7% | 27.2% |
We also looked at three of the most serious moving violations: drunk driving, careless driving, and speeding at more than 15 miles an hour over the limit. New Jersey was the state with the highest percentage of drivers (12%) with at least one of those violations on their record, followed by Wisconsin (8.8%), Minnesota (8.3%) and Virginia (8.3%).
Drivers in New Jersey (1.5%) were most likely to have more than one of those three violations on their record, while the state with the highest percentage of drunk driving violations was Minnesota (3.7% of drivers).
New Jersey | Wisconsin | Minnesota | Virginia | Ohio | Iowa | Colorado | Washington | Nebraska | Florida |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
12% | 8.8% | 8.3% | 8.3% | 7.7% | 7.5% | 7.2% | 7.1% | 6.3% | 6.2% |
Accidents
So which state’s drivers have caused the most accidents? That would be South Carolina, where 42% of drivers have at least one at-fault accident on their record. Maryland drivers were only slightly better at 41%, followed by motorists in New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Wyoming — each with 38%.
For at-fault accidents involving bodily injury, drivers in North Carolina (19%), California (14%) and New Jersey (4.6%) ranked as the worst.
South Carolina | Maryland | New Jersey | Rhode Island | Wyoming | Georgia | Nebraska | North Carolina | Colorado | Ohio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
42% | 41% | 38% | 38% | 38% | 37% | 35% | 34% | 34% | 34% |
East Coast Vs. West Coast
Given the East Coast states' dominance of the list of worst drivers, it should come as no surprise that the West Coast beat the East Coast in a head-to-head comparison. Drivers on the left coast earned an average overall safety score of 3.77 out of 5, compared with 3.58 for their East Coast counterparts, while performing much better in the turning category (4.76 vs. 3.96) and moderately better in speed and distraction.
Accident data told a similar story. On the East Coast, 35% of drivers have at least one at-fault accident on their record, versus 24% of drivers on the West Coast. Similarly, 5.1% of East Coast drivers had at least one serious moving violation (drunk driving, careless driving or speeding at more than 15 mph over the limit) on their record, versus 4.3% of drivers on the West Coast.
NYC Tri-State Area
New Yorkers earned the distinction of being the best drivers in the New York City tri-state area, topping their nearby counterparts in Connecticut and New Jersey, who ranked as the seventh-worst overall in the country. New Yorkers outperformed their neighbors in the braking, turning, speed and distraction categories.
State | Overall | Acceleration | Braking | Turning | Speed | Distraction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
New York | 3.73 | 4.65 | 4.55 | 4.88 | 4.21 | 4.25 |
New Jersey | 3.58 | 4.65 | 4.5 | 4.78 | 4.0 | 4.22 |
Connecticut | 3.4 | 4.7 | 4.49 | 4.82 | 3.67 | 4.21 |
New England
In New England, Vermonters earned the best safety scores, followed by Mainers and Rhode Islanders. Vermont drivers distinguished themselves with better scores for speed and distraction, as well as the lowest percentage of drivers (3.4%) with a moving violation on their record and the lowest percentage with an at-fault accident (17%).
State | Overall | Acceleration | Braking | Turning | Speed | Distraction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Vermont | 3.81 | 4.78 | 4.73 | 4.81 | 4.18 | 4.36 |
Maine | 3.65 | 4.77 | 4.73 | 4.87 | 3.96 | 4.21 |
Rhode Island | 3.62 | 4.8 | 4.65 | 4.86 | 3.93 | 4.22 |
Massachusetts | 3.54 | 4.67 | 4.58 | 4.84 | 3.97 | 4.13 |
New Hampshire | 3.43 | 4.68 | 4.67 | 4.79 | 3.65 | 4.33 |
Connecticut | 3.36 | 4.69 | 4.49 | 4.8 | 3.64 | 4.21 |
Border State Rivalries
We looked at some of the states that have natural rivalries with their next-door neighbors to help decide who most deserved bragging rights as the best drivers. For example, Oklahoma topped Texas, West Virginia beat Virginia and Florida bested Georgia in the head-to-head matchups.
State | Overall Safety Score | With At-Fault Accidents | With Violations | With Serious Violations |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Oklahoma | 3.94 | 31% | 12.5% | 1.3% |
Texas | 3.79 | 31% | 10.5% | 0.9% |
Michigan | 3.74 | 15% | 20.5% | 3.7% |
Ohio | 3.74 | 34% | 31.3% | 7.7% |
South Carolina | 3.61 | 42% | 28.3% | 4.6% |
North Carolina | 3.6 | 34% | 24.5% | 4.4% |
Oregon | 3.9 | 31% | 24.4% | 3.5% |
Washington | 3.79 | 31% | 24.5% | 7.1% |
Florida | 3.62 | 32% | 19.1% | 6.2% |
Georgia | 3.53 | 37% | 22.8% | 5.3% |
West Virginia | 3.81 | 26% | 13.1% | 1.7% |
Virginia | 3.62 | 30% | 32.8% | 8.3% |
Kansas | 4.01 | 23% | 16.9% | 2.0% |
Missouri | 3.78 | 29% | 19.7% | 1.7% |
Methodology
Jerry examined the safety scores of 95,000 drivers derived from more than 22 million trips. To calculate the state scores, we calculated the average score for each driver based on the scores assigned for each trip, then took the average of those averages for all drivers in a given state.
Note that overall scores for a trip are not calculated by averaging sub-scores. The sub-scores are weighted differently and the frequency of “risk events” is taken into account.
To calculate scores in the New York City tri-state area, we looked only at drivers from counties considered part of the New York metropolitan area as well as Fairfield County, Connecticut.
Jerry also examined the driving history — accidents and moving violations — of 67,000 of the above 95,000 drivers. Alaska, Hawaii and North Dakota were excluded from national rankings in driving history due to small sample sizes.
