The best and worst drivers in the US by city metro area, 2017 edition

Portland, OR being among the worst isn't surprising. People really fucking suck at driving there.

I'm a bit surprised to see Orlando, FL being one of the best. I hated driving there! I also think Tucson deserves a spot in the top worst.
 
maxcriden said:
Dang, that is crazy. We are hoping to move to SD so we will definitely bear this in mind. Thanks for the info. Do you like it there otherwise?
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It's beautiful. Just expensive :). And also if you are single it can be a tough town, very materialistic and superficial culture here. But climate-wise it's near perfect.
 
Lys Skygge said:
Portland, OR being among the worst isn't surprising. People really fucking suck at driving there.
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People in Portland will come to a four-way stop and get so flustered that they just abandon their cars entirely.

Poppy said:
sounds similar to oregon, except that also the merging process must take place over the course of at least a mile
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And then they'll conveniently turn on their turn signal immediately after completing their merge to remind you where they came from.
 
Atomic Playboy said:
People in Portland will come to a four-way stop and get so flustered that they just abandon their cars entirely.
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like im not originally from here but i gotta ask, does the drivers manual in oregon just not even mention the notion of right-of-way? it seems like everyone is completely stymied by any situation where there are multiple cars
 
I'm glad Louisville, KY is on the top 20 list. I drive in/around it a few times a year and I'm always pleasantly surprised by how good of a "big" city it is to drive through. Sure there's problems here and there, but it doesn't turn me into a massive stressball like other big cities.

McBryBry said:
Where in the hell is St. Louis? The second I cross the river into Missouri its a damn war zone.
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Hard to have too many problems when every connecting interstate is under construction 24/7. Seriously, I've never driven through St. Louis and not run into mounds of lane closures and orange barrels.
 
No Chicago? High-larious.

I think it has something to do with how difficult it is to actually get a ticket while driving in the city.
 
Poppy said:
like im not originally from here but i gotta ask, does the drivers manual in oregon just not even mention the notion of right-of-way? it seems like everyone is completely stymied by any situation where there are multiple cars
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It does, but most drivers appear not to have read it, and instead practice the defensive driving technique of "everyone else has the right of way but me." This not only explains the reluctance to proceed through an intersection when clear, but also why drivers will slam on their brakes seemingly at random to let pedestrians who aren't even attempting to cross the street go in front of them (this politeness extends to the pedestrians, who, despite not wanting to cross, now feel obligated to return this act of charity by crossing as SLOWLY AS POSSIBLE). Nobody in this state seems to understand that some of us want journeys to be over as quickly as possible because we're more interested in the destination than sitting in traffic watching imbeciles attempt to reinvent seemingly simple concepts like "right of way."
 
Since metro areas seem to be factored in, I'm not surprised to see Detroit at number 1. The batshit insane winters train us well.
 
Sacramento is shockingly bad. I've been all over and living here I've seen the craziest driving by far. People really don't care. They have no problem with killing you at all. I don't understand how people can drive so poorly.
 
The methodology is definitely flawed, but how many people have actually driven in a majority of the cities in the list (and done so more than once, and actually covered a significant chunk of the metro area) to have a decent frame of reference?

That's not to mention that the majority of humans are going to have similar driving habits going from place to place (at least in the US), and so the delta isn't going to be so huge that you're going to be able to definitively say that people from one place or another are 100% better at driving across the board. Wouldn't surprise me at all if the difference between the 3rd-place on the list and, say, the 60th were too small for most folks to say they definitely noticed a difference.

That being said, I would surmise that people with bigger egos are most certainly going to be more dangerous drivers, so it is no surprise at all that California places so high on the list of worst drivers. The less value people place in the safety and lives of other human beings, the less likely they'll prioritize driving safely over getting to their destination (ever-so-slightly) faster.
 
Eidan said:
Finally. Definitive proof that VA drivers are worse than MD ones. Learn your place, Commonwealth.
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Eidan meet me in the parking lot in 3 hours, we're boxing.

Maryland and D.C. Have the worst drivers on the east coast. #1 should just say "All of Maryland and D.C."
 
Not surprised at SLC. People are honestly terrible drivers here who cut you off and don't use blinkers. Plus it's normal for people to go at least 10 mph above the speed limit.

I hate driving here lol
 
XiaNaphryz said:
Saw this floating around a couple news websites. Link to the original article:

https://quotewizard.com/news/posts/the-best-and-worst-drivers-by-city



Full list at the link.

Worst 20:
1 Sacramento, CA
2 Salt Lake City, UT
3 Riverside, CA
4 Richmond, VA
5 San Diego, CA
6 Los Angeles, CA
7 Columbus, OH
8 Omaha, NE
9 Denver, CO
10 Bakersfield, CA
11 Portland, OR
12 Virginia Beach, VA
13 Bay Area, CA
14 Charlotte, NC
15 Fresno, CA
16 Greenville, SC
17 Minneapolis, MN
18 Cleveland, OH
19 Boston, MA
20 Durham, NC
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can confirm. lived in both cities. LA just because i have to deal with your shit whenever im leaving/going to San Diego, fuck you.
 
Any area of Florida being on the best list is a complete load of shit. Especially Orlando and and Miami. What total nonsense coming from someone who probably has never driven in either location.

Seriously Florida has the worst fucking drivers.
 
Youngfossil said:
lol Chicago 51 (25th best?)

Only reason is Chicago that high is because cops dont give a shit about traffic citations. You can easily do 80+ on the highway while passing cop.

Hell I was going 75 (speed limit is 55 btw) and didnt notice a cop roll up behind me, flashed me to move out the way (not siren lights, head lights lol).

You have to be doing something REALLY BAD to get pulled over here
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Hidden secret.
It's super easy to get from the south suburbs to the city and back with this method.
I've easily gotten downtown in 20-30 min with not a cop in sight.

---

D.C. should be ranked higher, it's terrifying. I've been in so many near hits in Uber drives.
 
PreyingShark said:
Not surprised by Minneapolis. The amount of times I've almost been run over for no real fucking reason is ridiculous.
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At the same time though drop a driver from pretty much anywhere else here in the winter and they gonna crash.

The problem with Mpls is the people from rural MN in the city for whatever reason and they just don't know how to deal with all the one ways, merging, etc.
 
Prophaniti said:
Sacramento is shockingly bad. I've been all over and living here I've seen the craziest driving by far. People really don't care. They have no problem with killing you at all. I don't understand how people can drive so poorly.
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I have to take 99/80 every day to and from work. There have been times where I've been 10 minutes late to work (I'm usually 10-15 minutes early) because of slowdown on the freeway. I'd think "man, must have been a bad accident. Hope they're okay." Nope. Just people being so bad at zipper merging that it causes that much of a slowdown.
 
Golgo 13 said:
I live in San Diego and I've been in 3 accidents that were determined to be the fault of the other driver. One that was so bad it crushed the entire engine compartment of my Hyundai into a 1-foot long mass of steaming metal. Airbag saved my life but I suffered a broken arm, nose, and a bad concussion where I was unconscious for almost 5 minutes.

All of my other family members have also been in accidents (though not nearly as bad) in which fault was placed on other drivers, including 2 instances of running red lights.

I've also driven defensively and saved myself from bad accidents at LEAST 10 times by slamming on my breaks or swerving.

So yeah, I can see San Diego being on the list. ��
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I've lived in Sacramento and the SF Bay area, and spent a good amount of time driving in the LA area as well. All that said, I live in San Diego now and SD drivers take the cake. They're aggressively dangerous in a way that I haven't seen anywhere else.

I'm actually relatively surprised about Sacramento being number 1. It's not the best city for driving, but I wouldn't imagine number 1. It might be some of the worst commute time traffic I've ever seen (depending on where you're going), and possibly comparable to LA on that front. I haven't lived there in 6 years, so perhaps its worse now.
 
kaioshade said:
How the hell is Atlanta not number one. 285 is accident prone nearly daily.
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I flew down to Atlanta to pick up my car from Carvana and drive to visit my Dad in Charlotte. Going from the Carvana HQ to get onto 85 was some scary shit.

I had to go from the far right, to the far left across 5 lanes in about 3000 feet from where I got on to where I had to get off.
 
bennywhatever said:
I'm glad Louisville, KY is on the top 20 list. I drive in/around it a few times a year and I'm always pleasantly surprised by how good of a "big" city it is to drive through. Sure there's problems here and there, but it doesn't turn me into a massive stressball like other big cities.
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That's so weird, because I lived in Louisville for a year and a half and thought the drivers were atrocious.
 
The whole west coast is pretty bad. We just make things harder on ourselves. Can't zipper merge, can't use the left most lane as a proper passing lane, people tailgate with a wide open passing lane, Cali can't handle rain, pnw can't handle sun, etc. We're hopeless.
 
100% believe San Diego's rating. A couple weeks back I was rear ended twice in two days, and less than 10 days ago I was almost hit head on by a wrong way driver on the freeway. :/
 
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