Safest and Most Dangerous Cities for Drivers

This seems like a random list of cities. What method was used to determine the ranking ? What factors predict safety ?

"This seems like a random list of cities. What method was used to determine the ranking ? What factors predict safety ?"

Motor vehicle fatalities per 100K population.

I was able to find the article for this ranking. Their methodology is a bit vague but seems to rely primarily on fatalities per thousand drivers. So, areas with a dense population and lots of traffic congestion would experience more accidents but fewer fatalities owing to average speed. Under this method, you’d expect a city like Boston to be labeled safe even though your risk of an accident is much higher than in a rural community.

Looks like northern states are safer than southern states.

really? i heard about the masshole drivers in Boston...

What were their metrics? Boston drivers have a chip on their shoulders the size of Fenway Park.

there are 3 cities from florida listed for dying from driving. are the drivers really that bad down there? surprised that miami isn't on that list.

Show us your tits

Like mark94 said, how can you have fatalities when traffic moves at 5 mph? What do many of those southern cities have? High speed interstates going right through them moving at 60-75 mph.

The variable is deaths per capita. That makes sense on the top 3 safest. Each of those cities is so congested that you cant get up to any speed where a fatality would happen. Looking at the most dangerous, those are cities that are relatively spread out so going 70+ MPH would not be uncommon on the highways' That is when people die.

I suspect that drinking and driving is also a factor. For example, there is a highway that is the most direct route between Vegas and Phoenix. It’s one lane in places and I would never drive it at night. Casinos. Reservations.There are remote roads that are truly dangerous at night.

One thing that also could be skewing data is Uber. Large city populations use Uber which could cut down on DUIs lessening fatalities whereas many rural areas do not have consistent Uber available if it’s even an option.

I think the use of public transportation and ride sharing does affect some of the top cities. In Birmingham, many of the freeways don't have much lane space to merge onto the freeway. Therefore, if the right lane is congested, you either have to force your way on in a short time or stop and restart your merge from a dead stop once the lane is clear.

In Phoenix we have a phenomenon of wrong way drivers on major highways. It’s partly intoxicated drivers and partly older, confused drivers. It seems there is a fatality every week or two.

^ Funny you should mention that here's a Florida driver story

There is a senior citizen driving on the highway. His wife calls him on his cell phone and in a worried voice says, Herman, be careful! I just heard on the radio that there is a madman driving the wrong way on Route I95! Herman says, I know, but there isn't just one, there are hundreds!

LOL!!!!?

If we're talking per capital, this makes sense since larger cities have more people that use public transit. Traffic also plays a role since it's hard to have a fatal accident at under 40 mph.

The list seems arbitrary.

Vegas is really dangerous. There are always fatalities on the news. 24 alcohol sales. Tourists thinking traffic rules don't apply to them.

I also think places with a lot of trucks and suvs are dangerous. Those drivers have a false sense of safety and do whatever they want.

rush hour metro/ city driving sucks.

Here's the full list of cities. Best to worst.

1. Boston, MA
2. New York, NY
3. San Francisco, CA
4. Minneapolis, MN
5. Buffalo, NY
6. Seattle, WA
7. San Jose, CA
8. Chicago, IL
9. Washington DC
10. Cleveland, OH
11. Portland, OR
12. San Diego, CA
13. Los Angeles, CA
14. Providence, RI
15. Rochester, NY
16. Detroit, MI
17. Philadelphia, PA
18. Salt Lake City, UT
19. Denver, CO
20. Milwaukee, WI
21. Hartford, CT
22. Baltimore, MD
23. Virginia Beach, VA
24. Cincinnati, OH
25. Pittsburgh, PA
26. Raleigh, NC
27. Grand Rapids, MI
28. Las Vegas, NV
29. Sacramento, CA
30. Columbus, OH
31. Richmond, VA
32. Indianapolis, IN
33. Dallas, TX
34. Austin, TX
35. Kansas City, MO
36. Atlanta, GA
37. Phoenix, AZ
38. Houston, TX
39. Miami, FL
40. St. Louis, MO
41. Tucson, AZ
42. San Antonio, TX
43. Riverside, CA
44. Charlotte, NC
45. Orlando, FL
46. New Orleans, LA
47. Nashville, TN
48. Louisville, KY
49. Oklahoma City, OK
50. Tampa, FL
51. Jacksonville, FL
52. Memphis, TN
53. Birmingham, AL

BS article. They hand picked cities that fit their narrative. They had to skip down to #90 Buffalo and #116 Birmingham to find cities that fit their story. Also hand picked #99 Richmond, #119 Rochester, #122 Grand Rapids, #125 Salt lake City, #150 Providence.

Yet they skipped #12 Ft. Worth, #22 El Paso, #32 Albuquerque, #34 Mesa, #35 Fresno, #40 Colorado Springs and almost 100 others before they got to Providence, RI.

"BS article. They hand picked cities that fit their narrative. They had to skip down to #90 Buffalo and #116 Birmingham to find cities that fit their story. Also hand picked #99 Richmond, #119 Rochester, #122 Grand Rapids, #125 Salt lake City, #150 Providence.

Yet they skipped #12 Ft. Worth, #22 El Paso, #32 Albuquerque, #34 Mesa, #35 Fresno, #40 Colorado Springs and almost 100 others before they got to Providence, RI."

The article was based on metropolitan areas - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_… . It includes the central city and all of the suburbs around it. Only metros with a population over

Here's a different old report - https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtm… - from over 10 years ago.

So an MSA like Richmond, Birmingham or Atlanta is actually mostly suburban and rural. So they did not cook the study, but the nature of an MSA is different in the south. There is more space between major cities and the MSA's take in rural areas

According to a transportation guy I used to know, the main factor is distance from the nearest hospital. It's hard to pick a spot in Boston more than five minutes from a hospital. I'm sure the 8 mph average speed also helps

In Florida it seems that drivers are completely unable to improvise, probably a function of the average driver age. If anything unexpected happens there is likely to be an accident. On the other hand, Bostonians like myself are adept at improvisation, because you never know what might come up, whether a change in the road surface, or a driver trying to make his way through a narrow two-way street not wide enough for two cars meeting.

Traffic in Boston is so fucking awful and the other drivers so angry its impossible to get going fast enough to kill anyone. Cop looks like a much riskier job than truck driver, but if you just go by deaths truck driver is far riskier and cop isn't even in the top 10.

+1 What loper said about Florida drivers not being able to react to a changing situation. Once saw an old guy driving in the left lane on I-95. Every time someone would pass him on the right an cut back to the left he would hit his brakes until he once again had about a 200 foot gap in front of him. this only cause more people to pass him. At one point three cars at once shifted to the left lane in front of him. The gap was now only 40-50 feet and slowly closing due to traffic. After a second or two he slammed on his brakes hard and got rear ended. Oh, and the lane to his right was totally empty.

What about cities safest for horses?

Awww skibum lives in the safest city for driving and he still can't drive there? What a crybaby boomer

I used to travel a lot for work, 20 different cities in 2019. I'm well aware I often drive around like I'm lost, trying not to make quick last minute lane changes when I suddenly realize I'm supposed to turn there, or pulling out on to the road and waiting to see if google's going to tell me to make a U turn...

But in Memphis, EVERYONE was driving around like that.

I brought it up with some of guys who lived there and got a ton of laughs, yep, nailed it. They couldn't understand why either.

Many of those "safest" cities are because the traffic is so bad there's never enough room to drive over 30-40 MPH.

Yes, Florida drivers are the worst drivers. Too many fuckin old farts who can't driver over 35 mph. Too many fuckin immigrants who can't understand the signs and think every street is Mexico City. Too many fuckin assholes from up north who bring their anger and insecurity down here. Too many fuckin Florida incompetents who can't put down the phones and big gulps and pay attention to the road. Orlando and Miami are particularly bad.

In Phoenix, it’s the mix of timid old drivers in their Buick’s and twenty something assholes in their leased BMWs. If everyone driving belonged to just one of those categories, we’d be fine. A mix of cars, some doing 30 and some doing 70 on the same road is the problem.

I’m not that well-traveled but of the places I’ve been I gotta say Miami has the worst drivers – due to the large-immigration, Miami is in many aspects runs like a banana-republic and that includes the drivers – Cubans raised in Cuba are raised to get around oppressive-laws in order to survive so they are not used-to following laws (for them laws are something to get around of) – for many Cubans downhere in Miami driving-laws are more like suggestions than laws and they do all kinda stupid shit when they drive and they either don’t admit they are in the wrong or are clueless about being in the wrong – in Cuba people drive any ole way, and most people don’t have a car so a combo of what they see in Cuba as “driving” plus coming to Miami w/ no driving-experience, then you get IMO the shittiest drivers in the country; it’s mostly the banana-republic way of living/thinking that transfers over to their driving and lack of respect and consideration for others (this also transfers over to the shitty customer-service one gets in the stores and restaurants downhere; it all comes from the same-place).

Places like Atlanta and NYC have aggressive drivers that drive fast but they know how to drive and know how to get/be out-of-the-way – the worst thing about the Cuban drivers in Miami is not that they drive fast, that’s mostly not an issue since most are not that good/experienced at driving; plus the congestion keeps the speeds down; the problem downhere is they drive however they feel like it and are mostly in the way and doing shit they are not supposed to do like stopping to make a left turn where there isn’t a left-turn lane or a left turn allowed but for a lot of Cubans it’s “hey I need to turn here so I’m gonna turn here and if I back up a dozen cars that’s their problem”.