For the fifth year in a row, Smart Asset has produced a report showing the states with the worst drivers. (Did the East Coast just pop into your head? Yes, for us too. But you may be surprised…)
To find these states, Smart Asset considered four metrics: the percentage of drivers who are insured, the number of DUI arrests per 1,000 drivers, the number of fatalities per 100 million miles driven and, lastly, how often residents search Google for terms like “traffic ticket” or “speeding ticket.” Fascinating, huh?
So, which state has the best drivers according to the metrics above? Massachusetts.
Top 10 states with the BEST drivers:
- Massachusetts
- Pennsylvania
- New Hampshire
- Utah
- New Jersey
- Vermont (Tie)
- Connecticut (Tie)
- New York
- Maine
- West Virginia
Now, which state has the worst drivers? Mississippi ranks worst, for the fourth year in a row. Be careful driving through Mississippi, folks!
Top 10 states with the WORST drivers:
- Mississippi
- North Dakota
- California
- Florida
- Nevada
- Oklahoma (Tie)
- Tennessee (Tie)
- Arizona
- Kentucky
- Missouri
Tell us in the comments below which state you think has the best and worst drivers. We’re curious to hear what you say.
To see the full list and see where your state stands, click here.
##RVT1067b
As a Pennsylvanian, I’m shocked we’re not on the worst list!
My rating of states with the worst drivers would have tail-gating and courtesy at the top of the list. My experience suggests that many of the states the author lists as having the best drivers actually have the worst.
Living in Florida, where a large percentage of the northeasteners retire explains why Florida has a bad record. The first four of the “good drivers” states is reasonable but after that many of “good drivers” are why Florida has a bad record. Just come to Florida during snow bird season.
All I can say is we’ve been work camping in Maine for the past 5 months and the drivers here are much less considerate whether our on a bike or car than our home state of Tennessee. I would much rather be dring or biking on Tennessee roads.
Massachusetts has the best drivers? I live in Massachusetts and if this is true, I have pity for the people in the other 49 states.
They must have a very low bar to pick Mass as #1…..spent a lot of time in Mississippi and Massachusetts and they are identical WRT driving skills
I think they have the worst and the best backwards.
After driving a tractor trailer for 35 years throughout the United States I can definitely tell you they have the best and the worst backwards.
Something wrong with a list that claims that Mass., Conn. and NY drivers are in the ten best. Hopefully Smart Asset won’t be doing restaurant ratings soon.
When I lived in TX it was the first time (and last) I experienced drivers getting over, onto the shoulder, to let you pass. I thought then that “these are some pretty courteous drivers”. I now am in NC and I’m amazed by how many drivers (almost 100%) do not get over on a 4 lane hwy to allow vehicles to enter the hwy. So for now I say TX is best and NC is worst. Just my humble opinion…..
Lists like this serve no purpose except to trigger debates. It all depends on your experiences. New Jersey’s drivers are some of the rudest ever, and we spent a lot of time there! As for larger states like California, Texas, or Florida, it’s unfair to judge the state as a whole. We encountered rude drivers in San Diego yet courteous drivers in Los Angeles. Houston was awful yet not representative of the whole state of Texas. Detroit has very rude drivers, but I would never say Michigan is bad as a whole. Florida’s big metro areas are terrible yet smaller Florida communities have patient, courteous drivers. Nashville and Birmingham are rough yet Tennessee and Alabama as a whole don’t deserve a “worst” rating. Bottom line: when traveling, especially in a big rig, time your traveling to avoid rush hours, take advantage of bypass routes, and stay calm.
Agree with your observations, and I also agree with the survey on Massachusetts drivers, only state where tailgating was not common in rural areas. I also noticed southeast Michigan has really aggressive drivers, I’m thinking a lot of them are ‘car guys’, race drivers at heart.? I’m also cautious around military bases where aggressive drivers are common.
I agree! I’ve driven in most states, many for weeks at a time as I stayed in larger areas for business projects. Bad driving can vary greatly within the state.
Worst and most dangerous I consistently saw were the drivers between Baltimore and DC on I95! But I don’t know about the state as a whole.
I spent a LOT of time in the Silicon Valley/SF area and was pleasantly surprised….WAY more courteous than Minneapolis drivers on I494! And in absolutely packed wall-to-wall rush hour traffic, the drivers in Atlanta on I75 let me move over several lanes on many occasions no issue.
North Dakota??? Were there other cars/drivers besides me??? 😉 Love driving in ND!
As usual, these “studies” are “cute” but provide little real information of any value. I would think number of collision insurance claims per capita of licensed drivers might be a better indicator. Or better yet, get out from behind the desk, travel, and experience it for real!
The difference between the rest of the United States and Tennessee drivers, it most will run you off the road: Tennessee drivers will follow you and make sure they do a good job of it! My vote for the worst and have driven in all of them! Florida would be second when the snow birds arrive! Just my observation!
I think Florida can claim the prize even without the snowbirds.
As a Mississippi native I’m just so glad we finally got number one in something …even if it is for being the worst drivers!
Congratulations!
Yep, Florida drivers are horrible!
You are right, but maybe it is because Florida is made up of drivers from all the other states?
How did New York & New Jersey get on the best driver list? They will push you off the road to get around. That is why I always take my truck. They don’t like my hitch when I apply the brakes. They stay back until I’m done passing and show my badge.
Turn in your badge and keys, and call a cab.
Whoever wrote this list either lives in Hawaii and has never seen anyone from the top 10 Best list drive or the entire list was reversed and Best is Worst and Worst is Best.
I think the smart asset has too 2many letters. As a former 72yrs resident of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts aka Taxachusettes. We all know that some of the worst drivers are in Mass. just ask the insurance companies that have to pay all the claims. Or check with the Registry of Motor Vehicles on how many suspensions are in force. As for New York if you remove Metro NYC it could be true
In Michigan they exit from the left, pass on the right and use the shoulders of the road as passing lanes.
Sounds like they are visiting from Florida.
You really want to compare Mass with Cali, you for real? 39 million plus vs 7.03 million people. Yes, not all drivers, however, if you change the metrics used, will it provide the same results? North Dakota? Guess they do a lot of drinking and googling there, lol.
Don’t know how Pa drivers made #2. No one follows the speed limit and our state troopers and local police don’t enforce traffic laws. Seems like most Pa drivers speed, don’t stop at stop signs. PennDot makes areas around construction zones unsafe.
There as to be some other metrics that they are missing. I’m from Vermont and we called Massachusetts drivers Massholes because they where such bad drivers. No way are they the safest.
Sorry, Bob,
You don’t get the whole picture.
There are relatively few Mass drivers in VT.
If you want the full experience visit 128 from top to bottom any day!
signed:
UVM Grad Dad
wish I coulda stayed, but not in the cards.
P.S. Stay in VT. Enjoy paradise!
Who from Mass. did the survey. Complete garbage if you have driven in every state.
Genuinely surprised that Washington State isn’t in the Top Ten Worst list.
We have way, Way, WAY to many drivers around here from CA, TX, NV and AZ (based on current plates and dealership labels/plate frames) that don’t realize or care that you don’t drive alone in the HOV lanes, stay in the left lane (the worst ones do the speed limit in it!!!) and you pull over/change lanes away from Emergency or disabled vehicles.
ND has very aggressive DUI and speeding enforcement. They even have stealth teams visit bars to check on under-age drinking. Not sure but I think ND may rank as one of the highest educated states with numerous colleges and universities and outreach education facilities – all translates to younger more aggressive drivers. At the other end – ND has an aging population with long distances to travel for care. Then there is the aspect of major warehousing, manufacturing and all the support businesses requiring the immigration of employees from all over the country – bringing their bad driving habits with them!
About 90% of North Dakotan’s have finally learned how to properly enter and exit an interstate highway!
I was going to say the same thing in a more general way. The number of DUI arrests has as much or more to do with the level of law enforcement activities and officers to pursue it than the actual number of drunk drivers on the road. This whole report is flawed in many ways.
I live in California and in at least the last 10 years have seen a serious degradation in the skill level and concern for anyone else on the road. The Sacramento Bee recently published a long article on how difficult it is for people to pass the multiple choice written driver’s license test, going so far as to quote one woman whose complaint was that the questions on the tests (intended to determine how well people know and understand the rules of the road) aren’t written to match the way people drive and that’s why people can’t answer them. Say what????
Have these people actually ever driven in Utah? Utah has the worst, most inconsiderate drivers in the west, worse than California. No way they are in the top 10 best.
I am not alone in this, everyone I know feels the same.
You are absolutely correct. I’ve driven in a multitude of states. They are rude extraordinaire!
I was just going to write the same words that L Beal wrote. Utah drivers are among the worst I have experienced. I live in Utah; for 67 years in fact. I have driven in many States and some in Canada as well. Nothing overshadows the rudeness, the intolerable mindset that I experience each day here in my own State. If Utah is not the worst, they are certainly nearly there, and working hard to hold that title. I think law enforcement has just given up. Enforcement is impossible. Sorry Utah, but it is true in my experience.
The metrics of this silly measure are obviously deeply flawed.
I think they are all equally bad/good.
You know, Gary…after reading all the input so far…you seem most probably to be right!
Maybe I will have to revise my opinion.
I can’t disagree more with this list, both results are flawed in my opinion
The first criteria is percent of drivers that are insured, Mass is MANDATORY coverage, so guess what, they get 100%!
Not correct criteria!
Fla. is mandatory too, but what does that mean? Still a lot without insurance and there are a LOT of bad insured drivers down here.
TN is mandatory but many still drive without it or they are only insured enough to be legal. We were hit by a woman who had $15,000 in Liabilty. She totalled our Travel Trailer and did over $20,000 to our truck. So we had to use our insurance. We had to pay out two deductibles. Our insurance then sued her. She is still paying 3 1/2 years later.
We are full-time RVers and have made statements about two things in many cities and states. Signage and drivers. The drivers across the US are equally bad and good. Seeing highway signs when needed can be a challenge because of other competing signs, insufficient time to make a lane change, and plant life growth hides important signs sometimes.
This article was interesting, but I was more interested in data ranking states by their auto insurance rates so I Googled that subject and found that information readily available. FYI the insurance rate rankings are very different than the “worst and best” drivers rankings. Perhaps an article on insurance rates ranked by states would be of interest to your readers.
Whoever says Massachusetts, NH, NJ, NY, and CT have the best drivers clearly hasn’t lived and driven there. I have. They are the worst drivers.
I’m not convinced that MA is numero uno. I’ve driven through Boston, home of the kamikaze BMWs.
Electric (colored) Blue Beemers and Suburu’s with the “spoilers” are the most dangerous. They are never in the accident, but they cause it!
Concur! Especially the bikers from there when they come to FL bike events.
There’s Lies
Damned Lies and
Then there’s Statistics!
I live in Mass, drive professionally in Mass.
The data is skewed, but it got clicks. That’s what they were looking for. (OK I’m a grammar freak, and that was wrong, too.)
In Boston, if you use yer Blknkah, befoah ya tern, they’ll letcha.
Just make a lane change, without any regahd for the otha guy, ye get the finger or da horn. Just sayin’.
How in the world New Jersey is one of the best, beats me. Arizona could be easily ranked higher in the “worst” especially Yuma. Then in snowbird season, Washington plated drivers boost that even higher.
I lived in 3 states and the drivers of Georgia are the worst. Twice I drove across the state and 3 times people drove in to highway and merge across 3 lanes and almost hit them in the rear. Speed limit was 70 and they go 50 in the fast lane.
Nevada is at a significant disadvantage because of all the visiting California drivers who are THE WORST. Apparently, California traffic laws don’t prohibit excessive speed, ignoring red lights and other traffic control signs, tailgating and ignoring other common traffic laws.
I live in Miami-Dade County and like most of you have driven in many states recently. I think there is too small a difference from worst to best that the rankings are flawed. Where I live versus North Florida there seems to be a big difference in my opinion.
Miami-Dade and Broward Counties along with the Tampa area are by far the worst. then I drive in the Washington, DC area which by far is worse. All mentioned are high density areas. I find West Virginia and middle Pennsylvania drivers to be more calm as there is less traffic.
Insurance regulations seem to have a major impact on how drivers drive. The Florida No-Fault at best is nothing more than a sham. In the last several years, my vehicles have been hit by un-insured drivers, all they had was medical coverage as required by law with one having no insurance. My insurance paid for all with deductibles I had to pay. Two of the accidents the drivers left the scene.
IMHO, we are all facing pretty much the same scenario.
Every state with a metropolitian area has horrible drivers. You will find yourself driving as they do to compete for road space. My wife pointed that out in my driving as I drove the DC and Baltimore area daily. You get aggressive trying to protect your space. After retiring we moved to southwest VA. Ah, quiet.
I live in Utah. They should compete for the worst. If ignoring stop signs, driving on the shoulder, blocking the left lanes count, these guys are one of the worst.
Just very little enforcement.
We travel up and down 95 in our 40 ft RV and PMV a lot. I’m tired of the leap froggers, these are kids (to us) who switch lanes left to right and back as fast as they can go weaving in and out of cars with little space to spare. You are constantly on the look out. We’ve seen them use the shoulder for their ”game”. We’ve traveled to the pacific northwest several times, haven’t noted this typical driving on those trips. Cops in Georgia (not our home state) plentiful and doing a great job pulling over truckers and cars, but they can’t cover it all every minute. Have started to use 301 and alternate routes, takes more time but we feel better.
Earlier I wrote that Utah has the worst drivers. Forbes Mag. has done a survey with the following results:
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah may not be a great place to be when it comes to confrontations on the roadway.
A study published this week by Forbes Advisor singled out the Beehive State as having the most confrontational drivers for a few different reasons. Outlined in the report:…………..
This came from KSL news site. I feel vindicated. And the “Smart Asset” assessment here has been refuted adequately to suit me! Utah has quite literally vicious tendencies in their driving habits.
The link to the story on KSL is: https://www.ksl.com/article/50476813/does-utah-have-the-most-confrontational-drivers-in-the-nation
Every state does not have horrible drivers: North Dakota is heaven on wheels per this Forbes study!! Bravo, North Dakota.