Atlanta Drivers Among Nation's Worst: Report

ATLANTA, GA — A new report from the insurance company Allstate has ranked America’s best and worst drivers in the 200 largest cities and — perhaps not surprisingly to local commuters — Atlanta is ranked among the worst.

Atlanta ranked 186th-safest out of the 200 cities included in the report. That made Atlanta, by far, the least safe driving city in Georgia and the 15th least safe of all American cities studied. The city (the areas studied also included Sandy Springs and Roswell) slipped from No. 182 in the 2017 rankings.

In all, five cities in Georgia were included on the list. The Best Drivers Report 2018 said the best drivers in Georgia are in Augusta, where drivers said they were involved in an insurance claim every 8.8 years (which is still slightly more than the national average of once a decade).

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In Atlanta, drivers go an average of just 6.2 years between claims.

Augusta ranked No. 69, Macon came in next at No. 70, Columbus was No. 78 and Savannah appeared near the bottom of the list at No. 168.

Here’s a complete breakdown for Atlanta:

• Overall national rank: 186
• Average years between claims: 6.2
• "Hard-braking events" per 1,000 miles: 24.3
• 2017 overall national rank: 182

Allstate gave Baltimore the dubious distinction of having the worst drivers in the country. The average Baltimore driver reports filing a claim once every 3.8 years and is 163 percent more likely to do so than the national average. Those drivers also experience about 29 hard-braking events per 1,000 miles.

But of particularly note is that Massachusetts is home to three of the 10 cities with the worst drivers, according to Allstate.

Here are the 10 cities with the worst drivers:

1. Baltimore, Maryland
2. Boston, Massachusetts
3. Washington, D.C.
4. Worcester, Massachusetts
5. Glendale, California
6. Springfield, Massachusetts
7. Los Angeles, California
8. Providence, Rhode Island
9. Alexandria, Virginia
10. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

On the flip side, Texas appears to have the best drivers. The Lone Star state boasts four of the 10 cities with the best drivers, including No. 1 ranked Brownsville, where drivers go on average 13.6 years between claims. Brownsville drivers are about 26 percent less likely to be involved in a claim, the report found, though data on hard-braking wasn’t available.

Here are the 10 cities with the best drivers in America:

1. Brownsville, Texas
2. Kansas City, Kansas
3. Boise, Idaho
4. Huntsville, Alabama
5. Madison, Wisconsin
6. Laredo, Texas
7. Midland, Texas
8. Cape Coral, Florida
9. Fort Collins, Colorado
10. McAllen, Texas

The report calculated property damage frequency of Allstate insured drivers from 2015-16. The researchers used U.S. Census Bureau data to obtain population density figures. Drivewise data, which looks at hard-braking events, is based on the number of Allstate customers who voluntarily enrolled in the program.

Numerous cities listed on the rankings do not have those numbers available either because limited measurable data was available or the program simply wasn’t available (California, North Carolina, SouthCarolina and Texas).

Allstate said it publishes the report only as a way to create a discussion about safe driving and raise awareness about the importance of being “safe and attentive behind the wheel.” It is not used to determine auto insurance rates.

Patch national staffer Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

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