My morning commute was the feather in the cap for Allstate Insurance and their annual survey of worst drivers in the United States. I attempted to get on the Northeast Extension this morning at 6:30. KYW informed me there was an accident 5 miles south of me and both lanes were blocked. I made a U-turn at the toll booth and took back roads to Plymouth Meeting to get on the Blue Route. I then got on the Schuylkill, only to find that a car had crashed and gone up an embankment at Montgomery Avenue. When I finally got into the city (and needing to piss like a racehorse) pedestrians kept crossing against the light in front of my car. It was like God was purposely pushing my buttons. When I finally made it to my building, both mens rooms were closed for cleaning. I knew it was going to be one of those days.
As I sat in traffic for 1 hour and 25 minutes trying to get to work, the local radio show discussed Allstate’s report saying that Philadelphia drivers are the worst in the country. I have no evidence to contest that conclusion. Philadelphia drivers are assholes and dickheads. We evidently get into an accident every 6 years on average. I guess I’m really overdue. I’ve been driving for 35 years in Philly with no accidents yet. Many close calls. Much obscenity hurled at assholes endangering my life. And years knocked off my life expectancy due to stress. But no accidents.
I believe they hand out a special driver’s handbook to Philly drivers when they turn 16. I find assholes driving the most expensive cars tend to be the worst, most aggressive drivers. The Phillies are in last place. The 76ers are the worst team in basketball. The Flyers haven’t won a Stanley Cup in 40 years. The Eagles haven’t won a championship in 55 years. So we’ll take a first place finish any way we can get it.
Philadelphia Residents Among Worst Drivers in Nation: Allstate Report
Philadelphia drivers have been ranked as the worst among big cities with at least 1 million residents, according to an annual report from the Allstate Insurance Company.
The eighth annual “Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report” is based on Allstate’s claims data. The report ranked America’s 200 largest cities in terms of car collision frequency to identify which cities have the safest drivers and least accidents.
Among the 200 cities in the report, the City of Brotherly Love was ranked 190th overall. The city’s drivers are 64.1 percent more likely to get into a collision compared to the national average. A driver in Philadelphia, on average, will experience an auto collision every 6.1 years.
Other major cities in the Northeast also fared poorly in the Allstate report. New York City was ranked 176th. The drivers in the Big Apple are 41.1 percent more likely to get into a collision compared to the U.S. average. A typical New York City driver could expect an auto collision every 7.1 years on average.
Northeastern cities that ranked even lower than Philadelphia in the Allstate report include Providence, R.I., (193th) Baltimore, Md., (194th) and Washington, D.C. (195th)
The full list of cities and their rankings can be found on Allstate’s website. Allstate analyzed internal property damage reported claims over a two-year period, from January 2009 to December 2010. Massachusetts cities are not included because Allstate did not write business in the state in those years.
The good drivers live here:
| City & Overall Ranking | Collision Likelihood Compared to National Average |
Average Years Between Collisions |
| 1. Sioux Falls, S.D. | 27.6% less likely | 13.8 |
| 2. Boise, Idaho | 27.3% less likely | 13.8 |
| 3. Fort Collins, Colo. | 26.7% less likely | 13.6 |
| 4. Madison, Wisc. | 23.0% less likely | 13.0 |
| 5. Lincoln, Neb. | 19.3% less likely | 12.4 |
| 6. Huntsville, Ala. | 19.1% less likely | 12.4 |
| 7. Chandler, Ariz. | 18.9% less likely | 12.3 |
| 8. Reno, Nev. | 18.4% less likely | 12.3 |
| 9. Knoxville, Tenn. | 18.1% less likely | 12.2 |
| 10. Springfield, Mo. | 17.4% less likely | 12.1 |
Admin,
They failed to measure the depth of the depravity of the Massachusetts driver, from the article:
“Massachusetts cities are not included because Allstate did not write business in the state in those years.”
While the Boston sports teams have fared a bit better than Philly, I dare say we have some of the worst drivers in the country.
Bob.
It’s hard to believe New York City is ranked 176th. You can’t hardly see 4 or 5 cars before you see one with dents and dings.
The WORST drivers are Indians (dot heads, not llpoh’s tribe). EVERY Indian drives as if he or she is the ONLY fucking driver on the road. Those of you who live near these people know that I speak the truf
From an article about the report:
“Other New England cities ranked low on the list, including Worchester, Massachusetts as the worst with an average of a crash every 4.3 years for the average driver, 134.8 percent more than the national average, and Boston as the second worst (4.4 years between accidents, 129.9 percent greater than the national average). Springfield, Massachusetts ranked fourth worst (5.4 years between accidents for the average driver, 85.6 percent more than the national average) and Providence ranked fifth worst (6.7 years between accidents for the average driver, 85.1 percent greater than the national average).
The report was established “to facilitate an ongoing dialogue on safe driving that saves lives,” according to Allstate.”
God I love this state.
Bob.
What a shithole to live and or work in. Brotherly love?
Philly Brotherly Love
I think Italians must be the worst. I saw things in Italy you wouldn’t believe. And Asians. They’re just uniformly awful drivers, at least here they are. Next time you see an Asian NASCAR driver, let me know. Oh, and my wife-she’s up there. Scares the hell out of me.
Huntsville Alabama?
@Bostonbob:
I live outside Worcester but 90% of my real estate business is in the city. Not a day goes by when I am in Worcester I don’t say, out loud, “what is that f*&$%#g idiot doing”. Not a day
Realestatepup,
I live on the south shore next to Foxborough and travel up route 128 to Burlington each day, and have done so for many years. Between the never ending construction and the insane drivers it is an endless source of entertainment. I can’t wait until this Thursday when the Patriots play and my normal 1 to 1.5 hour commute turns into a 2.5 to 3 hour nightmare. If the drivers don’t get you the traffic will.
Bob.
i have a soft spot for philly. yet i can confirm. it is a shit-hole and quite dangerous for a pedestrian. best to keep your head on a swivel whether in the car or anywhere else for that matter. i can think of a few occasions i was nearly killed or severely injured by simply walking down the streets. two were cases of drivers rolling into turns at red lights while talking on their cell phones. if it weren’t for my cat-like reflexes, i would have been run over. another time the mirror on the septa bus (public transport) came within a couple inches of decapitating me while i was waiting to cross the street–yeah he ran the red light. on market st. i saw someone get hit by a car, roll up the hood and then deposited with a thud on the street, like in the movies. he got up though.
but you want to know the real menace racing the streets of philly? the damn bike couriers. they are a filthy barbaric lot. i saw one such dickhead scumbag spit at an old lady because she told him to slow down on the sidewalk. he then began to punch her, calling her a “c*nt”. they obey no traffic rules. one time, as i was turning the corner on the sidewalk to make my way up walnut street bridge, one of them zoomed by me. had he hit me i no doubt would have been killed. i shouted “whoa” as i leapt backwards. then i heard, “fuck you asshole”. charming.
philly is also a great place for the kids. on my walks i encountered a bum passed out flat on his back in bright daylight pitching his own little tent in his urine soaked sweat pants. i stepped over human feces on many a pleasant stroll. and you’ve never experienced big shitty-life in philly until you’ve been accosted by a slobbering tranny high on pills, with snot running out his/her/its nose, fake hair matted to face, muttering some jive ass jibberish. goddamn i miss that hell-hole.
archie
Stop sugar coating it. You just described a pleasant day in Philly. And for all this pleasure they take almost 4% of my paycheck for just driving into this shithole and leaving every night.
admin, only 4%? wait til they take 5% then 6 and 7%. it’s all for the kids.
Sorry. Worst drivers? Not even close…
Drinking and driving is LEGAL in Panama. DRUNK and driving, is not. Of course, a quick US Grant or similar dead president into the hands of the Policia will get you back on the road…
Panamanian law says that every car on the road must have one working light…. yes, that includes the DOME LIGHT. If your dome light works, you’re good to go.
I once passed the scene of an accident on the Trans-Ithmian Highway. A telephone pole mounted on the edge of a cliff was shattered…. the break was 12 feet off the ground, marking the point of impact. A crowd was looking over the edge of the cliff… I could only gaze in wonder at how THAT happened, and curse my luck for not having a camera.
If you’re driving a vehicle that is NOT a piece of shit, the guys who drive the Chiva buses – who are often driving with one hand on the wheel because if they used two hands, they couldn’t hold their beer – will AIM FOR YOU. The idea is to either smear you like a bug on a windshield, or force you to ditch into the jungle (or off the cliff, or…). Speed limits are a polite suggestion and yes, you are justified in throwing a glass Coke bottle through the windshield of a dump truck if they try to kill you or run you off the road… I know. I checked.
Second Place would have to be anywhere in the middle east…
They seem to have one rule: When the light changes, EVERYONE goes and you are bound by law to lay on the horn.
Still… being ranked worst in the US is some sort of milestone…
When I moved to Boston from the west coast, I was told the lights,signs, and lines in the road were suggestions.
Along the lines of the growing anger among Americans, I enjoyed this Op-Ed in the NYT yesterday. It’s funny; he clearly doesn’t know 4T theory, yet knows, inherently, that we need a leader to pull us out of this growing societal despair and breakdown.
Lost in America
By FRANK BRUNI
AUGUST 25, 2014
More and more I’m convinced that America right now isn’t a country dealing with a mere dip in its mood and might. It’s a country surrendering to a new identity and era, in which optimism is quaint and the frontier anything but endless.
There’s a feeling of helplessness that makes the political horizon, including the coming midterm elections, especially unpredictable. Conventional wisdom has seldom been so useless, because pessimism in this country isn’t usually this durable or profound.
Americans are apprehensive about where they are and even more so about where they’re going. But they don’t see anything or anyone to lead them into the light. They’re sour on the president, on the Democratic Party and on Republicans most of all. They’re hungry for hope but don’t spot it on the menu. Where that tension leaves us is anybody’s guess.
Much of this was chillingly captured by a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll from early August that got lost somewhat amid the recent deluge of awful news but deserved closer attention.
It included the jolting finding that 76 percent of Americans ages 18 and older weren’t confident that their children’s generation would fare better than their own. That’s a blunt repudiation of the very idea of America, of what the “land of opportunity” is supposed to be about. For most voters, the national narrative is no longer plausible.
The poll also showed that 71 percent thought that the country was on the wrong track. While that represents a spike, it also affirms a negative mind-set that’s been fixed for a scarily long time. As the Democratic strategist Doug Sosnik has repeatedly noted, more Americans have been saying “wrong track” than “right track” for at least a decade now, and something’s got to give.
But to what or whom can Americans turn?
In the most recent of Sosnik’s periodic assessments of the electorate, published in Politico last month, he wrote: “It is difficult to overstate the depth of the anger and alienation that a majority of all Americans feel toward the federal government.” He cited a Gallup poll in late June that showed that Americans’ faith in each of the three branches had dropped to what he called “near record lows,” with only 30 percent expressing confidence in the Supreme Court, 29 percent in the presidency and 7 percent in Congress.
The intensity of Americans’ disgust with Congress came through in another recent poll, by ABC News and The Washington Post. Typically, Americans lambaste the institution as a whole but make an exception for the politician representing their district. But in this poll, for the first time in the 25 years that ABC and The Post had been asking the question, a majority of respondents — 51 percent — said that they disapproved even of the job that their own House member was doing.
So we can expect to see a huge turnover in Congress after the midterms, right?
That’s a rhetorical question, and a joke. Congress wasn’t in any great favor in 2012, and 90 percent of the House members and 91 percent of the senators who sought re-election won it. The tyranny of money, patronage, name recognition and gerrymandering in American politics guaranteed as much. Small wonder that 79 percent of Americans indicated dissatisfaction with the system in the Journal/NBC poll.
Conventional wisdom says that President Obama’s anemic approval ratings will haunt Democrats. But it doesn’t take into account how effectively some Republicans continue to sully their party’s image. It doesn’t factor in how broadly Americans’ disapproval spreads out.
Conventional wisdom says that better unemployment and job-creation numbers could save Democrats. But many Americans aren’t feeling those improvements. When asked in the Journal/NBC poll if the country was in a recession — which it’s not — 49 percent of respondents said yes, while 46 percent said no.
The new jobs don’t feel as sturdy as the old ones. It takes more hours to make the same money or support the same lifestyle. Students amass debt. Upward mobility increasingly seems a mirage, a myth.
“People are mad at Democrats,” John Hickenlooper, the Democratic governor of Colorado, told me. “But they’re certainly not happy with Republicans. They’re mad at everything.” That’s coming from the leader of a state whose unemployment rate is down to 5.3 percent.
And it suggests that this isn’t just about the economy. It’s about fear. It’s about impotence. We can’t calm the world in the way we’d like to, can’t find common ground and peace at home, can’t pass needed laws, can’t build necessary infrastructure, can’t, can’t, can’t.
In the Journal/NBC poll, 60 percent of Americans said that we were a nation in decline. How sad. Sadder still was this: Nowhere in the survey was there any indication that they saw a method or a messenger poised to arrest it.
Admin – in all seriousness, driving an hour twenty five to work is bad for you. Really bad for you.
It is probably unnecessary, likely unwelcome, to ask if you have an exit plan? Another fifteen years of that shit will do you no good whatsoever. You and Avalon deserve peace, calm, tranquility and happiness. That drive makes all of those things much more difficult to come by.
I know from experience. And as we have recently seen to our sadness, life can be unpredictable and unfair. Good luck.
Admin: I call bullshit on this one! The drivers in SO FL don’t speak English, don’t have insurance, have absolutely no driving skills, &TC. A driver’s license in SO FL is simply an ID card. It doesn’t mean a fucking thing! I’ll be getting out within a year.