Michigan Has the Best Drivers in the Nation?
Mates,
Too funny to pass up and better than a 'Talking Cars Tuesday' on a Friday, lets break all the rules. A company took the time to try and objectively measure each state's drivers (n.b. insured drivers only) to decide the rankings of the states as to who is best for driving. They measured things like tickets, arrests, fatalities and such. For whatever reason they did the rankings in reverse order, so for instance Maine was '#1", but that means they had the most per capita problems, thus the 'worst' state. Michigan graded out best at #50, and the rationale for Michigan was as follows:
Drivers earn the gold medal thanks to less citations, speeding, and fatalities than last year. There’s one catch – our study only accounts for insured drivers, and this state has plenty of rule breakers. Although Michigan’s insured drivers are the best in the country, one in five don't have car insurance. Oops!
Our dear friends in ohio ranked #8, meaning they were the 8th worst state to drive in. No surprises there. Other B10 states that weren't great were Nebraska at #3 and Minnesota at #6 (Putin and SRJK need to get on the ball). And for our California Mgobloggers, well, Cal comes in at #4. Not good and yet another reason to leave that state. (ST3, Mgofunkadelic, et al)
Anyway, here's the link to the article: https://quotewizard.com/news/posts/best-and-worst-drivers-by-state-2019
Snowing up here but guessing we've had less than a foot. Drive safely as the 5:00 whistle starts your ride home.
XM
January 25th, 2019 at 1:38 PM ^
I find these results very hard to believe.
January 25th, 2019 at 1:42 PM ^
minnesota came in at 6th worst. you and putin need to get cracking on those folks.
January 25th, 2019 at 2:58 PM ^
In Minnesota, we legit have TV ads *begging* people to use the zipper merge, and folks here still can't figure it out.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:22 PM ^
I'm tired of getting flipped-off and honked at for zipper merging, so I just swallow my pride and get in line. Too many people don't understand it as more efficient and just see you as the biggest douche on the road trying to cut the line.
I jokingly wish there were a way to give different driving rights to different individuals based on IQ. Obviously it's not possible, but there are far too many drivers out there who only see what "they" are doing and only care about their own next action. Meanwhile, good drivers are constantly analyzing things. Take a freeway, for instance: people about to merge, what that means for the cars in the lane they are merging into having to merge, etc. -- actually "seeing" everything on the road and determining the *likely / "correct" actions of the drivers ahead. Michigan sucks at driving, especially Metro Detroit -- so I don't see how this list is at all accurate.
*PS -- there's no reason a driver shouldn't be able to go 95+ on an open stretch of highway w/ perfect conditions.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:35 PM ^
This is my biggest complaint with most drivers. No one knows how to properly zipper merge. Rush hour traffic would be so much better if people were good at this as opposed to the usual clusterfuck of a dozen different merging styles.
January 25th, 2019 at 5:41 PM ^
the law of tonnage is enforced in all 50 states. driving an old diesel truck has its advantages. be calm, turn blinker on, start to merge, people move.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:50 PM ^
Really? I hate driving in metro Detroit because of so much traffic, but overall they know how to drive for the most part. People use the left lane for what it's intended for 99% of the time. The same cannot be said for the Toledo area where I live. It's like as soon as you cross the border people are going whatever speed they want in the left lane.
January 25th, 2019 at 9:10 PM ^
Ohio will be forever known as the state where EVERYONE drives the same speed in EVERY lane at all times. Herd mentality? Been a lot of places driving, but hands down dumbest drivers by city reside in Louisville, KY...not even close.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:58 PM ^
When I first moved just outside of Minneapolis, I would spend an hour just sitting in traffic in my morning and evening commutes--for the first week. After I figured out that everyone was being a damn fool for just sitting in line, I said, to hell with it (think Dennis Leary style). I weathered all the dirty looks, honks, and more pretty well. It was absolutely worth it as my 1 hour commute from St. Louis Park to Richfield was reduced to 15 minutes. Side effects included a distinct rise in the urge to find a baby seal and to park in handicapped spaces.
January 25th, 2019 at 5:57 PM ^
Id say thats likely because most of those folks have no idea what a 'zipper merge' is and are just simply some of the biggest douches on the road.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:39 PM ^
I lived in Minnesota for some time and I have NEVER seen so many cars come to a complete and total stop on an on-ramp while attempting to merge
Loved Minnesota but hated driving there. Give me Chicago every day. Those drivers are assholes but at least they know how to drive
January 25th, 2019 at 9:16 PM ^
Don't get me started on Minnesota drivers, Xtra!
January 25th, 2019 at 10:07 PM ^
can't you use some sort of secret weapon to disable their cars or vaporize them or something like that?
January 25th, 2019 at 2:21 PM ^
I grew up in MI, moved elsewhere, and have done a good amount of travel across the country and I'll still take MI drivers over any others. To me, MI drivers are fast, aggressive, and smart and that's a rare combo. In my experience, drivers in the northeast are generally aggressive and dumb, and in the southeast they are slow and dumb, the west coast its slow and smart, and then you get one off areas like Texas where its just generally aggressive with no rhyme or reason, and the smaller population areas where traffic isn't really a concern.
Everyone's personal experiences elsewhere are probably different, but to me, I'll take an MI driver any day of the week.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:20 PM ^
Same here. I've spent many a happy SE Michigan commute in reasonably well-spaced 80 mph gridlock.
Worst drivers? SoCal. Worst within that group? People driving between there and Vegas on weekends. I'm sure they all fancy themselves bada$$ and elite, but they suck.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:34 PM ^
Michigan's car insurance rates are the highest in the nation. we have to be good drivers because we can't afford the rate increases when the jackoff actuaries count our speeding tickets . .
January 25th, 2019 at 3:40 PM ^
A big reason is that we include health insurance as part of our car insurance. If you get in an accident and get hurt, we use auto insurance to pay the hospital bill, while in other states it only gets paid by your health insurance.
January 25th, 2019 at 6:16 PM ^
and no limits on lifetime accident-related health benefits. huge fraud exposure.
January 25th, 2019 at 5:23 PM ^
It's the no-fault insurance that's to blame for that.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:35 PM ^
I agree. I've lived in Michigan, up and down the east coast, and a few spots in the midwest. Michigan drives tend to be fast and smart - it's refreshing to see people generally move out of the left lane when a faster car comes up behind them. Not every state does that.
East Coast drives are either fast and dumb or slow and dumb. I'll see a guy sitting in the left lane on his phone going the speed limit on I-95 while simultaneously some guy is doing 20 over, weaving in and out of cars in the slower lanes.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:38 PM ^
This. Drivers in Texas were pretty good too. I guess having a not-insignificant chance of there being a gun in the other guy's car is a pretty good deterrent for driving like a jackass.
January 25th, 2019 at 5:29 PM ^
I 100% agree with this take. Absolutely spot on.
As you said, Michigan drivers are the perfect combination of fast, aggressive and smart.
I've lived in Cincinnati, which may as well be the South. Drivers there are way too POLITE. For God's sake, don't stop on the freeway to allow people to merge in! It's the mergers job to flow into traffic!
I went to PSU and have spent a lot of time in the Northeast. The drivers there are aggressive but in a dumb sense. Switching lanes every one-tenth of a mile while going down the Cross-Bronx is actually COUNTER-productive. Drivers need to be judiciously smart with their lane changes.
Now I live in Colorado. The drivers here are hopelessly and needlessly slow. You can't go 25 MPH on US-36 going uphill! Plus, snow confounds Colorado drivers, which makes no intuitive sense at all.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:11 PM ^
I've been living in CO for the last few years and no one here understands the concept of the left lane. I live in a mountain town and we get a lot of tourists from Texas and some from Florida, and they have no idea how to drive in the snow. Michigan beats CO, Texas, and Florida at the very least.
January 25th, 2019 at 1:38 PM ^
Traffic enforcement is incredibly lax in Michigan. I couldn't believe how fast and crazy people drive on Michigan freeways, and how few cops there are pulling people over. Ohio, on the other hand, has tons of cops pulling people over nonstop every time I drive through. They also have tons of 55 mph freeways.
January 25th, 2019 at 1:42 PM ^
This pretty much nails it.
January 25th, 2019 at 1:50 PM ^
Ohio has also long been notorious for speed traps. My mother-in-law is south of Columbus so believe me I know.
The worst I have ever seen, though, was about 15 years ago when my wife and I flew into Atlanta the weekend after Thanksgiving and rented a car to drive to Tallahassee for a wedding. We saw 15+ cars pulled over before we got out of Georgia and another 10+ in Florida.
January 25th, 2019 at 2:04 PM ^
Florida cracks down on holiday weekends because there are too many tourist types that speed. Florida is less likely to have speed traps because the State Police do the enforcement on the Interstates (75 and 90) that you most likely traveled on.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:06 PM ^
I'm not entirely sure I buy that. We took I-75 for a couple of hours and smaller roads for the rest of the trip. Florida is also a relatively small portion of the trip.
Also, does I-90 go anywhere near Georgia or Florida? I thought it ended on the east coast somewhere north of the Mason-Dixon line.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:12 PM ^
I-90 runs from Boston to Seattle, never get farther south than Cleveland.
He probably meant I-95.
January 25th, 2019 at 2:07 PM ^
I live in Ohio unfortunately and can confirm this also. Highway patrol everywhere and in Toledo they have speed guns that cops hold (standing on overpasses and construction zones mostly). If your going more then 10 over all they have to do is take a picture of your licence plate and they mail you a ticket.
January 25th, 2019 at 2:34 PM ^
Has Toledo ever not been a construction zone?
I used to drive through it from Dayton to A2 for football games in the '80s and it was always under construction.
January 25th, 2019 at 2:52 PM ^
They finished I75 through Dayton within the last few years, and it's actually pretty nice.
January 25th, 2019 at 2:58 PM ^
I was just gonna say the same thing that Koolaidguy said but yes Toledo I75 by 475 split has been a joke for a long time now.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:16 PM ^
I-75, I-475, I-280 area from Maumee river to Michigan line has been under construction since at least 1993, when I started using those roads for work. New huge job on 75 over the river is just starting.
January 25th, 2019 at 4:35 PM ^
This is correct. My wife was confused when we drove through Indiana and I was not doing my normal 9-over. I told her the police down there will pull anyone with a Michigan license plate over if they exceed 5-over. My mom has gotten dozens of tickets in Indiana for that.
January 25th, 2019 at 4:48 PM ^
I drove from Ann Arbor to NY last week in a rental car that I picked up at DTW. Within 10 minutes of getting into NY state a Trooper pulled me over for expired registration. They were four months out of date.
Traffic enforcement is crazy lax in Michigan.
January 25th, 2019 at 1:39 PM ^
Iggy, Matthews, Poole, and even Zavier are good at getting to the hoop at times but finishing isn't their strongest suit so I can't say we have the best drivers in the country.
Ohhhh....driiiiivers.
January 25th, 2019 at 1:39 PM ^
Bull freaking crap. We have more "fuck you all, I am in the left lane going 52 and I am staying here because this is where I want to be and I AM IMPORTANT" drivers than anywhere else on Earth. I pass them on the right at 82, with my left hand and middle finger delicately extended, with regularity...
January 25th, 2019 at 1:43 PM ^
Seeing the face in your avatar appear in their rear view mirror is enough to make most people gape and take their foot off the gas in fear I suspect
January 25th, 2019 at 2:07 PM ^
Yeah this is Michigan Drivers' worst problem: the "I think I should be able to do 60 in the fast lane" BS. It's the worst, but it's relatively tolerable compared to other problems.
January 25th, 2019 at 2:25 PM ^
From my experience, around/on way to Chicago is much worse with the left lane drivers. I can put up with this in MI unless there is no way around in the right lane and they impede traffic.
January 25th, 2019 at 9:07 PM ^
100% agree, lived in and around Chicago for years. I felt like someone going 10 under in the left lane would get stuck all the time.
January 25th, 2019 at 2:59 PM ^
Amen FauxMo. Amen.
However, this isn't a Michigan problem. It's a US problem. For whatever reason hanging out in the left lane is acceptable here. If you go to Europe and drive they will run you off the road doing that shit.
January 25th, 2019 at 3:13 PM ^
Going slow in the left lane? Really? That’s pretty mild and I lived in MI for 30+ years. Here in Arizona we lead the nation in vehicular deaths for pedestrians and cyclists. Nobody uses a blinker and you’re constantly being cut off by the ‘fuck you im rich’ crowd around the east valley here
In fact there’s a driving move that’s so common out here I’ve named it ‘The Scottsdale’ which is a two lane change with no blinker that cuts someone off, only to slow the entire lane down to make a turn. Not sure how we made this list
January 25th, 2019 at 3:55 PM ^
You've clearly never driven through Ohio
January 25th, 2019 at 1:40 PM ^
People can't afford to break the law in Michigan cause the friggin insurance rates are too damn high! Bet we are one of the highest in the nation
January 25th, 2019 at 2:25 PM ^
Rates almost double the national average. Highest rates six of the the last 8 years. When I worked in Ohio my insurance for 300/500 was half what it is for 100/300 now that I am back in Michigan.
January 25th, 2019 at 4:07 PM ^
Confirmed. My Ohio auto insurance rates were half what they are now.
January 25th, 2019 at 1:40 PM ^
Interesting. I guess the people that contsantly blow by me, only to sit at red lights next to me were not factored in. Also missing are the drivers who can’t look up because they are staring at their phone. Oh and I wouldn’t want to leave out the people who don’t know how to use a turning signal or get the hell out of the left lane on the eway when they are driving slower than the limit.
January 25th, 2019 at 1:41 PM ^
I suspect the reason there are less citations issued is that (apart from a fifty mile stretch around Lansing, where I personally received several speeding tickets ca. 1998-2004) there just aren't that many state and county cops. And the local jokers are more likely just to demographically profile and pull over kids just to fuck with them or steal their beer. That doesn't show up in the stats.