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Angelenos Have More Crashes Than Almost Anyone
Photo by bcmacsac1 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
It's not just your imagination: Angelenos are more than 50 percent more likely to get into a crash than everyone else nationally.
That means while everyone else is only colliding once every 10 years on average, our drivers are colliding every 6.6 years.
Glendale is way worse. Its drivers are 80.8 percent worse than the nation and its drivers average one collision every 5.5 years.
The data comes from a survey of claims in the 200 largest U.S. cities from January 2008 to December 2009 put out by Allstate. The company says it represents 11 percent of auto policies nationally (although some cities get left out).
Maybe "Crash" was right?
"In L.A., nobody touches you. We're always behind this metal and glass. I think we miss that touch so much, that we crash into each other, just so we can feel something."
But the survey results give us a more rational, less cinematic explanation. Drivers in cities with populations over one million are more likely than the national average to get into a car crash. Washington DC is at the bottom of list: its drivers average one collision every 4.8 years. New Yorkers crash every 7.3 years on average.
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On the big city front, Phoenix does pretty well. Its drivers are only a little worse than the national average with one collision every ten years.
Want to move somewhere without so many yahoos on the road? Try Fort Collins, whose drivers only get into accidents every 14 years. Boise or Lincoln seem pretty calm, too.
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