Say, have you ever had a driver behind you lay on his horn because you stopped for pedestrians who had the right of way as required by law? I have. Many times, in fact, because I live in Washington D.C.: Home of America's absolute worst drivers.
That's the result of Allstate Insurance's ninth annual "Allstate America's Best Drivers Report," which ranked Fort Collins, Colorado as the nation's safest driving city of the 200 ranked for the third time. D.C. ranked at the very bottom of the list.
The report was based on Allstate claims data, which said D.C. drivers go just 4.8 years between crashes on average, which is a whopping 109 percent higher than the national average.
If you live in D.C., or work here and live in the area, this will not come as a surprise to you. Even the Washington Post's headline about this report was "All your suspicions confirmed: Washington has nation’s worst drivers." Subtle. More than a few people agreed on Twitter.
Sadly, the Post doesn't explore the reasons for Washingtonians' general driving awfulness. I was once told it's because so many people here are transplants from other places, here only because they work in government and politics, and thus we end up with an assortment of the worst drivers from everywhere in the country.
I also think a lot of it has to do with the inflated sense of self-importance that is so common in many D.C. residents. There are good, humble, safe drivers here, to be sure. But there are many more who are so Very Important (just ask them!) that they behave like they're the only person on the road, that their need to be on time trumps the needs of everyone else around them.
Like the person who honked at me for not murdering pedestrians with my car, for example. I guess proper D.C. etiquette would have been to just run them over.
Photo credit Joe Shlabotnik
Hat tip to Ed!
You Can Probably Guess Which City Has The Worst Drivers In America