WASHINGTON — Allstate’s “America’s Best Drivers” report doesn’t make drivers in D.C., or the greater Washington area, look very good.
Based on data such as damage claims and so-called hard-braking events, D.C. ranks 198 out of 200 cities where data were studied.
Nationally, the average number of years between auto insurance claims is 10 years. In D.C., Allstate says, owners make auto insurance claims an average of every 3.9 years. For the entire metro area, it is 6.7 years.
A hard-braking event is defined as a driver slowing down 8 mph or more in a one-second period. Allstate says it can indicate unsafe driving behaviors, such as following too closely or aggressive or distracted driving.
D.C. drivers experience 26 hard-braking events for every 1,000 miles driven. In the area, drivers slam on their brakes an average of 22.9 times per 1,000 miles driven.
Sioux Falls, South Dakota, shows the fewest hard-braking events — an average of 12.9 per 1,000 miles.
Hard-braking data were culled from data collected from Allstate’s Drivewise app, which monitors factors such as speed, breaking and time of day of drivers who voluntary agree to sign up for it.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says that preventable human factors, including drunk, distracted and drowsy driving, speeding and failure to use safety features, contribute to 94 percent of auto collisions (which is why the industry does not use the word “accident” when referring to auto crashes).
Washington is near the very bottom of the list for safe drivers, but it’s not last. The bottom two spots belong to Boston and Baltimore.
The top cities on Allstate’s Best Drivers report this year are Brownsville, Texas; Kansas City, Kansas, and Boise, Idaho.
Here is the full list of 200 cities on Allstate’s Best Drivers report.
