Allstate Ranks Cities With Safest Drivers

Brownsville, Texas, topped the list of cities with America’s safest drivers. according to the 14th annual Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report.

Based on Allstate claims data, the report aims to shine a spotlight on safe driving leading up to the busy Labor Day travel weekend – a particularly deadly time of year on the road, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS).

Released each year, the America’s Best Drivers Report ranks the 200 largest cities in America based on collision frequency. To celebrate the top-ranking cities and encourage them to serve as examples for communities around the country, this year’s report taps an unexpected group to spread the message of safe driving: youth and teens, many of whom can’t even drive yet.

“Our backseat passengers are the drivers of tomorrow, and they’re looking to the adults in their lives to model safe driving behaviors,” said Ken Rosen, Allstate chief claims officer. “We truly care about making our communities safer, so we made an effort to go beyond just lecturing on the dangers of distracted and unsafe driving. To do this, we brought together inspirational youth, teens and their families in two low-ranking cities to stress the importance of roadway safety. By convening communities from coast to coast, we hope our influential future drivers and leaders can help Allstate make a positive impact on lives across America.”

Keeping America’s roads safe is a cause especially important to young people, for whom car crashes are a leading cause of death. Whether as passengers or drivers, auto collisions are the No. 1 killer of every single age from 16 to 23, as well as age 10.ii In an effort to educate communities on this issue, this year Allstate lent a hand to bottom-ranked Baltimore (ranked 200th) and Los Angeles (ranked 194th). Enlisting the help of young internet star Mila Stauffer, the company premiered a humorous, yet educational “Good Driving Starts Young” video at the events, held Aug. 28. The short video rallied the communities behind the importance of safe driving with 3-year-old Stauffer providing candid commentary on a series of unsafe – though unfortunately common – driving scenarios.

The average driver in America will experience a collision approximately once every 10 years, according to Allstate claims data. In top-ranked Brownsville, that figure improves by about 26 percent to once every 13.6 years. The following are the top 10 safest-driving cities, according to this year’s Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report:

Between Collisions

(National Average: 10) Collision Likelihood Compared to

National Average 1. Brownsville, TX 13.6 26.3% less likely 2. Kansas City, KS 13.1 23.8% less likely 3. Boise, ID 12.2 17.8% less likely 4. Huntsville, AL 11.9 16.1% less likely 5. Madison, WI 11.8 15.4% less likely 6. Laredo, TX 11.7 14.4% less likely 7. Midland, TX 11.7 14.2% less likely 8. Cape Coral, FL 11.6 14.1% less likely 9. Fort Collins, CO 11.6 14.0% less likely 10. McAllen, TX 11.5 13.4% less likely

Other highlights from the 2018 report include Miami as the most improved driving city, jumping 37 spots on the report, and Spokane, Washington, dropping 37 spots from last year’s rankings after a 12-spot drop the year before.

For the fourth straight year, the Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report also analyzed the correlation between collisions and hard-braking events in more than 100 cities, using data collected by Drivewise, Allstate’s innovative telematics program that personalizes the auto insurance experience by providing real-time driving feedback and then rewarding safe driving with cash.

A hard-braking event is defined as slowing down eight miles per hour or more over a one-second period and can indicate unsafe driving behaviors, such as following too closely or aggressive or distracted driving. According to Drivewise data, the average American driver will experience approximately 19 hard-braking events for every 1,000 miles driven. Drivers in cities with fewer hard-braking events per 1,000 miles tend to have fewer auto property damage claims.

Drivers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, amassed the most hard-braking events of any city in America, with an average of 42 events per 1,000 miles. The next closest city – Bridgeport, Connecticut – came in significantly lower at 34.8 hard-braking events per 1,000 miles.

The 2018 Best Drivers Report found drivers in the following cities experience the fewest hard-braking events per 1,000 miles:

Visit Allstate.com/BestDriversReport for an interactive map and full results for this year, as well as previous years’ reports.