Drive for Greatness: States with the Best Drivers

Click here to see the 10 States with the Best Drivers report for 2021.

It’s all green lights ahead for these drivers. These 10 states have the best motorists in the United States!

In driving, just as in life, it’s usually the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. In each state, it’s the worst-offending car owners—the speeders, drunk drivers, etc.—that get both the local news coverage and the national syndication. Rarely do good drivers get the recognition that they deserve, let alone an entire report dedicated to their merits.

Good driving is crucial, not just for safety, but for savings as well. In every state, drivers can make a habit of auto insurance quotes comparison to find the best car insurance companies for good driver automobile insurance discounts that will save them money on a monthly basis. Not only that, but these drivers do their part to minimize the staggering number of Americans that die in a car accident each year—a figure that has remained at around 40,000 deaths annually for the past three years according to the National Safety Council.

Well, the time has come to recognize good drivers. Not only do first-rate motorists deserve their credit, but the states with the highest proportion of those drivers also do as well. Without further ado, these are the Insurify top 10 states with the best drivers in America.

Insights

• National averages. Across the country as a whole, an average of 23.29 percent of drivers has some form of moving violation on their record. In addition, 2.21 percent have driving under the influence (DUI) infractions, 12.12 percent have at-fault accidents, and 1.24 percent have run a red light. Moreover, 12.2 of 100,000 individuals lose their lives to traffic-related deaths per year nationwide.

• No safety in the North. While the geographic divide is by no means universal, the states in the northern half of the country have a considerably higher percentage of drivers with driving incidents than in the South.

• More violations, fewer deaths. Ever since the days of elementary school safety assemblies, we have been taught that reckless driving is dangerous and can lead to deadly accidents. However, in this case, the data demonstrates a small but discernable negative correlation between the ratio of drivers with infractions and the rate of vehicle-related deaths within a state. That is to say, the more drivers with moving violations in a state, the fewer people on average that die in a car accident every year. However, there was a good deal of variance to this pattern, and it is by no means a hard and fast rule.

Methodology

To assess which states have the best drivers, the data science and research team at Insurify, a platform that lets users compare auto insurance rates, evaluated its database of over 1.6 million car insurance applications. To get quotes, users provide personal, vehicle, and driver history information for all drivers on their policy. That driver history data includes any prior moving violation from the past seven years, comprising at-fault accidents, speeding, failure to stop infractions, reckless driving, and DUI. The researchers then indexed the drivers by location and identified which states had the lowest percentage of motorists with any sort of driving incident. Also included are the state-by-state statistics for the share of drivers with past speeding tickets, DUI convictions, at-fault accidents, and failure to stop at a red light. Figures on the traffic fatality rate by state come from the Insurance Institute of Highway Safety Fatality Facts 2017 report.

10. Arkansas

• Percentage of drivers with any moving violations: 19.16%

• Percentage of drivers with DUI convictions: 1.81%

• Percentage of drivers with at-fault accidents: 9.98%

• Percentage of drivers who have run red lights: 0.63%

• Traffic fatality rate per population of 100,000: 16.4

Of all of the states listed on this top 10 ranking, Arkansas is the biggest mixed bag. On the one hand, not only is it within the bottom 10 in the country for drivers with traffic offenses, but it is also in the bottom 10 for at-fault accidents and the third lowest for failure to stop at red lights. On the other hand, it has the highest rate of DUI infractions of the top 10 states on this list and is within the top 10 nationwide for a high proportion of citizens dying in automobile accidents every year.

9. Oklahoma

• Percentage of drivers with any moving violations: 18.98%

• Percentage of drivers with DUI convictions: 1.27%

• Percentage of drivers with at-fault accidents: 9.30%

• Percentage of drivers who have run red lights: 0.72%

• Traffic fatality rate per population of 100,000: 16.7

As one of the states with the best drivers in America, Oklahoma already has a great deal of which to be proud. To make matters even better, it is also within the top five in the U.S. for low rates of car accidents, with fewer than one in 10 motorists having caused a wreck. In fact, the percentage of Oklahoma drivers with an at-fault accident conviction on their record is a full 23 percent lower than the national average.

8. New Jersey

• Percentage of drivers with any moving violations: 18.86%

• Percentage of drivers with DUI convictions: 1.37%

• Percentage of drivers with at-fault accidents: 11.70%

• Percentage of drivers who have run red lights: 1.21%

• Traffic fatality rate per population of 100,000: 6.9

According to the National Traffic Safety Board, speeding is the primary cause of approximately 31 percent of car accident fatalities. Perhaps this relationship between speeding and traffic deaths can at least partially account for the Garden State’s stellar figures in each category. New Jersey is the state with the fifth lowest vehicle fatality rate and the second lowest speeding rate in America at 6.24 percent. One bill, currently in committee in the New Jersey State Senate, aims to lower that figure even further by setting all limited-access highway speed limits to the prevailing speed, also colloquially known as the speed of traffic. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration asserts that this change—namely, altering speed limits to rates that match the speed at which 85 percent of drivers are traveling at or below—will improve safety and further reduce car accidents deaths.

7. West Virginia

• Percentage of drivers with any moving violations: 18.68%

• Percentage of drivers with DUI convictions: 1.52%

• Percentage of drivers with at-fault accidents: 10.18%

• Percentage of drivers who have run red lights: 0.73%

• Traffic fatality rate per population of 100,000: 10.6

West Virginia is one of only two states on this list that falls below the national average for every reported driving offense statistic. Most notable among these are both rates of running red lights and causing accidents that each fall within the bottom 10 in the country. West Virginian drivers fail to stop at red lights a full 41 percent less than the average American motorists and cause accidents 16 percent less often.

6. Texas

• Percentage of drivers with any moving violations: 18.65%

• Percentage of drivers with DUI convictions: 1.16%

• Percentage of drivers with at-fault accidents: 10.60%

• Percentage of drivers who have run red lights: 0.93%

• Traffic fatality rate per population of 100,000: 13.1

The Lone Star State is a standout, not just in terms of having among the best drivers nationwide, but for having some of the soberest motorists. Texas has the ninth lowest percentage of drivers with DUI offenses in the United States. This may be in part due to drunk driving penalties that include thousands of dollars in fines, jail time, license suspension, and annual fines to reinstate that license; all of which only rise in severity following the first offense.

5. Florida

• Percentage of drivers with any moving violations: 18.64%

• Percentage of drivers with DUI convictions: 0.71%

• Percentage of drivers with at-fault accidents: 11.34%

• Percentage of drivers who have run red lights: 2.56%

• Traffic fatality rate per population of 100,000: 14.8

Florida is a state of extremes. Despite being one of the states with the smallest percentage of drivers who have committed traffic violations, the Sunshine State has very poor standing on a few metrics. For one, it is both the second worst state in the country in terms of running red lights and the fifth worst for annual vehicle fatalities. The state is also the largest offender in regard to at-fault accidents on this top 10 list, though notoriety is somewhat tempered by the fact that Florida is still below the national average on this measure. In spite of all of that, Florida is nonetheless the second best state nationwide for low rates of DUI, with a share that is no less than 68 percent below the national rate.

4. Nevada

• Percentage of drivers with any moving violations: 17.39%

• Percentage of drivers with DUI convictions: 1.71%

• Percentage of drivers with at-fault accidents: 9.41%

• Percentage of drivers who have run red lights: 0.85%

• Traffic fatality rate per population of 100,000: 10.3

Even though Nevada did not quite break into the top three states for best drivers this year, it nonetheless has a great deal to boast about. It is the second state on this top 10 ranking to fall below the national average by every standard. Nevada drivers surpass the average American driver in terms of overall driving incidents, DUI, accidents, failure to stop at red lights, and automotive deaths. For at-fault accidents in particular, Nevada stands within the top five in the United States.

3. Mississippi

• Percentage of drivers with any moving violations: 17.31%

• Percentage of drivers with DUI convictions: 1.27%

• Percentage of drivers with at-fault accidents: 7.64%

• Percentage of drivers who have run red lights: 0.67%

• Traffic fatality rate per population of 100,000: 23.1

The Magnolia State has the third-best drivers in America. Part of this standing is due to the fact that it is the second lowest in at-fault accidents and the sixth lowest in running red lights. However, these realities appear to do sadly little to improve the safety of Mississippi’s roads. Citizens in this state die in car accidents at a higher rate than any other state in the country, with more than 20 for every 100,000 losing their lives this way every year.

2. Kentucky

• Percentage of drivers with any moving violations: 16.81%

• Percentage of drivers with DUI convictions: 2.07%

• Percentage of drivers with at-fault accidents: 9.91%

• Percentage of drivers who have run red lights: 0.48%

• Traffic fatality rate per population of 100,000: 17.6

Two cheers for Kentucky! The state went from not even ranking in 2018, to having the second best drivers in the country in 2019. Moreover, Kentucky is the number-one state for low rates of failure to stop at intersections. Perhaps this is due in part to the fact that Kentucky drivers can expect three points on their license for every red light that they run.

1. Michigan

• Percentage of drivers with any moving violations: 15.00%

• Percentage of drivers with DUI convictions: 1.78%

• Percentage of drivers with at-fault accidents: 5.52%

• Percentage of drivers who have run red lights: 1.25%

• Traffic fatality rate per population of 100,000: 10.3

Coming in at the top of the list is the Great Lakes State, with only 15 percent of drivers having committed a moving violation in the past seven years. Beyond that, it is also the best state in the nation for low accident rates, with only around one in twenty motorists having one or more on their record. Michigan also notably bucks the trend of northern states having higher rates of traffic infractions. It is the only northern state where fewer than 18 percent of drivers are past offenders, and its rates of violation are drastically lower than those of its border states. Indeed, Michigan’s incident rate is 39 percent lower than Indiana’s and almost 50 percent lower than Wisconsin’ and Ohio’s.