Surprise: Los Angeles does not rank as safest in driving report

The city of Los Angeles, not known for its good drivers, placed a distant eighth among cities with more than 1 million drivers in the "Allstate America's Best Drivers Report."

However, the more gentle folk tooling around Sioux Falls, S.D., are reveling in their superiority as safe drivers as they top the list for the fourth consecutive year. Also, Eugene, Ore., and Boise, Idaho, have broken into the national top 10.

So how are these places so different from L.A.? Dare we guess that their less-stressful lifestyle and the resulting lack of traffic jams in these charming, Willoughby-esque towns may give them a huge advantage in this contest of 'niceness' and aid in the resulting lack of collisions reported by the Allstate actuaries?

The rankings are based on in-depth analysis to determine the likelihood that drivers in America's 200 largest cities will experience a vehicle collision compared with the national average. A weighted average of the two-year numbers determined the annual percentages. The report defines an auto crash as any collision resulting in a property damage claim.

Nationwide city and overall rankings ...    

Earth to California: Learn how to drive!

We’re No. 48!

At least that’s where California ranked among the 50 states and the District of Columbia in GMAC Insurance’s fifth annual National Drivers Test.

GMAC surveyed more than 5,000 licensed drivers throughout the country, asking them to answer 20 questions gleaned from actual state drivers license exams. Based on the results of the survey, the insurer concluded that 20% of the licensed drivers in the U.S. — or about 40 million people — wouldn’t pass a written test if they had to take one today.

The average test score was 76.6%, down from last year's average of 78.1%.

Drivers in Idaho and Wisconsin tied for first, with an average test score of 80.6%. New York ranked last with an average score of 70.5%. The only other states that scored lower than California were New Jersey and Hawaii.

Drivers seemed to have particular trouble getting their minds around what to do at a yellow light and what constitutes a safe following distance. The concept of the solid-line lane marker, on the other hand, was familiar to just about everyone, according to GMAC.

A few other factoids:

• Drivers over age 35 were most likely to pass, while young adults ages 18 to 24 had the highest failure rate.
• Men were more likely than women to pass the test, but by a statistically insignificant margin — 81% to 79%.
• Drivers in the Midwest had both the highest average test scores (79%) and the lowest failure rate (15%). The Northeast had the lowest average test scores (74.5%), and the South had the highest failure rate (41%). 

You can take the test yourself at GMAC's website. Just for the record, I scored a 90% (so I like to tailgate – what's the big deal?).

-- Martin Zimmerman

Photo: A stop sign in the Hollywood Hills. Credit: Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times

Driving less in America

As gasoline prices were hitting record levels in June, Americans were hitting the brakes. The Federal Highway Administration said today that U.S. motorists drove 12.2 billion fewer miles in June than in the same month a year earlier, a drop of 4.7%. It was the eighth consecutive monthly drop and the biggest June decline ever, the agency said.

Californians, who pay some of the highest gasoline prices in the nation, were a bit more reluctant to abandon their wheels. Miles traveled by Golden State drivers in June fell to an estimated 28.77 billion, down 3.7% from a year prior.

"They're staying home in droves," Doug Hecox, a spokesman for the highway administration, said of the nation's drivers. He noted that the drop in June was particularly significant because the summer months rank historically as the busiest times for road travel in the U.S. as families head out on vacations. In the summer, "people are roaming around and enjoying themselves — until this year," Hecox said.

After reaching record levels in June, average pump prices actually peaked nationwide July 17 at $4.11 for a gallon of regular gas, AAA reported. In California, they peaked at $4.61 a gallon June 19.

The falloff in driving "is a consistent with the fact that gas prices were going up so quickly and to such a high level," said Elaine Beno, a spokeswoman for the Automobile Club of Southern California. "It remains to be seen if it will continue."

Gasoline prices have been falling in recent weeks as oil prices have dropped more than 20% from their July 3 record high of about $145 a barrel. The current average price for a gallon of regular is $4.09 in California and $3.78 nationwide, AAA said.

(There are already signs that lower gas prices may be luring buyers back to larger vehicles, as reported in this earlier post.)

The highway administration doesn't interview motorists when compiling its driving statistics, which are based on information gathered by automated vehicle sensors. So the agency is reluctant to pin the drop in driving on gasoline prices alone, noting that the slowing economy, the housing crisis and overall inflation have probably played roles as well.

The longest stretch of year-over-year declines in highway miles driven was the 24 months from January 1979 to December 1980, Hecox said. Although the current falloff has a way to go before it reaches that length, "it's certainly been a lot steeper," he said.

— Martin Zimmerman

Photo: Traffic backs up on the 101 Freeway over the July 4th weekend. Associated Press.