Boston drivers are no longer the worst in the country, according to Allstate
They're second worst.
Last year, Boston drivers ranked the worst in the country, according to a study by the insurance company Allstate.
Boston also ranked as the worst-driving of the 200 cities included in the study the year before that and the year before that.
But with each new year comes the opportunity for improvement — if only incrementally. In 2018, Boston drivers climbed out from the worst overall ranking. The city is now second worst. And just barely.
According to Allstate’s 2018 “best drivers” report, Boston ranked No. 199 out of 200. The ignominious label of worst-driving city now goes to Baltimore.
So did Boston drivers actually get better, or did Baltimore drivers just get worse? Well, a little bit of both, according to Allstate.
The ranking is based on the rate at which Allstate customers in each city report being involved in a collision. In 2017, Boston drivers reported getting in a car crash every 3.6 years, compared with a national average of every 10 years. But in this year’s report, Bostonians said they were involved in a collision only every 3.9 years.
Meanwhile, Baltimore drivers report being involved in a crash every 3.8 years in this year’s report, falling from a rate of every 4.2 years in the 2017 report.
According to Allstate, the national average for customers is experiencing a crash every 10 years. The perennially safest-driving city of Brownsville, Texas, leads the way again this year with an average of 13.6 years between collision claims. So there’s still lots of room for improvement.
Another Massachusetts city making gains in the report was Worcester. New England’s second-largest city still accompanies Boston in the basement of the study, but now ranks fourth-worst compared with its third-worst ranking.
In fact, the last time Boston wasn’t ranked worst in the report, in 2014, it was Worcester that held that 200th spot.
