In general, California drivers are constantly criticized for being too aggressive, careless, or downright bad. Although it’s simply ridiculous to stereotype an entire state’s driving skills, a recent study revealed that there are two cities in Northern California that rank as the worst driving cities in the nation. Sacramento was the California city that was ranked worst, but the state’s capital wasn’t alone when it came to cities that ranked high for bad drivers. The study, compiled by QuoteWizard, had some interesting reasoning behind its ranking so keep on reading to find out what they had to say.
Northern California just made a list we're not too excited about. A recent study by QuoteWizard named Sacramento the 5th worst driving city in the nation, and that wasn't even the only California city that made the list.
For the study, QuoteWizard looked at the 75 largest cities in the country. Taking into consideration factors including accidents, speeding tickets, DUIs, and citations, they ranked each city and compiled a "best" and "worst" list of cities to drive in.
Sacramento was ranked 5th on this year's "worst" list, following Columbus, Virginia Beach, Boise, and Portland. Unfortunately, Sacramento is no stranger to this type of ranking. In the past, the Golden State's capital city was ranked as the No. 1 worst driving city in the nation.
QuoteWizard states that Sacramento is "always among the worst ratings in accidents and DUIs." That's not good news at all! However, the one thing that saved the city from taking the No. 1 spot once again was an improvement in speeding tickets, so we can at least celebrate that.
Sacramento may be the worst Northern California city when it comes to driving, but it's not the only one. San Francisco also made the list, coming in at No. 9. Central California cities that made the list included Fresno and Bakersfield, with SoCal cities Los Angeles, San Diego, and Riverside making an appearance further down.
According to QuoteWizard, vehicle insurance rates in Sacramento are way higher than the state and national averages. This is due to collision frequency, soaring crime, and population density in the steadily growing city.
Although we definitely aren't pleased with Sacramento ranking so highly on the list of worst driving cities in the nation, we can't say we're incredibly surprised considering our past rankings. The one thing we can do is use caution when driving in the state's capital city and hopefully next year's survey will look a lot better!
