Men’s Health Magazine released a study that they recently conducted to see which cities had the best and worst drivers. Houston ranked 46th in the nation for bad drivers, and Dallas ranked even worse in 14th place for this unceremonious award. Anyone who has ever visited the beautiful city of Corpus Christi wouldn’t be surprised by their 11th place spot either. Even the Alamo couldn’t help San Antonio from ranking worse than Houston in the 25th spot. Our state’s beautiful capital still ranked worse than us in 41st place. Luckily for us in Houston, we rank better than four of the most populace cities in Texas.
They got these results from studying factors that increase drivers’ safety, such as speeding, frequency of car accidents, seat belt usage, and drunk driving stats. Obviously Houston drivers are doing something wrong to end up on the list of the worst drivers in America. But anyone who spends a lot of time driving in this city doesn’t need Men’s Health Magazine to point that out! I’m actually surprised that Houston is ranking as low as it is in their study for poor quality drivers. When I originally saw a report about this study’s findings here, I was shaking my head thinking “of course Houston has the 4th worst drivers in the country”. Then I read the real report and realized they made a pretty sizeable error interpreting the data.
Houston is not ranked fourth, or anywhere near the top 10 for cities with the worst drivers. But Corpus is! I’m surprised Corpus Christi was not ranked higher honestly. Corpus Christi has a population of about 308,000 people. It is a relaxing beach town with many thriving businesses and a great local vibe. The only bad thing about Corpus Christi is the drivers. Here’s a tip I learned the hard way in Corpus Christi: when you are on the feeder road, be prepared to stop frequently. In Corpus Christi, drivers don’t slow down when they exit the freeway because they expect all of the traffic on the feeder road to stop when they see a car exiting. Needless to say, this town’s drivers need some serious driving lessons.
However annoying unique driving habits in cities are, they are not the reason that these cities ranked high for being the worst cities to drive in. Look at this table from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; Texas is off the charts for driving fatalities alone, not even considering drunk driving or any other contributing factors.No wonder so many of our cities are on this list! If you’re a DWI lawyer in Houston, Texas you might want to consider living in Corpus Christi. You’ll get more clients per capita there.
References:
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Traffice Safety Facts: State Motor Vehicle Fatalities and State Alcohol-Impaired Motor Vehicle Fatalities, 2011. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/811699.pdf
