Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Most Dangerous Cities to Drive in the US!

Following the trend on "The most walkable" cities in the US and Brazil, I saw this today and decided to share.

No surprise for us, Florida is the most Dangerous place to drive in the US. We found out the hard way when we lived in Hollywood and later in Tampa, it's no joke, aggressive drivers at it's worse. Not to mention it is the least friendly place for pedestrians. I am not joking, we had cars speeding up to shoo us out of the way inside Grocery store's parking lot's marked crossing lanes. I almost got ran over more than once, freaking animals I tell you.

One surprise to me was to find out Florida is dangerous because of retired New Yorkers, who never drove before, because their state has a great mass public transportation system. When they arrive in Florida, there are no options, these older folks are forced to learn how to drive at an advanced age and you have what you have, complete chaos.

Older New Yorkers learning how to drive among recently arrived immigrants. Many immigrants were probably riding a donkey a month before they washed into the Florida beaches looking for a better life. You are just not likely to see Florida like highways in the hills of Colombia or in and around Haiti or Cuba.

Most of these immigrants are not granted drivers licenses, and there is NO public transportation available, so they have no option but to buy that old used Buick and start driving along the New York grannies, the drunk Spring Breakers ( from all over the country ) and the tourists from all over the world who are used to different traffic rules and also people from countries without a driving tradition such as many places in Europe.

MAYHEM, pure and simple, a very combustible and dangerous situation.

After living and driving in UBBER civilized New England we were in for the shock or our life time. Not to mention the infamous Florida speed traps that are the lifeline of many dusty little southern towns ( entire budgets ) scared all over the sunshine state. D

Don't even get me started on the rednecks favorite past time, speed traps!!! UGH!!!

I have to say, Oklahoma caught me completely by surprise. I had no idea it's such a dangerous place to drive, people drive super fast in Oklahoma with the ever inviting wide open spaces.  Besides that, the only thing that comes to my mind it's the generalized drinking and driving that I witnessed when I went to school in Oklahoma. But come on! That was 1989, and I was in High School. I just assumed all Americans drank themselves silly like that... :)
NO! You tell me, did people drink and drive like crazy in High School in your home states? Was that a sign of the 80's, or does it still happen?
I don't remember a large percentage of Irish last names in Oklahoma either...ok, just kidding... :)
Hey Sarah, do you have any idea why Oklahoma city and Tulsa would show such high fatality numbers? :)

15 Dangerous Cities for Driving

   
The 14th-most dangerous driving city: Birmingham, Ala.
The 14th-most dangerous driving city: Birmingham, Ala.
There are many ways one could gauge the danger of driving in a particular city, but this list uses the cities with the greatest number of vehicular deaths as a barometer of the danger level. U.S. cities with a population of 150,000 or more were up for consideration, using the most recent motor vehicle crash data available from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System and General Estimates System.

One particular region of the country, the South, is overrepresented, and within that region one state in particular sticks out like a panhandle: A full one-third of the cities in this list are in Florida. Why does Florida rank so badly? Some blame the high proportion of New York City expats—some driving for the first time in their lives — foreigners, tourists driving in unfamiliar territory, and senior citizens, not to mention spring breakers, who may have compromised vision or reflexes. Los Angeles didn’t make the most dangerous list, but had the most total fatalities overall, at 293. The city that’s the most dangerous for pedestrians, according to the data, is Pittsburgh, accounting for more than 50 percent of total fatalities.

Here are the 15 cities that ranked the worst
:

15. Oklahoma City, Okla.
Population: 551,789
Total fatality rate per 100,000 population: 13.41
Total fatalities: 74
Percentage of fatalities that were pedestrians: 13.5

14. Birmingham, Ala.
Population: 228,798
Total fatality rate per 100,000 population: 13.55
Total fatalities: 31
Percentage of fatalities that were pedestrians: 15.2

13. Tulsa, Okla.
Population: 385,635
Total fatality rate per 100,000 population: 14.00
Total fatalities: 54
Percentage of fatalities that were pedestrians: 18.5

12. St. Petersburg, Fla.
Population: 245,314
Total fatality rate per 100,000 population: 14.27
Total fatalities: 35
Percentage of fatalities that were pedestrians: 28.6

11. Jacksonville, Fla.
Population: 807,815
Total fatality rate per 100,000 population: 14.36
Total fatalities: 116
Percentage of fatalities that were pedestrians: 13.8

10. Lubbock, Texas
Population: 220,483
Total fatality rate per 100,000 population: 14.97
Total fatalities: 33
Percentage of fatalities that were pedestrians: 15.2

9. Memphis, Tenn.
Population: 669,651
Total fatality rate per 100,000 population: 15.08
Total fatalities: 101
Percentage of fatalities that were pedestrians: 11.9

8. Jackson, Miss.
Population: 173,861
Total fatality rate per 100,000 population: 15.53
Total fatalities: 27
Percentage of fatalities that were pedestrians: 18.5

7. Chattanooga, Tenn.
Population: 170,880
Total fatality rate per 100,000 population: 16.39
Total fatalities: 28
Percentage of fatalities that were pedestrians: 17.9

6. Salt Lake City, Utah
Population: 181,698
Total fatality rate per 100,000 population: 16.51
Total fatalities: 30
Percentage of fatalities that were pedestrians: 26.7

5. San Bernardino, Calif.
Population: 198,580
Total fatality rate per 100,000 population: 17.12
Total fatalities: 38
Percentage of fatalities that were pedestrians: 15.8

4. Little Rock, Ark.
Population: 189,515
Total fatality rate per 100,000 population: 17.94
Total fatalities: 34
Percentage of fatalities that were pedestrians: 26.5

3. Augusta-Richmond Co., Ga.
Population: 194,149
Total fatality rate per 100,000 population: 19.57
Total fatalities: 38
Percentage of fatalities that were pedestrians: 15.8

2. Orlando, Fla.
Population: 230,519
Total fatality rate per 100,000 population: 19.95
Total fatalities: 46
Percentage of fatalities that were pedestrians: 10.9


 
The most dangerous city to drive in: Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
The most dangerous city to drive in: Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

1. Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
Population: 183,126
Total fatality rate per 100,000 population: 22.39
Total fatalities: 41
Percentage of fatalities that were pedestrians: 24.4

On the safer end of the spectrum, here are the 10 cities with the least fatalities per 100,000 population:


Arlington CDP (census designated place), Va. (0.48)
Vancouver, Wash. (1.23)
Moreno Valley, Calif. (1.57)
Rochester, N.Y. (1.93)
Spokane, Wash. (1.98)
Lincoln, Neb. (1.99)
Aurora, Ill. (2.33)
St. Paul, Minn. (2.50)
Omaha, Neb. (2.51)
Jersey City, N.J. (2.90)

14 comments:

Meredith said...

Oh I'm not surprised about the cities in Florida either. Not just because of the snow birds, but because of the tourists who have no idea where they're going.... grrrr (I lived either by Disney or Universal so I had it bad)

American Heart Brazilian Soul said...

Yes, we learned the hard way when we lived in Hollywood and then in Tampa.
Bad drivers tend to either respect of fear people like me who drive large trucks, but what irritated me the most was the near misses in Mall and Grocery store parking lots when cars actually speed up trying to shoo us out of their way, and this always happened on clearly marked pedestrian crossing ways.


Ray

Nina said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nina said...

How can New Orleans NOT be on here? That's impossible. I have driven through and in almost all these cities minus orlando and fort L.. I think you should look at accidents number too. Or what did the article look at to decide this? New Orleans's people are super rude, crazy and really stupid drivers. They don't care if the get in an accident in order to stop you from getting into their lane.

New Orleans has the worst drivers. Many people black, white, and immigrant don't have their license or insurance.

Then they have "mean people suck" signs all of the people. Some of them are the meanest people I have ever met (including meanest drivers).

American Heart Brazilian Soul said...

Nina,

I think they went with the number of fatalities versus the number of people living in any given city.
Los Angeles for example is by far the place where more people die in traffic accidents, but the population in the area is so large that makes their percentage smaller compared to cities like Fort Lauderdale or Tulsa.
Perhaps, New Orleans have small fender benders all the time but not enough brutal accidents with fatalities as the cities that made the list.


Ray

American Heart Brazilian Soul said...

Ah, just for the record, we just saw recently on the news that Rhode Islanders are considered the WORSE drivers in the whole United States, there reason, people here drive such short distances they are not used to be on the road often enough, sorry, we take that crown. NOBODY here even knows what a "seta" is, they just ignore that feature in cars all together, yeap, nobody ever signals when turning. :)

Ray

Born Again Brazilian said...

Ok, admittedly, the only city that I've really had an accident in where I was driving (and had to go to "driving school" for it, a comedy driving school by the way God Bless America) was Florida. Miami to be exact. And it was absolutely because I didn't know where I was going.

Renato S. Alves said...

I liked very much this post. Didn't know Orlando was dangerous. I've been driving in Sao Paulo for the last 21 years and I saw accidents every week. Sometimes twice a week. Living for 2 years here I saw one minor accident. I think people here in Orlando drive very much differently than SP. I tried to find statistics for SP but I couldn't.
Hey Jay have read this?
The comments I think show what the SP population think about it
http://oglobo.globo.com/cidades/sp/mat/2011/08/15/ladroes-fazem-arrastao-em-pizzaria-na-zona-sul-de-sp-925131782.asp#ixzz1VBYb0NgU
Hugs!

American Heart Brazilian Soul said...

Renato,

This specific data refers to "dangerous" as in "death", "fatalities". Yes, Sao Paulo is a big city with lots of cars, buses, trucks and motorcycles and fender benders happen all the time, but due to the intense traffic and low speeds, accidents with actual deaths are very rare.
Just like Nina mentioned that people in New Orleans drive like crazy, and I have seen on the news that people in Rhode Island are the worse drivers in the country.
However Orlando and Florida in general still takes the "cup" for the most "deaths", sadly.
I can easily see how, considering all the immigrants that live there, all the tourists, all the older retired folks and the wide open roads, it's just a combination for certain disaster.


Thanks for the comment and for sharing the link

Ray

American Heart Brazilian Soul said...

Renato,

Sorry, but I didn't understand the connection with the link you posted and traffic accidents...??? What did I miss? :)
Were you in that Pizza place?

Ray

Jessica said...

Hi Ray,
Reading through this post and the comments is cracking me up. My husband's family is in Hollywood, FL, and my family is in New Orleans. Please tell Nina we're not all bad in NOLA. That's one of my favorite places on the planet. ;o)
Thanks for your comments on my blog. We'll be heading to Santos at the end of the week.
Jessica

Nina said...

Ray? I was wondering two things, could I get your email and would you help me with one paragraph of a legal translation that is killing me???? I know your a lawyer so, ahhhh I don't know who else could help me! Please!

My email is nav2@uwmalumni.com

American Heart Brazilian Soul said...

Sure Nina,

I will be glad to help.
Shoot me an email to sbcspbr@gmail.com

Ray

Jessica said...

Hi Ray and Gil,
We've been here about 1.5 weeks now. It's VERY nice and we really like it. Although I prefer the sunshine over the rain. :o)

Hope you are well,
Jessica