Study says that New Jersey drivers are actually pretty good

Sure, we have the “Jersey slide”, ruthless jockeying for position at jughandles, and people going the speed of light on the Parkway, but a new study says that New Jersey drivers compare favorably to the rest of the country. Insurify, an insurance comparison website, looked at over 4 million car insurance applications in their database to identify the states with the best drivers.

They compared the number of drivers with at least one at-fault violation on record (including accidents, DUIs, failures to stop, speeding, reckless driving, passing violations, and other citations for illegal driving behavior) to the total number of drivers applying for car insurance in each state. The states with the lowest rate of infractions, or the greatest proportion of drivers with a clean record, were identified as having the best drivers.

So, where does New Jersey rank, you ask? We came in at the fifth best in the whole country! In New Jersey, a little over 84% of drivers have a clean record; tops was Michigan with 86%, then New York (I know, makes you question the whole thing, doesn’t it?), Nevada, and Mississippi. The national average of drivers with a clean record is 78%. There are 229 million licensed drivers in the US.

The rest of the top 10: Kentucky, Louisiana, West Virginia, Florida, and Arkansas.

Speeding and at fault accidents are the most common infractions; 27 states have speeding as the most common infraction, and in 23 states, it’s at fault accidents.

According to Apple Maps Mobility Trends (and quoted on Insurify.com), the number of drivers on the road has increased 35% since January.

The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle. Any opinions expressed are Bill Doyle's own.