Are Idahoans the rudest drivers in the land? New survey says so

Sept. 16--A new survey by insure.com ranks relatively rural Idaho as the state with the rudest drivers, besting (or is that worst-ing?) Washington, D.C. (not a state but on the list) and New York.

Coming in at the bottom of the top 10 are Idaho's neighbors Nevada and Utah, ranked 9 and 10. In between, ranked 4 through 8, are Wyoming, Massachusetts, Delaware, Vermont and New Jersey.

The least complained-about drivers in the survey hail from North Dakota, with Maine and New Hampshire close behind.

So what put Idaho over the top? According to insure.com: "The roadways of Idaho present a dichotomy of drivers: Those who are moving so slowly that they're judged to be rude, and the aggressive drivers who speed around them and flip them off. Together, with their opposite yet equally vexing styles of driving, they push Idaho to the top of the rankings."

The website's writeup quotes "Idaho resident Eric Leins, a Southern California native, (who) points to the state's mountainous, rural areas as a source of driver conflict."

The survey not only tells which states' drivers were judged to be rudest, but where the drivers come from who complained the most. In Idaho's case, that was Arizona.

Idahoans can take comfort, however, that while the survey ranks us as rude drivers, we pay lower insurance premiums than nearly all other states. Insure.com's 2014 study of rates by state ranks Idaho insurance premiums as 48th out of 51.

The survey of 2,000 licensed drivers, half women and half men, was commissioned by insure.com and conducted in July 2014. Respondents represented all areas of the country, and " state rankings were calculated using a ratio of the nationwide votes for drivers of the state divided by the number of respondents from the state," the website reports.

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