Study Says Florida Drivers Are The Worst

Florida drivers are in a class by themselves.

Unfortunately, it's a class filled with zippers, plodders, honkers and road ragers.

Have you ever had a Close Encounter of the Vehicular Kind and proclaimed, "Florida drivers are the worst!"

Well, you might be right.

A new study confirms what many of us know intuitively: The Sunshine State has the worst drivers in the nation.

At this point, I could draw on several personal examples, but one will suffice.

Southeast Colorado Avenue just north of Kanner Highway in Stuart narrows abruptly from two lanes to one. Northbound drivers in the right lane - where I found myself a few weeks ago - must merge to the left before the right lane ends.

Traffic is always bumper-to-bumper at rush hour.

Apparently, the young man in the yellow pickup in front of me thought I was following him too closely. So he opened his rear cab window, turned around and flipped me off.

Judging by his excellent finger control and skilled gesticulation, it was clear Pickup Guy is an experienced flipper. Being an older, seasoned motorist, I simply smiled and continued on my way.

Really.

How do we explain the routine stupidity and occasional outrage we encounter on Florida's roads and highways?

SmartAsset, a financial tech firm, reviewed data from four key metrics to determine the best and worst drivers:

Percentage of uninsured drivers

DUI arrests per 1,000 drivers

Vehicle-related deaths per 1,000 drivers

Google trends on driving offenses

Florida posted abysmal scores in two of the four categories: percentage of uninsured motorists and Google trends on driving offenses.

Only 76.2 percent of us in the Sunshine State have automobile insurance - second-lowest in the nation behind Oklahoma (74.1 percent). The fact almost 1 in 4 motorists in Florida is uninsured might help explain why 1 in 4 crashes in Florida involves a hit-and-run driver.

Florida topped the SmartAsset study for online searches of traffic offenses. (The thinking here is drivers are seeking information because they've committed offenses and need answers.)

"Floridians Google ‘speeding tickets' and ‘traffic tickets' more than any other state," according to the study.

In combination with average scores in the other two categories, Florida motorists earned the dubious distinction of Worst Drivers in the Nation.

Not convinced? Here's more.

A recent survey by Cheapcarinsurance.net asked drivers in the nation's four most populous states - California, Florida, New York and Texas - to characterize the skill of drivers in their respective states.

Florida topped the "worst" list here, too. Almost 52 percent of respondents rated Florida motorists as "terrible" (13.8 percent) or "fairly bad" (38 percent). The next closest was Texas, with a combined score of 38.8 percent.

Are we really this bad? Heck yeah!

But it's not completely our fault.

During "season," seemingly every other vehicle on our roadways is sporting an out-of-state tag. For six months a year, Florida is home to drivers from New Jersey (No. 4), Michigan (No. 11) and other states that posted poor to average scores in the SmartAsset study.

We might be the baddest of the bad, but we have an excuse: It's the snowbirds' fault! We are being dragged down by a smorgasbord of out-of-state drivers who descend annually on Florida and sully our (already shaky) reputation.

Then again, the guy in the yellow pickup had a Florida tag.

Maybe our badness stands on its own.

Be careful out there

States with the best and worst drivers in the nation:

Best

1. Maine

2. Idaho

3. Massachusetts

4. Utah

5. North Dakota

Worst

1. Florida

2. Mississippi

3. Oklahoma

4. New Jersey

5. Delaware

Source: SmartAsset