When we think of good places for people who enjoy driving, we often think of endless back roads with minimal traffic and high speed limits. But there's more to it than that, like legal protections for motorists, state-imposed costs and financial responsibility requirements. Not all places in America are created equal for drivers.
That's the thrust of this study by the National Motorists' Association, a group that advocates on behalf of drivers. They formed to fight the national 55 mph speed limit in the 1980s and they're active in research and litigation today.
For their latest study they examined 24 metrics, including "legal protections, regulations, enforcement tactics, state-imposed cost to drive, and state fiscal responsibility to examine the government-motorist relationship in each state." From their they determined the the places in the U.S. that treat motorists the best and worst.
NMA President Gary Biller noted, "Our analysis reveals how fairly a state regulates and enforces traffic laws, how far due process rights extend to motorists in court, how (and how much) revenue is generated from motorists, and how effectively that revenue is applied toward maintaining and improving roads and bridges in the state. It clearly indicates that there is substantial room for improvement across the board."
What's the worst state for a driver? Wouldn't you know it's not a state at all, but our nation's capital, the District of Columbia. On a scale of zero to 100, with zero being bad and 100 being good, D.C. ranked a 25, scoring low in those categories listed above.
Also, everyone in D.C. sucks at driving and the speed limits are too damn low, but that's just my two cents. It's not based on anything scientific, I think.
Ranked right below D.C. are New York, Delaware and New Jersey, which probably isn't that surprising when you consider they took things like tolls, taxes, speed cameras and restrictions on phone use into account.
The very best states to be a driver, according to the study, are Wyoming, Utah and North Dakota. Gotta love those western states that just leave people the hell alone, right?
See where your state ranked here and tell us if you agree with the group's findings or not.
Photo credit Shutterstock
Hat tip to Dan!