andylangager.net

If Des Moines is #7, then drivers in other cities much royally suck.

The report only analyzes crash data, though. Gee, do you think we have fewer accidents because.... there's fewer people?

And is it much surprise that the cities with the higher populations and densities see much higher rates of accidents? No wonder the midwest is so safe... you have so much more space to work with!

What surprises me about Seattle is driving in the rain. We do have rather rainy winters here, and you'd think Seattle drivers would be experts at dealing with it. Nope. Not many headlights come on... people stop using blinkers.. they drive not just a little slower, but at a snail's pace... and forget everything they know about merging or changing lanes properly. A little drizzle and it all goes out the window.

The data is skewed.

While population has a little to do with it, like Ryan and Chase said, Iowa's residents tend to use a wider number of companies for their insurance since there are so many more companies to be found. At the company for which I work, our agents tend to have one of the lower amounts of sales production of any of our 15 states, yet we have about 10 times as many agents in Iowa as in other states that sell more property insurance. Much like our company, Allstate doesn't sell as much insurance in Iowa as it might in other states. This study was conducted based on Allstate claims data, but my guess is that there are many other companies' data yet to be examined to make this a credible study.

I'd like to see if there are any studies out there that portray where Iowa ranks in terms of pizzas dropped on floors while shooting summer movies.

Does anyone know if there's anything out there?

Talk to Papa John's.

Well, my data is entirely anecdotal, but I’d say that Minnesota drivers a much, much worse than Iowa drivers. I think this is due to the suppressed rage that is just thinly veiled by the famous “Minnesota nice” that outsiders see. Recently, I stopped in the middle of a two-way street to turn into the parking garage on my left. There was oncoming traffic, so I had to wait. The guy behind me honked his horn at me. In his mind, I guess I should have plowed into the traffic in the other lane. I tried to flip him off as I turned into the garage entrance, but lost control and ran into the vulnerable cornerstone of the parking garage, causing $4,850.00 in damages to my Ford Expedition and starting in motion a series of events that ended with the Imperial State Parking Garage collapsing in a cloud of dust.

The last sentence is not at all true, but I’m sure you can see my point about Minnesota drivers.

No, he was an environmentalist and just mad that you were driving a gas-guzzling Expedition. You're supporting the war!

A magnetized troop ribbon will cancel out your SUV gas consumption, though.

See, that's where Iowa and Minnesota drivers differ, Dan. A true Minnesotan is so much nicer (and thus a better driver) than an Iowan that he (or she) would have gotten out of their car to flip off the driver behind them, and done it with a smile. You, being from Iowa, did it entirely the wrong way...but at least you contributed to the list of insurance claims in the state of Minnesota, widening the gap between them and Iowa. Thanks for supporting the cause!

A fault confessed is half redressed... Laura