Albuquerque is top city for bicycling but one of the worst for driving? (cul-de-sac, best cities)
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but one of the most unsafe cities for driving a car:
Study: ABQ is one of the most unsafe driving cities | KRQE News 13
--"Allstate didn’t have a theory as to why people in Albuquerque are getting more and more crash prone, but we do know that people in Albuquerque drive a lot and the streets are getting more crowded as the city grows."
Maybe more people should be riding bicycles in Albuquerque?
Hmnn. If we're bad for crashes, why is my auto insurance lower here than it would be in PHX or Dallas? Both cities were higher when I got quotes a few weeks ago.
As to crashes, I think there are an awful lot of people out there texting and driving. I have one friend I won't ride with any more, she's so bad about texting and driving. And she's not a kid, she's over 40.
My insurance is lower here than either of the other places I lived in the last couple of years, and I stayed with the same insurer and coverages when I moved.
The Allstate "study" is absurd. Even if you accept its premise (I don't), it only puts your likelihood of an accident in ABQ 16% higher than the national average. KRQE's characterization of it as "one of the worst" is likewise absurd when Boston drivers are 129% more likely than average to be in an accident.
From the report.
"The Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report® tabulates property damage collision frequency of Allstate insured drivers from 2011-2012. "
Not only does this not take into account the amount of miles driven but it only looks at one insurance company. Maybe Albuquerque drivers drive 25% more than average and only crash 16% more than average, making them better than average drivers. Maybe Allstate drivers differ from other drivers in some way that isn't obvious. I'm sure there is more comprehensive, valid data out there for a legitimate comparison between metro areas. The Allstate report is nothing more than a marketing gimmick.
"Bike City" rankings are looking at completely different factors, but I'm certain that bicycling is better for your health (and wallet) than driving.
Bicycling in Albuquerque is great because between bike paths, bike routes, and bike lanes (in order of preference), I can find routes to get anywhere in the city while avoiding traffic danger.
The Albuquerque bike map is invaluable for this purpose, but even without a map, because the city is on a grid, you can easily find calm residential streets paralleling the main boulevards especially in the older parts of town.
Unfortunately newer developments (post 70s) are full of unnecessarily curved roads and cul-de-sacs, so navigating those areas is best done with the help of the map to find decent routes. Also, bike routes can be found on Google Maps which is helpful as it even gives you a time estimate for cycling at an average speed.
Not only does this not take into account the amount of miles driven but it only looks at one insurance company. Maybe Albuquerque drivers drive 25% more than average and only crash 16% more than average, making them better than average drivers. Maybe Allstate drivers differ from other drivers in some way that isn't obvious. I'm sure there is more comprehensive, valid data out there for a legitimate comparison between metro areas. The Allstate report is nothing more than a marketing gimmick.
"Bike City" rankings are looking at completely different factors, but I'm certain that bicycling is better for your health (and wallet) than driving.
A few points:
From the Allstate report:
"The Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report tabulates property damage collision frequency of Allstate insured drivers from 2011-2012. The report analyzes the 200 largest cities from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Estimates of the Population for Incorporated Places over 50,000, measured for 2012 as of July 1, 2013. In prior years, neighboring cities that shared zip codes also shared rankings. This only impacted a minimal number of cities; however, in 2014, the report used geolocation to increase accuracy and there are no longer shared rankings. [my emphasis] The Allstate Best Drivers Report is produced solely to boost the country’s discussion about safe driving and to increase awareness of the importance of being safe and attentive behind the wheel."
I agree the Allstate report does have limitations in interpreting results, but it's not meaningless.
Among 200 of the most populated cities, with 200th place being the worst Albuquerque is ranked 126, which of course means there are cities that are no doubt worse, including Boston MA (199th) and Worcester MA (200th). Note ABQ is still in the lower 50 percentile (which can't be good). But no matter how you slice the numbers, consider what the KRQE news article said (which incidentally is not actually part of the Allstate report):
"...we do know that people in Albuquerque drive a lot and the streets are getting more crowded as the city grows."
Hence, I was just thinking given Albuquerque was ranked high for bicycling (obviously using a much different criteria than the Allstate report because bicyclists do not need insurance or a license), maybe more people riding bicycles would mean less car accidents? I just happen to see these two news reports and thought the comparison between biking and driving in ABQ was interesting.
"The Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report tabulates property damage collision frequency of Allstate insured drivers from 2011-2012. The report analyzes the 200 largest cities from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Annual Estimates of the Population for Incorporated Places over 50,000, measured for 2012 as of July 1, 2013. In prior years, neighboring cities that shared zip codes also shared rankings. This only impacted a minimal number of cities; however, in 2014, the report used geolocation to increase accuracy and there are no longer shared rankings. [my emphasis] The Allstate Best Drivers Report is produced solely to boost the country’s discussion about safe driving and to increase awareness of the importance of being safe and attentive behind the wheel."
I agree the Allstate report does have limitations in interpreting results, but it's not meaningless.
Among 200 of the most populated cities, with 200th place being the worst Albuquerque is ranked 126, which of course means there are cities that are no doubt worse, including Boston MA (199th) and Worcester MA (200th). Note ABQ is still in the lower 50 percentile (which can't be good). But no matter how you slice the numbers, consider what the KRQE news article said (which incidentally is not actually part of the Allstate report):
Well, the 50th percentile is actually 9.1 years between crashes vs 8.6 for Albuquerque (#100 on the list Oxnard, CA is 9.1). Not much of a difference IMO, and there's still the fact that drivers with Allstate insurance may not be representative of drivers in ABQ or any of the other cities in the report. And they still don't take account of the crashes per mile driven so the data is pretty meaningless if you're talking about who is a safe driver. If driver A drives 1,000 miles a year and has one accident every 10 years would you say they're a better driver than driver B who drives 15,000 miles a year and has one accident every 8.6 years? Of course not, that would be absurd.
And they still don't take account of the crashes per mile driven so the data is pretty meaningless if you're talking about who is a safe driver. If driver A drives 1,000 miles a year and has one accident every 10 years would you say they're a better driver than driver B who drives 15,000 miles a year and has one accident every 8.6 years? Of course not, that would be absurd.
You seem to be focusing on the probability of any one driver getting into an accident -- undoubtedly a questionable statistic to formulate from the Allstate study compared to ranking the cities from best to worst. If they had the data, a more fair comparison would be to factor in accidents based on miles driven.
However, there's no need to take into consideration miles driven when it comes to ranking the states from best to worst. Why? Because this condition applies to all levels of the independent variable (in this case, cities). Unlike a true experiment you can't control for the miles each person drives, but this is a field study. So again, you have to limit interpretations. The ranking of states is not one of these limitations because all the states likely have people who drive very little and those who drive a lot.
I'm not going to argue either way any further. I realize many people in Albuquerque do not like it when there's any evidence that suggests, as the news article did, that Albuquerque is unsafe for driving.
Last edited by Aero; 09-08-2014 at 07:41 PM..
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