Please tell me this ain't true...? (Houston, Dallas: car insurance, living in, restaurant)

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by EDS_

Why are we comparing Texas to Illinois drivers? I've lived in TX most of my life and there are large swaths of the state I've never driven to.

This data is old, apparently only updated every 5 years. But at least historically Dallas and DFW are not dangerous places to drive.

Motor Vehicle Crash Deaths in Metropolitan Areas — United States, 2009

ETA - According to the .gov Dallas rates a 79 so far as fatalities (0 being awful - 100 being great).

https://www.transportation.gov/trans...ool/indicators


The take aways are we have room for improvement but between the relative lack of all types of wrecks, for a big city, and the relatively low number of fatalities, again for a big city, all the stories about how Dallas has the terrible drives isn't supported by any data.

[numberfive]

Originally Posted by TheOverdog

No it does not but it does follow that more congestion leads to slower driving which may lead to more accidents (Boston in the Allstate list is last-most car accidents) but leads to less deaths (Massachusetts in your list is last-least deaths).

So as you can see from these two charts, quality of drivers has no bearing on number of deaths. If it did, then Boston would be up there for the least number of accidents, not near the most.

You know, you bring up an interesting point... what do the actuarial tables look like, do insurance rates for an individual go up in Dallas and down in Chicago? In other words, if I relocate to Texas, do my rates immediately change one way or the other? If so, why?

Originally Posted by EDS_

Why are we comparing Texas to Illinois drivers?

Context

This entire thread is about the perspective of outsiders driving in Texas, or at least that's how I took it.

[numberfive]

Originally Posted by EDS_

ETA - According to the .gov Dallas rates a 79 so far as fatalities (0 being awful - 100 being great).

https://www.transportation.gov/trans...ool/indicators


The take aways are we have room for improvement but between the relative lack of all types of wrecks, for a big city, and the relatively low number of fatalities, again for a big city, all the stories about how Dallas has the terrible drives isn't supported by any data.

Did you catch this post about the IIHS data?

We might be talking about different things though, if the point of this thread is relative safety (comparing A to B), there are plenty of people that have evidence-backed claims that Dallas driving is worse than where they came from. There are also other people that have the opposite experience, they notice it's much safer than where they came from.

It's all relative IMO. People just tend to notice the negative more than the positive ("why does everyone complain about X??")

[EDS_]

Originally Posted by numberfive

Did you catch this post about the IIHS data?

We might be talking about different things though, if the point of this thread is relative safety (comparing A to B), there are plenty of people that have evidence-backed claims that Dallas driving is worse than where they came from. There are also other people that have the opposite experience, they notice it's much safer than where they came from.

It's all relative IMO. People just tend to notice the negative more than the positive ("why does everyone complain about X??")

I agree with your thesis then. But the OP seems genuinely worried that driving around Dallas is like a bumper cars match.

The takeaway is on balance especially among the car-centric big cities Dallas shows up pretty well statistically.

[turf3]

Wherever you go in the US, newcomers to that area claim "the worst drivers ever", while locals deny it, and at the same time other locals take a sort of perverse pride in "we're the worst drivers anywhere - not me personally, of course, but all those other idiots".

I call BS on the whole shootin' match.

[Allison81]

Originally Posted by MckinneyOwnr

Dallas drivers are aggressive, but better than most other places I've lived. FL was the absolute worst.

I wouldn't worry too much. I would, however, get an SUV or truck to commute in until you get used to what traffic is like. You have to be extra alert when driving a small vehicle, as there are tons of big trucks and SUVs here and they can be quite dangerous when driven by a poor driver.

I agree. I lived in south FL for many years. Rude, crazy drivers. Now that I'm back in Dallas I feel like everyone drives too slow here! I guess I got too used to the crazy FL ways of the road. Speed up people!!! LOL

[numberfive]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XWPCE2tTLZQ

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by Texas Minded

This made me lol...

"Never use turn signals before attempting a lane change, as this indicates weakness and will cause alpha drivers to close ranks and force you to drive all the way to Waco as punishment."

LOL! Pretty spot on!

[TXNGL]

Originally Posted by turf3

Wherever you go in the US, newcomers to that area claim "the worst drivers ever", while locals deny it, and at the same time other locals take a sort of perverse pride in "we're the worst drivers anywhere - not me personally, of course, but all those other idiots".

I call BS on the whole shootin' match.

You make a good point. I think drivers in major cities everywhere have gotten worse, more aggressive, and less kind. Driving in Dallas is certainly a different experience nowadays from how it was when I was a kid learning. And the perverse pride (I like that) in boasting having the worst drivers is just bizarre to me! I'm frightened on the roads in cities. Don't want to be. I love long road trips, but find city driving everywhere to be downright scary.

[serger]

I was going to say bad things e.g. inability to drive in rain, even worse in ice/snow, multiple cars making a left turn on red (3x3 cars today), etc., but on the other hand, nobody here has passed me at 50-60 mph on the right, going on the sidewalk, so yes it could be worse..