America’s Best Drivers Report ranks the 200 largest U.S. cities by collision frequency and hard applications of the brake based on telematics data. Allstate found a correlation between hard braking and collision frequency. Drivers in cities with fewer hard-braking events per 1,000 miles tend to have fewer property damage claims. Nationally, the average American driver will experience approximately 19 hard-braking events for every 1,000 miles driven.
According to Allstate claims data, the average driver in the U.S. will experience a collision once every 10.57 years. This year, Allstate researchers analyzed property damage claims reported during the two-year period of January 2016 to December 2017. The report defines a collision as any auto crash resulting in a property damage claim and uses U.S. Census Bureau data to determine America’s 200 largest cities. Hard-braking data is based on customers voluntarily enrolled in Allstate’s Drivewise telematics program in 2016-2017.
Brownsville, Texas, drivers have the nation’s safest roads, averaging about 15 years between crashes. Data on the number of hard-brakes for Brownsville drivers per 1,000 miles wasn’t available. The insurer said it found hard-braking correlates with crash frequency. Cities where drivers don’t hard-brake as often tend to see fewer property damage claims. Baltimore, Maryland drivers was the least safe area in the nation, with the average crash claim filed about every four years. Baltimore drivers also hard-brake more than 30 times every 1,000 miles, far more than the national average of 19.