With all the traffic passing through I-95 on the Long Island sound from New York City to Boston you’d figure to see a high rate of incidents in the state of Connecticut. To their credit, Connecticut drivers rate among the better driving states in the country according to QuoteWizard state rankings. Neighboring states New York, Rhode Island and Massachusetts also rate among the better driving states. Which makes for safe passage through the constitution state. But far enough away from Maine, the worst driving state in the country.
For being in the middle of the pack for driver quality, we wanted to flush out the best and worst drivers in Connecticut. We analyzed QuoteWizard data from tens of thousands of insurance quotes from Connecticut to see where the best and worst drivers live. To determine overall driver quality in Connecticut, we studied drivers in Connecticut’s 50 largest cities who used QuoteWizard.com to compare quotes. We then ranked cities by the highest rate of incidents. Incidents include accidents, speeding tickets, DUI’s and moving citations from that data.
Worst driving cities in Connecticut
| Rank (worst) | City |
|---|---|
| 1 | Ridgefield |
| 2 | Shelton |
| 3 | Milford |
| 4 | Newtown |
| 5 | Southington |
| 6 | New Milford |
| 7 | Guilford |
| 8 | Glastonbury |
| 9 | Cheshire |
| 10 | Branford |
| 11 | Wallingford |
| 12 | Farmington |
| 13 | Danbury |
| 14 | Windham |
| 15 | Manchester |
| 16 | North Haven |
| 17 | Groton |
| 18 | Hamden |
| 19 | Newington |
| 20 | Bristol |
| 21 | Fairfield |
| 22 | Middletown |
| 23 | Naugatuck |
| 24 | Stratford |
| 25 | Norwalk |
Ridgefield
Being in the south west corner of the state you’d expect to see the worst driving cities along the I-95 corridor. Ridgefield doesn’t get the traffic coming from New York City, which would make you wonder about the real quality of drivers in Ridgefield. It’s fellow bad driving cities Shelton and Milford deal with the New York traffic, what does Ridgefield deal with besides it’s own bad drivers? Fairfield county had 6.21 road fatalities per 100,000 people in 2017.
Shelton
Catching the New York to New Haven traffic, Shelton does deal with a significant amount of traffic. That traffic on the roads of Shelton does lead to an increased chance of incidents. While that doesn’t completely let Shelton drivers off the hook, it is an understandable situation.
Milford
Of the top three worst driving cities in Connecticut I’d give Milford the benefit of the doubt. I-95 traffic goes right through the heart of town. That busy highway traffic and folks getting on and off in Milford make it a perfect place for a road incident. New Haven county had 8.72 road fatalities per 100,000 people in 2017. New Haven 8.72
Best driving cities in Connecticut
| Rank (best) | City |
|---|---|
| 1 | Mansfield |
| 2 | New Haven |
| 3 | Simsbury |
| 4 | Hartford |
| 5 | Waterbury |
| 6 | West Hartford |
| 7 | Westport |
| 8 | East Haven |
| 9 | Trumbull |
| 10 | South Windsor |
| 11 | Stamford |
| 12 | New London |
| 13 | Bridgeport |
| 14 | Enfield |
| 15 | East Hartford |
| 16 | Torrington |
| 17 | West Haven |
| 18 | New Britain |
| 19 | Darien |
| 20 | Meriden |
| 21 | Norwich |
| 22 | Wethersfield |
| 23 | Windsor |
| 24 | Greenwich |
| 25 | Vernon |
Mansfield
Far away from the hustle and bustle of the big cities, Mansfield is a city where law abiding folks stay safe on the roads. Quite the opposite of it’s bigger city counterparts, the advantage of low traffic in Mansfields makes it an ideal city for safe driving. Tolland county had 7.92 road fatalities per 100,000 people in 2017.
New Haven
Bucking the big city trend and it’s bad driving neighbors, New Haven shows up as the second best driving city in the state. Given the amount of traffic going through town, you really have to give it up to New Haven residents for being safe out on the roads.
Simsbury
With a similar lay of the land as Mansfield, there not much car traffic going in and out of town. But again, don’t completely discount the drivers of Simsbury. Slow and steady wins the race, and keeps the drivers of Simsbury safe. Tip of the hat to those folks. Hartford county had 6.70 road fatalities per 100,000 people in 2017.
Methodology
The QuoteWizard research team evaluated driver quality from the 50 largest cities in Connecticut by population. We analyzed 2018 data from tens of thousands of insurance quotes from Connecticut drivers using QuoteWizard to find the rate of overall incidents in each city. Incidents include accidents, speeding tickets, DUIs and moving citations
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