While some folks in New Mexico prefer hot air balloons as a means of transportation, the rest are stuck on land with four wheels and a steering wheel. New Mexico drivers generally rate fairly well compared to other states. In QuoteWizard’s latest best and worst drivers study New Mexico ranked 33rd worst, which puts them in the better half of the county for driver quality. Even Albuquerque regularly rates among the best driving cities in the country.
We here at QuoteWizard wanted to find out where the worst of the worst drivers are and where the best of them are. To determine overall driver quality in New Mexico, we studied drivers in New Mexico’s 20 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 New Mexico
| Rankig (worst) | City |
|---|---|
| 1 | Sunland Park |
| 2 | Los Alamos |
| 3 | Los Lunas |
| 4 | Deming |
| 5 | Carlsbad |
| 6 | Roswell |
| 7 | Santa Fe |
| 8 | Las Vegas |
| 9 | Alamogordo |
| 10 | Farmington |
Sunland Park
Tucked away in the far south east corner of the state, Sunland Park takes the top spot for worst drivers in New Mexico. We can’t speak much to the driver quality across the border in Mexico, but across the border in Texas is El Paso which regularly ranks among the best driving cities in the country. It very well could be a whole different quality of driver just across the Rio Grande. Doña Ana county accounted for 6.90 road fatalities per 100,000 people in 2017.
Los Alamos
Up in the mountains sits the second worst driving city in New Mexico. Los Alamos is a town of 12,000 folks at 7,300 feet of elevation. Not many drivers on the roads like Sunland Park. You’d have to really question the quality of drivers up that high in the mountains. Lack of oxygen or just bad drivers? Good news is Los Alamos had zero road fatalities in 2017.
Los Lunas
Sandwiched between I-25 and highway 314 just south of Albuquerque, it would make sense why Los Lunas is the third worst driving city in New Mexico. We see this around the country, where a city has busy interstates and highways going through town that causes more incidents. More traffic equals more incidents. Valencia county did have 9.16 road fatalities per 100,000 people in 2017.
Best driving cities in New Mexico
| Rankig (best) | City |
|---|---|
| 1 | Chaparral |
| 2 | South Valley |
| 3 | North Valley |
| 4 | Albuquerque |
| 5 | Hobbs |
| 6 | Las Cruces |
| 7 | Gallup |
| 8 | Clovis |
| 9 | Artesia |
| 10 | Rio Rancho |
Chaparral
Right in the same neighborhood as the worst driving city in New Mexico is the best driving city Chaparral. Chaparral does have a distinct advange for better driving condiditons. Sunland Park deals with I-10 traffic from El Paso, which does lead to a high rate of incidents. Chaparral on the other hand is off the beaten path and out of the way from the I-10 traffic.
South Valley
Sharing similar characteristics to Los Lunas type traffic, South Valley drivers avoid the same fate and are among the best drivers in New Mexico. Still sandwiched between I-25 and highway 45 Drivers in the South Valley really do stand out as some of the best in the state. Bernalillo county had 13.56 road fatalities per 100,000 people in 2017.
North Valley
It would appear the Rio Grande Valley is a hotbed for the best drivers in the state of New Mexico. North, south and Albuquerque in the middle, all rate among the best in the state. Hats off to the valley drivers, keep it up.
Methodology
The QuoteWizard research team evaluated driver quality from the 50 largest cities in Oklahoma by population. We analyzed 2018 data of over 65,000 insurance quotes from Oklahoma drivers using QuoteWizard to find the rate of overall incidents in each city. Incidents include accidents, speeding tickets, DUIs, and citations.
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