Given that the Salt Lake City area is among the snowiest in the county. You’d expect to see a high rate of car accidents in the area. Severe winter weather is always risky to drive in. Although, the seasoned winter drivers in Utah have to be great drivers, right? Wrong.
According to QuoteWizard’s 2016 best and worst driving study, Utah took the top spot as the worst driving state in the county. While 2017 (3rd) and 2018 (9th) studies saw more favorable rankings, Utah remains a top 10 worst driving state. The winter driving conditions with already poor driving habits will likely keep Utahns among the worst drivers in the country. Of the overall worst, we wanted to dive into the numbers and see where the worst of the worst drivers live, and also see where the best of the worst drivers are.
To determine overall driver quality in Utah, we ranked the 50 largest cities in the state. We analyzed over 85,000 insurance quotes from Utah drivers using QuoteWizard.com and ranked cities by the highest rate of incidents. Incidents include accidents, speeding tickets, DUIs, and citations.
Utah’s Worst Driving Cities
| Rank (worst) | City |
|---|---|
| 1 | Farmington |
| 2 | South Jordan |
| 3 | Kaysville |
| 4 | Saratoga Springs |
| 5 | Centerville |
| 6 | Clearfield |
| 7 | Clinton |
| 8 | Orem |
| 9 | Riverton |
| 10 | Spanish Fork |
| 11 | Kearns |
| 12 | Syracuse |
| 13 | Layton |
| 14 | Roy |
| 15 | Herriman |
| 16 | Magna |
| 17 | Washington |
| 18 | Provo |
| 19 | Bountiful |
| 20 | Eagle Mountain |
| 21 | North Ogden |
| 22 | West Jordan |
| 23 | Ogden |
| 24 | Logan |
| 25 | Pleasant Grove |
Farmington
Sandwiched between the Great Salt Lake and Bountiful Peak is the worst driving city in Utah, Farmington. The way Farmington is situated makes it a prime candidate for a high rate of incidents. The only highway traveled from Ogden to Salt Lake City is I-15 right through Farmington. Given the high traffic going through Farmington there’s plenty of opportunities for incidents. Luckily the high rate of incidents in Farmington are mostly non-fatal. Davis county had a traffic fatality rate of 3.16 per 100,000 people.
South Jordan
Another prime location for a bad driving city. South Jordan being situated between I-15, highway 154, and 175 presents a high risk traffic corredor. Given the geographical location of South Jordan there’s plenty of reason to understand why it’s such a high incident city. However, it’s residents could very well be the real problem.
Kaysville
Kaysville is in a similar predicament as neighboring Farmington. It’s unavoidable to travel north and south from Ogden to SLC, without heading through Kaysville. The high rate of traffic is surely the cause of bad driving in Kaysville. As shown above, Kaysville plays a role in the low fatality rate of Davis county.
Utah’s Best Driving Cities
| Rank (worst) | City |
|---|---|
| 1 | Cedar City |
| 2 | Tooele |
| 3 | Holladay |
| 4 | Hurricane |
| 5 | West Valley City |
| 6 | Springville |
| 7 | South Ogden |
| 8 | Salt Lake City |
| 9 | Sandy |
| 10 | Taylorsville |
| 11 | Lehi |
| 12 | St. George |
| 13 | Millcreek |
| 14 | Murray |
| 15 | Draper |
| 16 | Payson |
| 17 | North Salt Lake |
| 18 | Brigham City |
| 19 | West Jordan |
| 20 | Ogden |
| 21 | Logan |
| 22 | Pleasant Grove |
| 23 | Cottonwood Heights |
| 24 | Midvale |
| 25 | American Fork |
Cedar City
Hop on I-15 South from SLC and keep going for 250 miles, you’ll hit the safest driving city in Utah. Cedar City is your prototypical safe driving city. Being out of the bustling traffic of the Salt Lake City area helps limit risk of incidents. Incidents are low in Cedar City, but Iron county as a whole is quite deadly. There were 21.57 road fatalities per 100,000 people in 2017. Which was a significant jump from 8.03 fatalities in 2016.
Tooele
Stepping just outside of the SLC metro area is Tooele, home to the second best drivers in Utah. Another city benefiting from the lack of traffic that metro area cities deal with. Tooele drivers safely move on highway 36, the only highway going through town. Tooele county experienced 13.34 road fatalities per 100,000 people in 2017. A large reduction from the 30.96 fatalities in 2016.
Holladay
As Cedar City and Tooele benefit from low traffic outside of the Salt Lake City area, Holladay drivers remain among the safest drivers in the metro area. Tucked up against the base of Mt. Olympus and outside of the I-15 cooradoor, Holladay is somewhat isolated from the worst of Salt Lake City traffic. However, kudos to Holladay drivers for their safe driving habits in one of the worst driving cities in the US.
Methodology
The QuoteWizard research team evaluated driver quality from the 50 largest cities in Utah by population. We analyzed 2018 data of over 85,000 insurance quotes from Utah drivers using QuoteWizard to find the rate of overall incidents in each city. Incidents include accidents, speeding tickets, DUIs, and citations.
References:
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