Worst U.S. drivers? Study says those in Pittsburgh, tied with NYC

If you ever thought Pittsburgh drivers go too fast, talk too much on their phones and like jackrabbit starts, you might be right.

Throw in too much hard braking and too many sharp turns and you have the full picture of why online insurance marketplace EverQuote Inc. rated Pittsburgh drivers the worst in the country. Adding insult to injury, drivers here share the dishonor with drivers in New York City.

EverQuote studied 11 months of driving habits through March 6 for 150,000 drivers who use the company’s EverDrive cell phone app and released the rankings Wednesday. The rankings are based on five driving activities recorded by the app during 20 million trips covering 230 million miles: speeding, cell

phone use, excess acceleration, hard braking and hard turning.

App users can get a regular report of their driving habits and the company maintains an aggregate of all drivers but doesn’t keep or share individual reports, said Ryan Ruffing, director of communications for the Massachusetts company. The company released the study as part of Distracted Driving Awareness Month.

What the app found out about Pittsburgh drivers isn’t good.

Specifically, Pittsburghers had their worst marks in the two categories EverQuote considers the most dangerous, Mr. Ruffing said, speeding and using cell phones. The company found Pittsburgh drivers went too fast on 52 percent of their trips and used their cell phones on 35 percent of their trips. Talking on a cell phone while driving is legal in Pennsylvania.

The best city drivers? Those in Minneapolis/St. Paul, followed by Portland, Ore., and St. Louis.

Pittsburgh’s bad ranking helped sink the state as a whole, with Pennsylvania ranking 48th, ahead of only Connecticut and Rhode Island, which was last.

The data shows Pennsylvanians were speeding on 47 percent of their trips and using their cell phones 37 percent of the time. Motorists in Montana were rated the best drivers.

Moon police Sgt. Doug Ogden, coordinator of the West Hills DUI Task Force for 15 suburban communities, said he doesn’t necessarily agree we’re the worst drivers. He has worked in Florida, among other places, and doesn’t see a huge difference, he said.

“I think the drivers are nicer here than anywhere else as far as yielding and letting someone else go,” he said.

But there’s no disagreeing with drivers being distracted. Mr. Ruffing said his company has found drivers have a “huge awareness gap” about how often they use their phones while driving. The company’s statistics show that 92 percent of drivers used their phones while driving in the past 30 days, but only 56 percent admitted it.

“A lot of people don’t think using their phone is a big problem, so they don’t even think about it,” he said.

EverQuote’s goal is for drivers to review the personal data it provides and adjust habits such as cell phone use.

Sgt. Ogden doesn’t expect that to happen.

“It’s obvious to anybody in law enforcement that one of our most common problems is distracted driving,” he said. “The vast majority of accidents are related to distracted driving.

“But as a society we’ve gotten used to instant contact with everybody and I don’t know if there’s a way back from that.”

“A lot of people don’t think using their phone is a big problem, so they don’t even think about it.” — Ryan Ruffing, director of communications for EverDrive