Best drivers in the US? This North Carolina city ranks on a national list — seriously
A North Carolina city ranks as one of the nation’s best places for drivers — again.
No, that’s not a typo.
Raleigh ranks No. 8 on a list of places where people show some of the safest behaviors on the road, according to the personal finance website Forbes Advisor.
“Fatal car accidents are increasing across the country, with the number of deadly crashes climbing by nearly 10% from 2020 to 2022,” the website wrote in a Feb. 15 email to McClatchy News. “In some cities, dangerous driving behavior tends to be less common, putting drivers at lower risk when they get behind the wheel.”
While people traveling on Wade Avenue or Capital Boulevard at rush hour may question Raleigh’s place in the rankings, this isn’t the first time the city has been named a top place for drivers. It earned spots on similar lists in 2022 and 2023 from the personal finance website WalletHub, which studied costs, safety and infrastructure.
This time around, Forbes Advisor said it studied National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data for the 50 most populous U.S. cities. Using an average of figures from 2017 to 2021, the website focused on five metrics related to deadly crashes per 100,000 residents.
Raleigh had 1.3 fatal crashes involving drunken drivers and 1.59 fatal crashes involving speeding per 100,000 people — ranking it low among the cities considered. Raleigh also was safer than several other places when it came to the total number of crashes and the number of people killed in crashes per 100,000.
But North Carolina’s capital city ranked about average when it came to the fifth category: deadly crashes involving distracted driving, results show.
The results come as Charlotte landed much lower on the list, being named the 15th-worst city for drivers in the country, The Charlotte Observer reported.
Overall, the nation’s best place for drivers was Boston, while the most dangerous was Albuquerque, results show.
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