(Photo By Flickr User Thomas Hawk)
A new study by quotewizard.com & WQAD-TV, have listed the best and worst driving cities in Illinois, and many of the worst cities are close to home.
The sites claims their data actually shows drivers in Illinois are some of the best in the country.
To determine overall driver quality in Illinois, they ranked the top three largest cities in the state. They also analyzed over 120,000 insurance quotes from Illinois drivers using QuoteWizard.com and ranked cities by the highest rate of incidents. Incidents include accidents, speeding tickets, DUIs, and citations.
Illinois’ Worst Driving Cities-
#1 Park Ridge:
On the doorstep of O’Hare, nestled between two busy interstates, resides the worst driving city in the state, Park Ridge. Typical of any city with so much traffic passing through, you’d expect to see a high rate of incidents. Park Ridge certainly fits that mold despite its proximity to one of the state’s best driving cities, Des Plaines. Given that some of the best driving cities can withstand the interstate and airport traffic, the poor quality of driving could very well be rooted in the residents of Park Ridge.
#2 Plainfield:
Heading west from Chicago into the suburbs, you’ll run into the second worst drivers in the state, Plainfield. Dealing with less traffic volume than Park Ridge, Plainfield is a highway intersection hub. Six highways entering the city from all different directions creates a hotbed for traffic incidents. Will County had a rate of 8.52 traffic fatalities per 100,000 people in 2017, falling right in line with the state average of 8.57.
#3 Crystal Lake:
An hour and a half northwest of downtown Chicago is Crystal Lake, home to the third-worst drivers in the state. For a city without much traffic going through it, and with a population of only around 40,000, Crystal Lake has all the makings of a safe driving city; however, its high rate of incidents suggests fingers should be pointed at the drivers in town. McHenry County had 10.68 road fatalities per 100,000 in 2017, slightly above the state average.
The other local cities that made the cut on this list were- #4 Normal, #7 Moline, #8 Rock Island, #9 Bloomington, #22 Belleville, #24 Quincy, and #25 Aurora.
Illinois’ Best Driving Cities-
#1 Evanston:
Off the beaten path from the major highways in the area, Evanston has a very coastal, slow-paced feel to it. That slow-paced life likely translates to equally slow-paced driving. Keeping the speed down reduces tickets and, most importantly, accidents. Another factor could be the smart kids at Northwestern University. Data here backs up their superior driving prowess compared their counterparts down in Champaign-Urbana.
#2 Des Plaines:
Just to the west of I-294, next to the worst driving city in Illinois, is the second-best driving city. Go figure! The geographical environment of highways and heavy traffic would give Des Plaines drivers a similar disadvantage as their neighbors in Park Ridge; however, with such high ratings, you really have to give credit to the residents of Des Plaines for their safe-driving displays.
#3 Arlington Heights:
Just a little further west, we run into the third-best driving city in Illinois, Arlington Heights. Being in the same area as both Des Plaines and Park Ridge, Arlington Heights shares a similar high-traffic environment. Just like Des Plaines, Arlington Heights can hang its hat on its residents’ being great drivers.
The other local cities that made the cut on this list were- #5 Peoria, #6 Joliet, #11 Urbana, #13 Decatur, #14 Champaign, #19 Romeoville, and #25 Springfield.
To read and to get more V-tails on this story, log on line to quotewizard.com for more info, right now!! Always remember, safety first & let’s be careful out there!!
