For all of Virginia's high rankings and accolades — including being among the best states to live in — there’s one area where Virginia definitely is not getting high praise.
In fact, Virginia is getting the equivalent of an F in driving, according to one study released this spring.
According to this year's Insurify Insights study on how many people have driving violations, driving in Virginia is so dangerous that you just might want to quarantine a little bit longer. Virginia has more than 1 in 4 drivers (26.52 percent) reporting past driving traffic incidents when they apply for insurance in Virginia, according to Insurify.
Virginia was beaten in the top 10 list by even worse drivers by Ohio, Iowa and Nebraska.
But as with any study, the methodology matters and the same "worst" or "best" ranking can be determined different ways.
Back in 2019, the most recent data available, AllState insurance ranked the 200 largest cities in terms of driving safety, and Alexandria ranked 192 on that list. Drivers here average of 6.2 years between claims, compared to 13 to 15 years in the states with the "best" drivers.
And don’t think that going into the District or Maryland is any better — Washington, D.C. ranked 199 and Baltimore ranked 200 on that year’s AllState list. Here in Alexandria, Allstate pinpointed Richmond Highway as being the most unsafe stretch of road.
In other ways, maybe Virginia drivers aren't so bad: A study released earlier this year by FLT Law based in Chicago showed that Virginia drivers are not among the worst, at least for serious infractions and fatal accidents. That study put Virginia 45th out of 50 states (with the no. 1 spot going to the worst state, New Mexico), based on DUI arrests, accident fatalities, uninsured drivers and Google searches for terms like "car accident lawyer."
