The annual Allstate Best Drivers Report says Tucson is 20th in the nation for the safest drivers among 200 American cities.
Another ranking released last week says we're the worst Arizona city for speed traps.
How do the two measures of our driving reconcile?
I figure we're driving more slowly to avoid the speed traps, and our slower driving makes us safer. But if we're driving more slowly, wouldn't that cancel the need for all those speed traps? And since I'm already asking questions, what is a "speed trap"? Does our local photo radar count as a speed trap, or only when officers watch traffic with a speed gun?
Maybe that's a different issue for a different day. Conflicting reports come out all the time from all sorts of special-interest groups, so their conclusions can be hard to break down.
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The Allstate report analyzed how often the average driver will be in a crash based on the company's computerized claims data, then it compared the frequency (in years) with the figures for other cities.
The speed-trap report was compiled from data that drivers themselves report to the National Motorists Association's "National Speed Trap Exchange."
On its website, the association says it represents the rights and interests of drivers, so "they will no longer be ignored and exploited by federal, state and local governments."
The group's ranking for Tucson means we have the most driver-reported speed traps in the state. The other Arizona city named on the list was Flagstaff, apparently the worst place in Arizona for speed traps with fewer than 100,000 residents.
"With the combination of heavy holiday traffic, federally funded ticketing campaigns, and financially strapped local and state governments, motorists have good reason to feel like they have dollar signs painted on their vehicles," the association said in a news release.
Of course, just because we report the most speed traps to the National Motorists Association doesn't mean we actually have the most.
We've kept about the same safety ranking as last year's, with the average frequency of crashes once every 11.3 years, says the Allstate report. We're still beating the national average. The safest city in that report was Fort Collins, Colo., where drivers were involved in a crash an average of once every 14.5 years. "Allstate's auto policies represent about 11 percent of all U.S. auto policies, making this report a realistic snapshot of what's happening on America's roadways," the insurance company said.
E-mail your road-related questions to roadrunner@azstarnet.com Please include your first and last names.
