A recent study published by Forbes Advisor revealed the rankings for “Cities with the Worst Drivers,” and the two largest cities in the metroplex fell in the top 10—Dallas was ranked No. 6, while Fort Worth came in at No. 9. They were the highest-ranked cities in Texas, though four other cities in the state were in the top 25 (San Antonio at No. 12, El Paso at 20, Houston at 23, and Austin at 24).
Dallas resident Charlotte Thomas lives in a high-rise overlooking a local highway and frequently provides her Instagram followers with updates on traffic situations she observes from her balcony. She said she doesn’t believe that the driving issues in the city are necessarily because of the location itself but because of other factors that come with a population increase.
“I don’t think Dallas drivers are bad, per say, but I think there is a melting pot of drivers,” she said. “Many people from all over the U.S. are moving to Dallas, and they bring their habits with them. Fast drivers mixed with slow, conservative ones will always cause some problems.”
Dallas-area resident Josh Odegard said his many years of driving throughout the DFW metroplex have led him to the conclusion that the individuals on the roads lack sufficient skills behind the wheel. He doesn’t limit that notion solely to this region, though.
“I’ve also been to other major Texas metropolitan areas—like Austin, Houston, and San Antonio—and I can’t say that Dallas drivers are any better or worse than any of the others,” he said, “which leads me to believe that drivers, in general, suck at driving.”
However, Odegard doesn’t place himself in the category among those who contribute to the hazardous situations that often occur.
“I don’t think that I have a superiority complex, but I do know that I am a better driver than 99 percent of the rest of Texas drivers,” he said. “I think that most North Texas drivers fall into two categories—aggressive or possibly sleeping. I believe there is also a third category, but there are probably only seven of us in the entire state. We have more of an intentional but evasive style. I know where I’m going, I know how to get there, I’m not checking Google Maps, I’m not trying to decide which lane I should be in, and I’m focused. I look forward, but I also look out for the other two groups of drivers. They are everywhere. You are either going around them or moving over to let them go around you.”
Like Odegard, Dallas resident Alexis Derrow is not impressed with the driving she sees in the metroplex, citing the following improvements needed: using signals when changing lanes and turning, preparing to exit sooner rather than crossing four lanes of traffic to do so, driving at safer speeds that aren’t 20 miles per hour over the speed limit, and avoiding tailgating. A native of the Chicago area, she believes drivers in Dallas could learn a few things from other areas of the country.
“Drivers in Chicago are better,” she said. “They do the Midwest wave. It’s very nice. Apparently, for a while, Texas stopped requiring the driving portion of the driving test. They need to bring that back.”
Unlike Derrow, though, Thomas said she is surprised that Dallas was ranked as one of the top cities in the nation for having the worst drivers.
“Every city has bad drivers, honestly,” she said. “I still believe that it’s the variety of drivers from different locations that causes the increase of accidents (which I’m assuming is what this statistic is using as its measurement).”
Number of accidents was a key metric of the study, which identified the cities where drivers engage in the most dangerous behavior that poses threats to public safety. Dallas has the third-highest number of fatal car accidents involving drunk drivers, fourth-highest for number of fatal car accidents involving speeding, seventh-highest total number of fatal car accidents, and seventh-highest number of people killed in fatal crashes. Thomas said she thinks there might be fewer incidents if drivers were more patient and less angry and if they learned the city better.
“If you don’t know where you are going, you are more than likely to make a wrong turn, which decreases your patience and increases your anger,” she said. “If you are still using your phone map [for directions only, not for traffic conditions] to get to the basic destinations you go to every day (stores, work, friends’ houses), you’re not improving your driving skills.”
Odegard certainly isn’t shocked by the Dallas rankings and said he can confirm that the city has the worst drivers in the state of Texas.
“Nobody knows where they’re going, but everyone acts like they are in a movie,” he said. “If you are on Central Expressway, you’re in the Fast and the Furious. If you’re on 635, that’s Mad Max. If you’re on any roadway in North Texas that is not a highway, welcome to Driving Miss Daisy.”
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