It’s official: L.A. has some of the worst drivers in the country. Almost as bad as Boston, study finds

Blame it on so many tourists. Or on all those low-speed TV chases.

Whatever the cause, Los Angeles has come in 193rd in a just-released report on drivers’ skills, a ranking that goes from best to worst and includes 200 cities.

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For the Record, June 28, 5:30 p.m.: An earlier version of this article said Los Angeles was ranked 197th in the Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report. It was ranked 193rd. The headline has been changed to reflect that the report covered only the U.S.
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Yep. 193rd.

“Wow, that high?” you might be thinking, at least if you’ve ever experienced an L.A. rush hour on the four-level, a stacked interchange of freeways that hovers over downtown.

California gets an F

Allstate unveiled its 13th annual Allstate America’s Best Drivers Report this week to promote safe driving habits on the ramp up to the traffic-intensive July Fourth holiday.

California cities did not fare well in the report. The best ranked city was Oxnard, in the 70th spot. That was followed by:

Select ranking of California cities:

• Palmdale, 71
• Bakersfield, 79
• Huntington Beach, 86
• Orange, 108
• San Bernardino, 119
• Long Beach, 155
• Irvine, 161
• Anaheim, 168
• Pasadena, 171
• San Francisco, 185
• Fullerton, 188
• Glendale, 195

Who’s No. 1?

That’s Kansas City, Kan., with Brownsville, Texas, at No. 2 and Madison, Wis., coming in third.

The average U.S. driver experiences a collision every 10 years, the report said.

As No. 1, Kansas City drivers are involved in an accident every 14.9 years. In L.A., drivers average a collision every 5.9 years, despite relatively decent weather conditions.

Years between claims was the metric used to rank the cities.

Boston is a fine city. But you wouldn’t necessarily want to drive there. (Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

(Carolyn Cole / Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

And finishing at the bottom...

No surprise to anyone who’s ever rented a car there: Boston comes in at No. 200. Drivers there are involved in a collision every 3.6 years.

To compile the list, Allstate used company claims data to analyze collision frequency in the nation’s 200 largest cities.