
Think you’re a smart driver? Prove it.
For the last six years, GMAC insurance company has offered an online driver’s test to see if Americans are still capable of passing the written part of their driver’s exam. The results aren’t encouraging.
This year’s scores indicate that about 38 million Americans, or one in five licensed drivers, would fail a typical written driver’s exam. The state with the worst drivers was New York, with an average score of 70. The best drivers live in Kansas, with an average score of 82. The test involves 20 common questions culled from state DMV exams, with additional questions designed to discover if drivers are engaging in distracting behavior while driving.
Here are the states with the best and worst scores:
Best scores:
- Kansas
- Oregon
- South Dakota
- Minnesota
- Iowa
Worst Scores
- New York
- New Jersey
- Washington DC
- California
- Rhode Island
The national average score was 76.2, a slight decline from last year’s 76.6. The best scores went to older drivers, with males scoring about four percentage points higher than females. About 25% of participants admitted to “driving while talking on a cell phone, eating and adjusting the radio or selecting songs on an iPod.” Only 5% would admit to texting behind the wheel.
Want to see if you’re smarter than the average driver in your state? Here’s where to take the test:
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