Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Sacramento 21% more aggressive than the average driver in the US, topping the list of US cities with most gas-guzzling drivers on the road
Honking, squeaking brakes and bumper-to-bumper traffic are common problems in many of America’s congested cities. Frustrated drivers can get agitated quickly, and their aggressive driving habits like speeding, rapid acceleration and braking can lower gas mileage by as much as 40 percent, costing them as much as $477 per year in additional fuel consumption. Today we’re revealing the major metropolitan areas in the United States with the most aggressive drivers, causing them to pay more for gasoline by making more frequent trips to the pump.
We compiled data from our Drives feature in the GasBuddy app, examining the top 30 metropolitan areas by population as defined by the United States Census Bureau from Nov. 2018 – Feb. 2019, noting the frequency of an aggressive event while driving, whether it be speeding, hard braking or accelerating.
TOP 10 CITIES WITH THE MOST AGGRESSIVE DRIVERS
Los Angeles
Philadelphia
Sacramento, Calif.
Atlanta
San Francisco
San Diego
Orlando, Fla.
Detroit
Austin, Texas
Las Vegas
Los Angeles consistently tops the list of having some of the most expensive gas prices in the nation, currently averaging $3.35 per gallon. Combined with traffic and congestion, the GasBuddy Aggressive Driving study reveals that the way Los Angeles motorists are driving is also contributing to a larger gasoline budget. And it doesn’t stop with Los Angeles: four of the top 10 cities with the most aggressive drivers are in California, including Sacramento, San Francisco and San Diego.
“Frustration while driving in densely populated cities with high levels of congestion leads motorists to drive more aggressively and with more urgency. Interestingly, these are areas that typically see some of the highest gas prices in their respective states,” said Patrick DeHaan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. “With drivers in Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Sacramento and Atlanta being 20 percent more aggressive than the average driver in America, it’s particularly important for commuters and rideshare drivers in these areas to work on shedding their lead foot and relax more to keep money from flying out the window each time they hit the road.”
Last year our Aggressive Driving Study examined the states with the most aggressive drivers. Seven of the top 10 cities with the most aggressive drivers from this year’s study are within the top 10 states with the most aggressive drivers, including California, Georgia, Texas and Florida.
Additional findings include:
- Frustrating Fridays: Motorists are 1.2x more likely to encounter aggressive driving on Friday than on Wednesday. The most aggressive day on the road is Friday, with 14% more aggressive driving events occurring compared to the average across the United States. The least aggressive day on the road is Wednesday, with 6% fewer aggressive driving events occurring compared to the average across the United States.
- Wearing Out the Brakes (All Week): The most frequent aggressive driving habit on weekdays is hard braking, followed by rapid acceleration and speeding. On weekends, the most frequent aggressive driving habit continues to be hard braking, followed by speeding and rapid acceleration.
- San Diego’s Need for Speed: While cities like Los Angeles and Philadelphia take the top spots in regards to hard braking and rapid acceleration, San Diego, Orlando and Detroit take the top 3 spots for cities with the most speeding incidents.
Complete city rankings can be found here.
Methodology
The findings were compiled using data from our Drives feature in the GasBuddy app that offers drivers an assessment of their driving habits during their trip in an effort to improve fuel efficiency, mapping out when and where a poor driving habit occurred.
We examined Drives in the top 30 metropolitan areas by population as defined by the United States Census Bureau from Nov. 2018 – Feb. 2019, noting the frequency of an aggressive event while driving, whether it be speeding, hard braking or accelerating. The aggressive driving percentage within the report compares the average number of aggressive driving events per trip for drivers in a particular metropolitan area to the average number of aggressive driving events per trip for the average American driver.