When I was a kid, roaring around the gravel and dirt roads of Allamakee County, Iowa, in a 1966 Ford, my observation of traffic laws was a bit… fluid. Like everyone else in the county, I drove down the middle of the road unless a car was coming the other way, and my friends and I viewed speed limits as kind of a broad guideline, maybe more of a suggestion. Turn signals were used infrequently, generally only when we went to town. I remember one girl I took out for a Sunday drive remarking on the dust gathering on my old Ford’s turn-signal lever, and my telling her, “I’m out of turn-signal fluid – have to stop next time in town and buy some.” I don’t think she believed me.
I suppose that, by current standards, that made me a bad driver. Now, a survey published by Forbes Advisor is checking drivers against 19 indicators to determine which states have the best – and worst – drivers.
