Mini-rant about Driving in KC vs TX

I couldn’t keep doing this via twitter. It was too insufficient.

Quick summation: there have been what I think to be far too many car accidents occurring on my commutes to work and back home as of late, and I even passed 4 on the same highway on my way into work yesterday. Why the bleeding heck can’t people seem to drive like relatively capable humans instead of…(restraining myself from insulting anyone) not.

Okay, so picking up where I left off, I found this website which gives us a nice chart of statistics. (This is probably one of the only times I like looking at numbers, after someone else has done the math for me.)

Let’s compare the three states: Texas, Missouri, and Kansas. Why? I’m from Tejas, I live in Kansas, lived in Missouri, and Kansas City is on the border of MO/KS, in case you didn’t know. Thus, most of my driving is interstate.

Looking at the statistics, most of the information is population based. Makes sense. Texas obviously has a higher population of about 27.9 million (it’s the second most populous state in the United States actually).

That said, look at its numbers compared to Missouri (population 6.1 mil) and Kansas (population 2.9 mil).

Already, it seems unfair I would be comparing such small numbers to Texas, but if you look at their numbers, which are population based, then it’s not because Kansas at 14.8 deaths and Missouri at 15.5 deaths per population of 100,000 is higher than Texas at 13.6 deaths.

How is that compared to the other top populous states, California (39.3 mil) and Florida (20.6 mil)? Well, they’re at 9.2 deaths and 15.4 deaths respectively.

What about the states with the highest rate of deaths? Mississippi is first at 23.1 and Alabama is second with 21.3, and they’re respective populations are 3.0 mil and 4.9 mil.

Therefore, what does this all mean? Does this evidence give us any objective, definitive conclusion?

No, not really considering all the other variables not observed like weather conditions, influence, or persons per vehicle as well as the fact I cited only one source — but it makes me feel better as a Texan refusing to adapt to the outrageous driving conditions I’ve endured and suffered under for the past 9 years living here.

The point: Texans are better drivers.

(*Honourable mention: Colorado with a population of about 5.5 million has only 11.0 deaths per 100,000.)