Northwest Cook drivers among Illinois’ best, Naperville drivers some of the worst, study says

Northwest suburban Cook County is home to some of the best drivers in Illinois, while Naperville has some of the worst.

That’s according to an analysis of self-reported data collected by insurance marketplace platform LendingTree.

“The state has pretty good drivers in general, but there are places people can do better,” said Rob Bhatt, an insurance analyst with North Carolina-based LendingTree.

Naperville was the only suburb in the bottom five of the analysis, reporting 16 driving-related incidents per 1,000 drivers, placing its drivers fourth worst in the state.

Decatur drivers were the worst in the state with 26.7 incidents per 1,000 drivers, according to the analysis. Bhatt said incidents were driving violations or at-fault crashes within the past three years hundreds of thousands of Illinois drivers self-reported when visiting LendingTree.com shopping for the best insurance rates.

Bloomington, Peoria and Rockford have the second, third and fifth worst drivers respectively, according to the report.

Schaumburg drivers were the best, according to the analysis, reporting just 9.2 incidents per 1,000 drivers.

Neighboring drivers in Mount Prospect and Arlington Heights came in third and fourth respectively. Cicero was second and Tinley Park was fifth.

The LendingTree analysis also shows Illinois Dodge Ram owners were the worst in the state, reporting 27.6 incidents per 1,000 drivers. Subaru drivers were the second-worst drivers with 25.9 incidents per 1,000 drivers.

“They aren’t high-powered vehicles, but since Subaru drivers are associated with the outdoors for whatever reason, maybe they’re rushing to get to their recreational activities,” Bhatt posited.

Nationally, Ram and Subaru drivers are among the worst, according to LendingTree data, but Tesla drivers are also in the Top 3. That’s not the case in Illinois where Audi, Pontiac and Mazda drivers round out the Top 5 worst drivers in the analysis.

Younger drivers reported more violations and at-fault crashes than drivers in older generations.

Illinois Gen Z drivers — anyone between the ages of 18 to 27 — reported 42 incidents per 1,000 drivers.

“That’s consistent nationally,” Bhatt said.

The analysis is available at LendingTree.com, along with other Illinois-centric car insurance data.