Honk if you’re thorny: Idaho drivers are among nation’s rudest, study says. Here’s why.

Don’t get all revved up, Treasure Valley.

A new study from Insurify, a website that compares insurance, says Idaho drivers are the second rudest in the United States.

Let’s put our minds in neutral. Many of us can agree that motorists in the Gem State leave something to be desired. After speaking to local law enforcement officials, I wrote a column about the phenomenon. Last year, a similar insurance-quotes comparison site also ranked Idaho drivers among the nation’s worst.

But exceptionally rude? Is there even a distinction between “bad” and “rude”?

Idaho sped to the top of Insurify’s rudeness list with a tailgating rate that’s almost five times the national average. Failure-to-yield occurrences are more than twice as likely here, too, Insurify says. Those are the numbers that hurt us.

The rudest state in America is Virginia. Polite drivers? They cruise around in Kentucky, Missouri and Vermont.

Insurify’s study was based on 2 million insurance applications, where motorists disclose their driving history, including past accidents and infractions. Is that methodology perfect? Of course not.

But it is interesting.

So what causes Idaho drivers to be so rude?

We all know that the Treasure Valley’s infrastructure feels increasingly overwhelmed by rapid population growth.

But I firmly believe the clash of big-city and small-town driving cultures plays a role, too. When transplants and natives try to coexist on the roadways, it can create friction — if not road rage.

“When you blend those two worlds, you have different ideologies of driving,” Boise police officer Andy Johnson told me, “and they don’t always work well together.”

Me? I ride my bicycle as much as possible.

But that creates a whole other Idaho hell on wheels, right, motorists?

This story was originally published February 7, 2020 at 10:59 AM.