GMAC Insurance published the results of an annual National Driver's Test in May 2011 which ranked the state of Maryland 49th out of 51 states with the worst knowledge of the rules of the road. Maryland scored 73.3%. Hawaii was behind with 73% and the District of Columbia was ranked the worst. The state with the best results, of 82.9% was Kansas.
Maryland's test results for 2011 came as a surprise, seeing that the state ranked 20th in 2010 and 41st in the 2009 results. The 29 place plunge in this year results were only beaten by Alaska, which went from 10th to 40th place.
The GMAC Insurance Annual National Driver's Test polls 5130 drivers aged 16-65 nationwide. The test consists of 20 questions taken from each state's driver's license exam. The average results nationwide for 2011 improved from 76.2% to 77.9%.
The Chief Marketing Officer for GMAC, Mr. Scott Eckman, stated that drivers are forgetting some of the more basic rules of the road. Driver's are most commonly forgetting the distance a driver must keep between their vehicle and the one in front and also how to respond when a traffic light turns yellow just a vehicle reaches the intersection. The rule is to continue through the intersection, rather than braking abruptly. Only 15% of people answered the later question correctly.
