Who are the worst drivers?

Yikes. Roughly three fourths of the nation's drivers are worse than the ones who headed to work this morning on Kansas City area roadways, according to a new report from Allstate.

The Northbrooke, Ill. insurance giant's fifth annual Safest Drivers surveys ranks Kansas City and selected suburbs in the top fourth of 200 cities and suburbs where it studies a rolling two years worth of accident statistics. Sioux Falls, SD came up as the safest place to drive; Washington, DC came in the worst. Wrong kind of gridlock, I suppose.

We all have our own nominees for the nation's worse drivers. Cable TV is even thinking of making a reality show based on them. GMAC pollsters look at how much we know about rules of the road and puts Wisconsin on top, New York at the bottom. Don't get cocky, though. The auto lender also estimates one in five of us, or 41 million drivers, would flunk a basic road rules test if it were a pop quiz now.

Authorities are divided over why some groups of drivers are worse than others. Where you drive makes a difference. That's why car insurance rates can vary a lot by zip codes. Some focus on age as a factor, though it seems a tossup whether very young drivers or very old ones are most at risk.

One Toronto outfit even looked, tongue in cheek, at zodiac signs. No word yet on whether traffic stops are planned to take offending Libras off the road.