Much has been written (including here, for example) about the relative safety of drivers in their senior years as compared to their children and grandchildren. Interpreting the data becomes especially difficult once one factors in the driving habits of each generation. Seniors are known to drive less than their children and grandchildren, but the number of miles, neighborhood driving practices, and time-of-day choices of each age group are imperfectly understood.

All that may make it difficult to determine whether seniors are more (or less) safe drivers than their offspring, but a new study by Allstate Insurance Company can help determine which cities are relatively safe for drivers of each age group. Allstate compared driving records of different groups in the twenty cities in which it writes the largest number of auto insurance policies, and found that Tucson, Arizona, seniors have longer times between collisions than their peers in any other city (followed very closely, however, by Salt Lake City, Utah, and El Paso, Texas).

Tucson seniors (whom Allstate charmingly refers to as "Pre Baby Boomers," presumably unsettling many members of The Greatest Generation) average 11.9 years between collisions, according to the study. That compares to 12.2 years between collisions for Tucson Baby Boomers, and 11.2 years for Tucson "Generation X" members. "Generation Y" members in Tucson average a mere 7.0 years between collisions. Although none of those figures factor in the number of miles driven, they point to the unsurprising conclusion that drivers under age 30 have the poorest driving records.

How well do other Tucson groups fare, compared to the good-driving seniors? Pretty well, as it turns out. Tucson drivers sport the longest time between collisions for all drivers, for Baby Boomers, Generation Xers, for men and for women. The only demographic group for which Tucson drivers fall below the number-one spot is the Generation Y category, where El Paso drivers beat out Tucson for first place.

Does that mean that Tucson drivers are uncommonly safe? Well—yes and no, in classic lawyer-answer style. Among the twenty top Allstate cities, Tucson tops the list for longest average time between collisions. But among all cities, Tucson ranks 39th — and it is the 33rd-largest metropolitan area in the country. That suggests the possibility that the best drivers (or at least the drivers with the longest average time between collisions) might live in smaller cities — and it turns out that they do. Sioux Falls (South Dakota) and Fort Collins (Colorado) take the top two spots; they are the 156th and 183rd largest cities in the country, respectively. Among cities between mid-sized cities Tucson ranks fifth.

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