Wisconsin: State of Driving

Wisconsinites like to drive more than the average American. According to 2017 data compiled by the U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration, the average American driver only puts 12,416 miles on their car per year, whereas the average Wisconsinite logs 13,118 miles behind the wheel.

 

What spurs all this extra driving? The vacation and festival culture may have something to do with it. Northern Wisconsin is a summer vacation destination, and the scenic Door County which has 250 miles of shoreline along Lake Michigan, sees its summer population swell to nearly 10 times its year-round size.

 

In addition, the social culture of the state, which includes sporting events, live music and hunting, means that residents in this state are more likely to drive year round – even in the dead of winter – rather than miss their favorite activities. Add all of this to the less-than-robust public transit system, which only 2% of commuters in Wisconsin use, and it's understandable why Wisconsin cars rack up the miles.

 

All of those extra miles can add to the cost of driving, since the more you drive, the more regular and irregular maintenance and repairs your car will need. According to the financial blog My Money Design, such maintenance costs approximately $0.26/mile, which means 13,118 miles per year will cost approximately $3,410 in annual maintenance on your car.

 

The state of Wisconsin's roads can also add to your vehicle maintenance costs. The Cap Times reported in 2018 that more than half of Wisconsin's roads were in poor or mediocre condition. According to data, 55% of major locally and state-maintained roads had pavement in poor condition and 19% were in mediocre condition.

 

According to Borden, this helps explain the long tradition of "winter beater" cars. "This may be a dying tradition, but for a long time Wisconsinites would drive a beater car during the winter and garage the nice cars to preserve them from the damages of salt and winter road hazards."

 

Filling your tank in Wisconsin tends to be slightly cheaper than in most states. According to AAA, as of August 2021, the average national cost of a gallon of regular unleaded was $3.14 per gallon, while Wisconsinites were paying only $2.98 per gallon on average. The price of gas is remarkably consistent across the state, only varying from a low of $2.81 in Fond du Lac to a high of $3.13 in Pierce-St. Croix County. Costs in Madison and Eau Claire are somewhere in the middle.

 

The relatively low cost of gas in Wisconsin may mean more drivers on the road, since more people can afford to fill up. This is important to remember when you get behind the wheel, since more cars on the road increases the likelihood of accidents.

 

The national unemployment was 5.4% as of July 2021, but Wisconsin is doing better than America as a whole, with an unemployment rate of 3.9%. Low unemployment is good for workers, but very low unemployment can have a profound effect on driving behavior in the state.

 

This is partially due to the fact that employed individuals are more likely to drive on a daily basis in order to commute to work. In Wisconsin, commutes tend to be relatively short, with an average of 22 minutes each way, which is below the national average commute time of 26.6 minutes each way.

 

Despite the fact that 70.2% of Wisconsinites live in urban areas, residents tend to drive more in rural areas of the state than urban areas. According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, an impressive 69.2% of vehicle miles traveled in Wisconsin are driven in rural areas.

 

Though you might assume that rural driving is less dangerous than urban driving, since there are fewer cars on the road in rural areas, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety has calculated that the rate of car crash deaths per 100 million miles traveled is 2.6 times higher in rural areas compared to urban areas across the country. While you are more likely to get into an accident of some kind in an urban driving environment, such an accident is also more likely to be survivable since it will generally be at a lower speed.

 

However, as of 2019, nearly 65% of Wisconsin's traffic fatalities – 369 of the 566 total for the year – occurred in rural areas. This is a somewhat lower fatality rate than you might expect for rural areas in the state considering the large number of vehicle miles traveled outside of the city. Anne Morrissy of Williams Bay, Wisconsin, attributes some of this higher-than-expected safety in rural areas to the high ratio of traffic cops-to-population in rural areas: "You WILL get caught speeding in rural Wisconsin and you WILL get ticketed. This means that for most of my life, rural Wisconsin drivers have been very patient and obedient drivers."

 

Although Wisconsin continues to have a major problem with drunk driving, distracted driving is also a serious cause for concern. Distractions while you are driving can include anything that takes your focus from the road, but the term is most commonly used for drivers who are texting or otherwise inappropriately using their phones behind the wheel.

 

As of 2016, there were 25,596 car crashes related to distracted driving in the state of Wisconsin. To combat the problem of distracted driving, state legislature has put several laws into effect that punish distracted drivers. The first law, which has been in place since 2010, makes it illegal for any driver to text while driving. First-time offenders can expect to receive a ticket and pay a $20 fine if they are caught texting and driving, but subsequent offenses will have higher penalties, up to $400.

 

In addition, as of October 2016, all handheld cell phone use is prohibited while driving through a work zone. You can expect to pay a $40 fee for the first offense, and a $100 fee with each subsequent offense.

 

The ban on cell phone use among novice drivers in Wisconsin is just one of the ways that the state's laws are set up in order to help teenagers be safer behind the wheel. In addition to commonsense regulations on cell phone use, teenagers also need supervision and support to learn the complex skills necessary for driving safety. Therefore Wisconsin uses a graduated licensing program for new drivers. Before qualifying for a full license at age 18, Wisconsin teenagers must first go through the following steps: