This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

Based on the findings in a study by QuoteWizard, a website for comparing auto insurance, it's now official: Utah has the worst drivers of any other state in the U.S. Kind of makes you proud, doesn't it?

A lot of people already knew this about Utah, including people from other states. Like California, which came in at No. 2 by a relatively thin margin. And Virginia, which apparently isn't just for lovers, but also drivers who suck.

If you're interested in finding out more, here's the link: bit.ly/BadDriversUT

I already knew that Utah has terrible drivers. I'm one of them. It's why I try to limit the amount of time I spend behind the wheel, especially after dark or when the weather is bad. I don't see so well in the former, and don't pay enough attention in the latter.

Because of this, I don't drive into the office during the winter. I take TRAX. It's put me afoot more often. Walking around downtown, I've seen enough to wonder: Which state has the worst pedestrians?

If the same things that make Utahns bad drivers — poor sense of direction, obliviousness, entitlement, and an eye toward heaven, among other things — would they also make us bad pedestrians?

I checked online for such a list. There are plenty of websites that identify which states are the most dangerous in which to be a pedestrians, but none (that I could find) spelling out how many pedestrians are the problem.

Worst is New Mexico, Sonny's home state. If everyone there is like him, I can understand why. He spends all his time looking at the ground for arrowheads and other cool stuff. He's so obsessive about this that I don't know why he isn't dead.

The best state for pedestrians is Minnesota, probably because drivers there are always worried that the pedestrian they hit might be a moose. Meanwhile, Utah doesn't get any mention at all as to the quality of its pedestrians.

For the record, I've been hit by traffic four times in my life. Once when I was a teenager and running from the cops, twice when I was a cop, and once as an LDS missionary. The first and last were my fault.

The two times I was struck as a cop occurred at accident investigation scenes, once in the winter by a woman I could hear screaming inside her car while she skidded sideways on an icy road into me.

The other time was by a teenage couple on a date, who mistook the flashing lights and 50-yard flare pattern for the stars in their eyes. Neither time was I killed, but I was sore for weeks.

I try to be a good pedestrian now. Not because I'm naturally compliant or considerate, but because I'm old. When I jaywalk now, it takes longer to get out of the way in time.

In the past month I've seen dozens of pedestrians almost hit by traffic while jaywalking or crossing against a light, a few who barely missed getting whacked by TRAX, and one actual auto-pedestrian interaction that knocked down a homeless guy who nevertheless managed to gimp away before the cops came.

This, of course, isn't evidence that Utah has the worst pedestrians (except at football and basketball games, and LDS General Conference) in the U.S., but it does seem to at least be worth a study.

After all, people don't automatically get smarter or more polite just because they stop driving and start walking.

Robert Kirby can be reached at rkirby@sltrib.com or facebook.com/stillnotpatbagley.