Have you ever wondered if drivers in the Midwest really are more courteous and cautious behind the wheel, or if motorists on the coasts are as short-tempered as their infamous reputations?

A new study by Allstate Insurance Co. has some answers to that question. Using two years’ worth of data from their own crash and claim records, researchers with the company have ranked drivers in the largest 196 cities in the U.S.

The rankings are based on the chance a driver in a city has of being involved in a wreck, compared to the national average. The 196 cities surveyed had to have a population of over 100,000 people; however, four Massachusetts cities in the top 200 were left off the list because Allstate does not offer insurance in that state and therefore had no statistics.

Cedar Rapids, IA, with a population of just 122,500, took first place in the study, with a motorist having an average crash once every 15 years. The Midwest and South did quite well in the study, with Sioux Falls, SD; Chattanooga, TN; Huntsville, AL; and Knoxville, TN, rounding out the top five.

Cities on the East Coast fared far worse, however. Washington, DC, ranked last out of the 196 cities, with an average of 5.2 years between accidents for its drivers. Newark, NJ; Alexandria, VA; Arlington, VA; and Elizabeth, NJ, were ranked in the other four lowest spots on the list.