Kansas drivers most knowledgeable: survey

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - Drivers in Kansas and Wyoming are the most knowledgeable in the nation, while people in New Jersey and Washington D.C. know the least about the rules of the road, a new poll shows.

The survey tested 5,524 licensed Americans from 50 states and the District of Columbia with 20 questions taken from Department of Motor Vehicles exams.

Kansas drivers scored the top marks with an average test score of 84 percent, while drivers in New Jersey ranked last with a grade of 69.9.

Encouragingly, the national average was higher than the 70 percent needed to pass, coming out at 78.1 percent, and slightly higher than 77.1 percent in 2007.

But based on the survey results 16.4 percent -- which would amount to 33 million licensed Americans -- would not pass a written driver test if they took it today.

"We were very encouraged by this year's results because they are better than last," Wade Bontrager, vice president of marketing at GMAC Insurance, which conducted the poll, said in an interview.

"Our ideal is that everyone pass it," Bontrager added.

Drivers fell down on some basic questions, the survey showed. Eighty-four percent could not identify the correct action to take when approaching a steady yellow traffic light, and 73 percent could not properly identify a typical safe following distance from the car in front of them.

Drivers in Wyoming came in a close second at 83.5 percent, followed by Nebraska at 83.4 percent. At the bottom of the list along with New Jersey, were New York with 74 percent and Washington, D.C. at 72.9 percent.