Is Burger King Driving Up Your Auto Insurance Bill?
Here’s a no-brainer: Living next to an elementary
school is safer than living next to a liquor store.
Well, not exactly. There’s one way it’s not
only more dangerous, it can be more expensive, too. Turns
out if your home is within one mile of an elementary or secondary
school, your chance of being in a car accident rises 26%
-- that’s 8% higher than living the same distance from
a liquor store!
It may not sound right, but according to the Quality Planning
Corporation (QPC), a company that provides auto insurers
with statistical analysis technology, the establishments
that dot your neighborhood do reflect how likely you are
to get in an accident.
Traditionally, insurers just had your zip code to go on
when predicting risk factors like the chance of theft and
accidents. This only gave them a rough idea of how likely
you were to wind up in a wreck over the life of your policy.
Thanks to research and technology from QPC, insurers are
now able to zero in on hazards at the street address level.
Being able to pinpoint risk factors helps insurers calculate
your insurance rates more accurately and fairly.
Extra Data, Extra Savings?
This level of detail could be good news for you. If you
live next to a park, an airport or a doctor’s office,
you could potentially see savings reflected in your auto
insurance premiums. Unfortunately, the opposite is true if
you’ve got the good fortune to live within walking
distance of Burger King.
In fact, living within one mile of a restaurant is the riskiest
place to call home, with individuals being 30% more likely
to be involved in a car accident.
“It’s important to remember that these observations
are indicative of the area and we would naturally expect
higher accident rates in higher traffic areas,” says
Bob U’Ren, vice president of marketing at QPC. “Traffic
patterns and density are often key considerations when selecting
sites for restaurants and grocery stores. There are also
comparatively fewer homes and apartments, and generally lower
vehicle use, close to parks and forests.”
The safest place to live if you want to avoid a costly car
accident? Within one mile of a church.
Increase in auto claims by living within one mile of:
Riskiest
Restaurant 30%
Grocery store 26%
Elementary or secondary school 26%
Bank 25%
Car dealer 23%
Gas station 22%
Liquor store 18%
Least risky
Race track or amusement park 11%
Hotel, motel, resort or spa 5%
National park or forest 4%
Local or community park 3%
Airport 2%
Doctor’s office or clinic 1%
Religious institution -10%
Source: Quality Planning Corporation, 2005
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