Comments on: Who Does Florida Think It Is?

By: Chan

Chan — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:15:30 +0000

jason,
Fun fact, the Florida state song is changing to “Florida, Where the Sawgrass Meets the Sky” http://www.sptimes.com/2008/webspecials08/audio/WhereTheSawgrassMeetsTheSky/

By: Jenny

Jenny — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 10:20:29 +0000

We also see a lot of FL plates here in the DC area. I’ve been told it’s because military personnel can choose a state from which to have a driver’s license and register their cars, so they don’t have to change that every time they move. Apparently many choose FL because it does not have a state income tax. I don’t know if that is true or if it would make a significant difference.

By: Clint Hamada

Clint Hamada — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 03:44:34 +0000

While Florida may look the most interesting on the graph, they are not the most interesting in terms of the actual data.

From the same site as Dan cited:
http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/policy/ohim/hs04/htm/dl1c.htm

Alabama has 798 licensed drivers per every 1000 total resident population (compared to Florida’s measly 756) and 1014 licensed drivers per every 1000 driving age population (compared to Florida’s 949). HUH?

And how do you explain your line of best fit? A y-int of 200775?

By: tweb

tweb — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 01:45:50 +0000

Dan, if the data is taken from registered VEHICLES, as opposed to registered drivers, there are a BUNCH of vehicles people own up here in CT that have residences in CT, yet their vehicles have FL plates. Cheaper taxes nad the like.

I assume many spend time as “snow birds,” fleeing our wonderfully unpredictable winter weather here, thus justifying residency restrictions.

Or I could be totally wrong. Not first/last time.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 01:09:21 +0000

Another hypothesis to add to the pile: Most states require you to have one and only one driver's license – if you get a license from a new state, you surrender the old one – but Florida issues part-year residents a Florida license (valid in Florida only) whether or not they have another license. So that would seem to push up their numbers. (Look here, under "Part-time Resident". I don't know of anywhere else that does this.) I like the disproportionate-numbers-of-seniors theory, though I'd expect demographics to unbalance other states too. I don't think the sprawl theory holds water, though: there are too many other states with no real walkable urban areas. Arizona? Nevada? Texas? I'd rather go without a car in Miami than Phoenix… Fun fact: Florida's state song is "Old Folks at Home".

By: dan

dan — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 23:31:35 +0000

My minor in statistics fails me.

By: sylvia martinez

sylvia martinez — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 22:59:17 +0000

Another couple of thoughts. Linear equations are useful for predicting the answer to a question, if the data fits. You could say that this graph might point to the fact that the prediction ability becomes less accurate for large states where the driver’s license bureau is underfunded. Seems like it works well for small states.

Could this also be the fact that the variance of small states is swallowed up by the scale of this graph? So that a variance of a million or so people in Florida and New York is large enough to see on this chart, but that the same percentage variance in a small state would be too tiny to see?

In other words, the gap is big because the state is big.

By: Mark Barnes

Mark Barnes — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:56:07 +0000

Come on, folks, this one is so easy!

At least three-fourths of Florida’s drivers are Ohioans wearing out the interstate to get the hell away from relentless snow squals, ice storms, fog, rain, sleet and whatever other hell-sent form of precipitation lands on us until July!

By: Jeannine

Jeannine — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:14:40 +0000

I say blame it on Canadians – and I am one.

Every spring we see the parade of RVs arriving back home and many (most) are hauling a small vehicle with a FL plate.

Canadians can be issued a FL drivers licence quite easily.

By: Rich

Rich — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 18:37:31 +0000

rats, the image source tag didn't work - if you want to see the photo of a few of the golf carts, you can see it here.