What’s Driving Louisiana’s Auto Insurance Crisis? Part 3

This is the third in a three-part series exploring why Louisiana’s auto insurance rates are among the highest in the country. You can find Part One here and Part Two here. Subscribe to follow this series and receive other emails from Louisiana Progress.

Governor Landry’s Plan

In early April 2025, Governor Jeff Landry convened a press conference to address the high cost of auto insurance in Louisiana. His remarks surprised a lot of people, including me, as he stressed to the public that he would encourage the legislature to take a “balanced approach” to bringing down auto insurance costs–taking a “both sides” approach to a debate that has historically been a battle between trial lawyers, who represent injured parties, and insurance companies, who have to pay out claims. This historical battle usually focuses on how claims play out in the courts, i.e., in the “tort” process.

As I wrote in Part 1 and Part 2, Louisiana Progress has sought to identify factors where Louisiana ranks as an outlier compared to its neighbors in the South, as well as the country as a whole, without getting involved in the “tort reform” debate. Early in my research, it became clear to me that there was an important piece of the puzzle that was being overlooked: Road safety. 

Louisiana has higher rates of pedestrian and cyclist fatalities and injuries than almost any other state. We also have a very high rate of trucks-per-vehicle on the road, mostly due to our state being able to boast one of the busiest port systems in the world, which means that accidents involving trucks are more common, and damages in those accidents will tend to be more severe.  

We already knew that only seeking tort-related solutions will not bring about the much needed drop in auto insurance rates. So we were very encouraged to see Governor Jeff Landry begin to direct his ire toward both the insurance companies and the trial lawyers. We also appreciated the legislature being receptive to our road safety solutions during the special insurance session and the regular legislative session that occurred in the first half of 2025. 

At Louisiana Progress, we pride ourselves on being a problem-solving organization, and recognize that many problems across Louisiana are rooted in or, at the very least, involve our surrounding environment. We intend to continue identifying problems by taking a deeper dive into areas that are often glossed over, and by “thinking outside the box” when coming up with solutions that would solve multiple problems at the same time.

Road Safety Solutions

The U.S. Department of Transportation and, more specifically, a division of the department called the Federal Highway Administration, has a collection of proven safety countermeasures, which are strategies and practices that have been shown to contribute to better road safety. While all of these proven safety countermeasures have their benefits and drawbacks, in working on this issue for the past couple of years I have identified a few different countermeasures that would make the most sense for Louisiana.

Complete Streets is an urban planning concept that attempts to transform streets from being car-centric to being more pedestrian- and cyclist-friendly. One way that local governments have attempted to usher in complete streets has been through road diets, which also happens to be one of the FHWA’s proven safety countermeasures. 

Road diets typically convert a street from four lanes to three, with one lane for each direction of traffic and a middle turning lane. The extra space left behind can be used for bike lanes, wider sidewalks, parking, or bus-stops. 

One local example of a road diet can be found in Mid-City Baton Rouge, where a large stretch of Government Street had a road diet implemented. An article published in October 2023 by the non-profit Strong Towns examined the Government Street road diet a few years after its implementation. It found that traffic accidents plummeted and commerce increased. From 2018 to 2023, the average number of monthly traffic incidents fell by roughly 50% on Government Street, which far outpaced citywide decreases. Additionally, sales tax revenue growth for businesses along Government Street were outpacing citywide sales tax revenue growth (+34% compared to +27% from 2016-2022). 

Louisiana could also benefit from the construction of more roundabouts (another FHWA proven safety countermeasure), due to their ability to manage high traffic speeds and reduce conflict points. Louisiana’s Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) could encourage the construction of more roundabouts by adopting a department policy requiring roundabouts as a first-choice option for new intersections and existing intersections in need of replacement, if feasible.

Effectively managing truck traffic is also a major factor in improving road safety solutions. Traffic accidents involving commercial trucks are almost always going to be more severe and lead to higher human injury and mortality rates, as well as worse auto damage. Louisiana happens to be a major outlier (according to the high number of commercial truck parking spaces compared to highway miles) in truck traffic, not just among its Southern neighbors, but compared to the country as a whole. 

We certainly recognize the important role that trucks and truckers play in Louisiana, but DOTD should implement policy changes that would reduce accidents involving trucks, like truck-only roads or lanes and passing restrictions.

Why Road Safety Matters to Me

The other apparent benefit of road safety solutions is preventing injury and reducing fatalities; tragedies that road-side memorials remind us of when driving throughout the state. Thankfully, I have never lost a family member or a friend to a car accident, but I have come close. 

Last year, during the fall semester of my junior year at LSU, my dad was in Baton Rouge for an extended visit to see the campus and travel around South Louisiana, with me as his tour guide. One November evening, he and I were walking near campus, approaching the intersection of Burbank Dr. and East Boyd Dr. We waited for our turn to cross, and began walking across Burbank once the walk sign came on. 

All of a sudden, a white pickup truck began turning left into our crosswalk, despite us having the right-of-way and the driver being obligated to yield to us. I managed to jump out of the way of the oncoming truck. But my dad was struck and knocked to the ground, landing on his head. The truck sped off, and my dad was left laying on the ground, unconscious and bleeding from his head. I took off my jacket to use as a cushion for his head and called 911. 

Thankfully, he came to and was treated by the wonderful staff at Our Lady of the Lake hospital. Miraculously, he came out of the ordeal with just a concussion and some upper body pain, and has been recovering steadily since then. We were never able to find out the identity of the driver.

While his story is an anecdote, it speaks to the data I went over in Part 2 that showed how Louisiana is a major outlier when it comes to road safety, particularly pedestrian and cyclist injuries and fatalities. Stories like these, and the data that supports them, suggests that in order to address auto insurance costs, we need to acknowledge why insurers deem Louisiana to be riskier than Mississippi and our other neighbors and seek solutions that address these outlier factors.