Which city has better drivers -- Seattle or Tacoma?

Pretty good driver, are you?

Stand on the corner of Westlake Avenue and Denny Way with former race car driver Ross Bentley, and you'll be reminded of bad driving habits that too many of us have.

Some sped through the intersection. Several turned without signaling (including a sheriff's car). There was the guy lighting a cigarette while running a yellow light. And in 20 minutes of observation Thursday, at least 17 talked on cell phones as their cars moved along, and one of those turned without signaling.

"So far I've seen a lot of good signal use," Bentley said. "The biggest (problem) we've seen so far is a lot of cell phones."

Seattle and Tacoma are about to take a large-scale driving test.

On Thursday, Bentley and a group of driving instructors, State Patrol troopers and volunteers will test and compare the two cities' driving habits, such as obeying speeds, observing safe separations between vehicles, wearing seat belts, signaling lane changes -- and leaving those cell phones off.

They'll station themselves at two locations in Seattle and two in Tacoma, pens in hand, adding points on a scorecard for each example of "not nice" driving, such as ignoring pedestrians, running red lights, cutting other drivers off and talking on cell phones. They'll also watch for road rage.

Then, after 90 minutes, they'll tally the scores and the one with the fewest bad driving marks will be deemed the Nicest Driving City. Allstate Insurance will give a $10,000 award to organizations in that city to promote safe teen driving.

Allstate, an event sponsor, supported Seattle-Tacoma testing because compared with other cities, the two have a higher number of accident claims filed with the company annually, said spokesman Ryan Priest.

Based on Allstate data for 197 U.S. cities with more than 100,000 people, Seattle ranks 150th. Drivers here are 20 percent more likely to have an accident than those in other areas -- and file accident claims on average once every 8.3 years, Priest said.

In Tacoma, ranked 157th, residents are 22 percent more likely to have an accident, and file accident claims every 8.2 years.

The city with the best record is Sioux Falls, S.D., where drivers file accident claims once every 13.7 years. The worst is Newark, N.J., where motorists file claims once every 5.2 years, Priest said.

Thursday's survey won't be scientific, but it's regarded as the first test of its kind statewide and was conceived by SWERVE, a Redmond-based driver-training company Bentley and two partners founded three years ago. While it may help promote the business indirectly, Bentley said, the goal is to promote good driving.

"It's all about habits, and if we can make people aware of their not-so-good habits and build good habits, they're going to drive nice," Bentley said. Sponsoring state agencies say it's worth a try.

A key focus will be distractions -- such as cell phones -- that can lead to collisions. Nearly 80 percent of all crashes and 65 percent of "near-crashes" involved driver inattention owing to distraction, fatigue or simply looking the wrong direction, according to a 2005 Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study.

The approach Thursday will be different from the fining-and-enforcement method the state has used historically.

"It'll be interesting to see if this works," said program manager Angie Ward of the Washington Traffic Safety Commission. "This is different. You're appealing to someone's sense of humanness."

The commission circulated window stickers and posters promoting the event to its program coordinators statewide, hoping to promote the concept. "It seems like we could use a cultural shift, something that would cause us to think about that other person (in a vehicle) in a way other than 'they're doing something to me,'... there's a politeness that we could encourage on the road," Ward said.

The idea interested Gov. Chris Gregoire; she declared Thursday "Drive Nice Day." The state Department of Licensing has made "Drive Nice" window stickers. AAA Washington also is a sponsor. Bentley said he expects his company will continue the surveys annually and may attempt to do them during several days.

Priest said Allstate staff members would join in the observations, looking for distracted drivers. Considering motorists' surroundings is "very basic but sometimes we take them for granted," he said.

Bentley, who has raced professionally at Indianapolis and Daytona, said a key piece of advice for drivers is to keep the eyes raised and looking farther ahead, to better survey traffic.

But he said he's not a perfect driver himself.

"I'm a work in progress," he said. "I'm working at being better."