Driving Report
It's Memorial Day weekend, which is the unofficial start to summer. As many of you know, traffic is going to be really bad today. For today's blog entry, I am looking at "AAA's" traffic safety website. They have a yearly report about the "state of driving". The abstract is shown below.
"Key Findings
GENERAL
- More than 1 in 5 (21.4%) drivers report having been involved in a motor vehicle crash in which someone had to go to the hospital, including 11.1% who have been seriously injured in a crash themselves.
- Nearly 1 in 3 (31.6%) drivers report having had a relative who was seriously injured or killed in a motor vehicle crash.
- Most drivers (87.5%) perceive that distracted drivers are a bigger problem today than in past years. Moreover, distracted driving outpaced all other issues as a growing concern. It was followed by traffic congestion at 74.5%, aggressive drivers at 68.1%, drivers using drugs at 54.9% and drunk driving at 43.4%.
Cellphone use while driving is common. In the past month, 60.5% of drivers talked on a hands-free cellphone while 49.1% talked on a hand-held cellphone. Drivers are more accepting of hands-free cellphone use (69.0%) than hand-held cellphone use (24.6%) while driving.RISKY AND AGGRESSIVE DRIVING BEHAVIORS
More view drivers texting or emailing while driving as a serious threat (96.8%) than drivers talking on cellphones (87.7%). However, in the past 30 days, 44.9% of drivers read a text message or email while driving and 34.6% of drivers typed or sent a text message or email while driving.
A majority of respondents (87.6%) support legislation against reading, typing or sending a text message or email and 73.4% of drivers support having a law against using a hand-held cellphone while driving. However, only 40.9% support an outright ban on using any type of cellphone (including hands-free) while driving.
- Speeding on freeways and on residential streets is prevalent. Half of the drivers (50.3%) reported driving 15 mph over the speed limit on a freeway and 47.6% reported driving 10 mph over the speed limit on a residential street.
- There is greater social disapproval for speeding on a residential street than on freeways. Only 23.9% of drivers believe that driving 15 mph over the speed limit on a freeway is completely or somewhat acceptable while only 14.0% of motorists deem driving 10 mph over the speed limit on a residential street as acceptable.
- A large portion of drivers (42.7%) admitted to driving through a stoplight that has just turned red when they could have stopped safely in the past 30 days, despite most drivers (92.9%) viewing it as an unacceptable behavior. In conjunction with this, an overwhelming majority (91.4%) of drivers perceive running red lights as a serious or somewhat serious threat to their personal safety.
- 42.4% of drivers have at least one or more days when they get less than six hours of sleep in a typical week.
- The majority of motorists view drowsy driving as a serious or somewhat serious threat to their safety (87.9%) and an unacceptable behavior (95.2%); yet around 3 in 10 (30.8%) admit to driving when they were so tired that they had a hard time keeping their eyes open at some point in the past month.
- An overwhelming majority of drivers consider driving after drinking alcohol a serious threat to their personal safety (94.3%). However, 13.5% reported driving at least once in the past year when they thought their alcohol levels might have been close to or possibly over the legal limit.
- A majority of drivers (90.8%) perceive people driving after using illegal drugs to be either a very serious threat or a somewhat serious threat to their personal safety.
- Most respondents supported requiring alcohol-ignition interlocks for drivers convicted of DWI, even for first-time offenders (79.9%); requiring built-in interlocks for all new vehicles (73.0%) and having a per se law for marijuana (82.9%)." (1)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
(1)
AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety
(2018). 2017 Traffic Safety Culture Index. AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. http://aaafoundation.org/2017-traffic-safety-culture-index/