Dive Brief:
- Speeding, distracted driving and aggressive driving cost tens of thousands of lives each year, according to an AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety report issued today.
- In an online survey more than 2,700 licensed drivers completed regarding their driving behaviors over the previous 30 days, 27% of respondents reported sending an email or text while driving. Over 13% said they regularly or “fairly often” drove more than 15 mph over the speed limit on a freeway.
- Most respondents said unsafe behaviors such as speeding or driving while impaired are very or extremely dangerous. However, many admitted to engaging in these behaviors at least once in the 30 days prior to responding to the survey.
Dive Insight:
Although overall traffic fatalities declined in the first half of 2024 compared with the same period last year, according to early estimates from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, they remain above levels in the 2008 to 2020 period. In 2023, nearly 41,000 people died on the road, including over 7,300 pedestrians and more than 1,100 bicyclists.
“Reducing risky driving and, conversely, encouraging safe driving are important contributions to improving road safety,” according to the AAA Foundation. “However, changing behavior is challenging.” The report points out that demographics, personality and driving experiences shape driving behaviors, as do habits drivers develop over the years.
The most distracted and aggressive drivers tended to be younger adults who live in metropolitan areas and drive almost daily, the report finds. Despite driving newer vehicles with enhanced safety features, these drivers reported being involved in at least one crash in the previous two years.
Drivers the report deems the safest are primarily women ages 60 to 74 who drive two or fewer days a week. Married men with an undergraduate college degree who live in the Northeast were more likely to engage in speeding behavior, while women ages 40 to 59 living outside metro areas in the South were more likely to drive while distracted.
According to the AAA, safe drivers and risky drivers “shared a similar disregard for potential consequences of their actions.”
