Drivers are remarkably self-aware — or, rather, others-aware — according to a new AAA study. The 2022 Traffic Safety Culture Index, released in November of this year, relays an array of responses from the motoring public about their views on driving behavior and safety. Considering how low the American driving IQ seems to have sunk and how dangerous driving has become, the responses are both intriguing and infuriating.
The report states that 93% of drivers believe holding a phone and texting or emailing behind the wheel is dangerous. 73% believe in the danger of holding and talking on a mobile device. Both acts have been illegal in Georgia since 2018. 80% of respondents support laws like this.
Yet 27% of this pool admits to texting and driving and 37% to holding a phone and talking. So there is some overlap here, meaning a large number of people purposefully commit dangerous acts while driving.
This may be because less than 40% of people believe they will actually get caught by police for texting or talking while driving.
95% of the survey pool (more than 2,300 people aged 19 years and older) believed drowsy driving is dangerous, but 18% admitted to having done it in the last month. Fatigued driving is a slippery slope with a gray line between right and wrong. When in doubt, wait it out and stay put.
The questionnaire saw similar response rates concerning impaired driving being risky (94%) and having done so in the last month (7%).
At least, that is what they admitted.
Per the AAA report, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that U.S. traffic deaths hit a 16-year high in 2021. Fatalities had been decreasing in the years leading up to the 2020 COVID traffic shifts. But as traffic picked up speeds in the days that society had largely shut down, people started hitting things harder. And then as volume returned to the roads in 2021, drivers’ bad habits did not adjust, and driving simply became less safe.
Pedestrian fatalities in 2022 were 77% higher than in 2010, a staggering, harrowing increase; numerous cities are moving to create paths to make walking, running, and biking safer.
These tragic increases happen for many reasons. Technology has evolved and vehicles effortlessly accelerate; drivers are more distracted by mobile devices than ever; and SUVs and trucks make up a greater percentage of autos now. The increase in car size, while safer for those in them, is especially dooming for those on foot or bike.
Stir in increased inebriated driving rates (another pandemic trend), drowsy driving, and, remarkably, lax seatbelt use. All of these behaviors and trends have created a lethal cocktail on America’s roads.
Drivers seem to suffer from “Those Others Syndrome”— we have covered this. “Kids these days” and “those idiots out there” are common cliches that many people mutter about the cage match to which driving has degraded.
GSP reported nearly two dozen deaths on the state’s roads during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Absurd. Mistakes happen, but rarely are they “accidents” as crashes are so often called.
An accident implies “oops” — someone trips and falls or tips over and spills a water glass. If that is how we treat road collisions, then we never learn.
“I don’t know. Traffic just stopped and I slammed into them, Your Honor.”
That reason isn’t good enough, and especially not with all of this palpable, obscene carnage.
Speed, distractions, alertness. If people operated at acceptable levels in all three of these categories, almost zero crashes would happen. Not accidents.
The latest AAA survey figures go to show that people know what is right and they simply do not do it. And when people rely on each other in a commuting community for safety, that hypocritical dichotomy is such a failure.
As Atlanta actor Donald Glover said in a recent interview with Complex: “It’s kind of like when people say, ‘Oh, this traffic is so bad.’ I’m like, ‘You are traffic.’ You can’t sit there and be like, ‘Oh man, the traffic was horrible. I’m sorry, I was late.’ You are traffic. You’re in it. Without you, there would be no traffic.”
Doug Turnbull, the PM drive Skycopter anchor for Triple Team Traffic on 95.5 WSB, is the Gridlock Guy. Download the Triple Team Traffic Alerts App to hear reports from the WSB Traffic Team automatically when you drive near trouble spots. Contact him at Doug.Turnbull@cmg.com.
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