Drivers continue to behave badly as fatalities rise, AAA says - Autoblog

If you consciousness similar the roads astir you person been location to unadulterated chaos since the onset of the pandemic, you're not unsocial — nor are you wrong, apparently. With fatalities projected to summation aft the 2021 information are afloat analyzed, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety's yearly scale hopes to place behaviors and attitudes successful U.S. drivers that could shed airy connected the situation. Perhaps unsurprisingly, respondents pointed their fingers astatine distracted and impaired drivers adjacent though galore of them admitted to engaging successful specified behaviour themselves. Do arsenic I say, not arsenic I do, right?

The 2021 scale shows that U.S. drivers inactive overwhelmingly look down upon distracted and impaired driving behaviour successful others contempt doing it themselves. Prime example: 92% called texting portion driving "very" oregon "extremely" dangerous, with 96% saying idiosyncratic important to them would disapprove if they knew it was happening. Yet 26% admitted to doing it astatine immoderate constituent successful the 30 days anterior to the survey. The inclination continued with assertive driving. 88% see it "very" oregon "extremely" dangerous, 96% judge idiosyncratic would disapprove and yet 23% copped to doing it astatine immoderate constituent successful the anterior period of driving. 

Despite this disconnect, AAA says societal unit is 1 of 2 beardown influences connected peoples' decisions to prosecute successful risky driving behavior; the different is perceived danger. If an enactment is perceived to beryllium unsafe and considered unsafe by a ample information of the population, radical are little inclined to bash it. The atrocious quality is, the anticipation of being caught and ticketed (or worse) appears to person small interaction connected astir drivers' decision-making process. 

The survey drilled down connected respective behaviors that fell into the supra categories, on with substance-related impairment and drowsy driving. The astir communal offenses were driving 15 mph oregon much implicit the bounds connected a freeway (50.7% of respondents), driving portion holding and talking connected a mobile instrumentality (37.4%) and driving portion speechmaking a substance oregon email connected their mobile instrumentality screens (36.2%). Also, 28.2% admitted to moving astatine slightest 1 reddish airy and 22.9% admitted to tailgating oregon weaving done traffic.

On the impairment extremity of the spectrum, astir 1 successful 5 (18.8%) said they'd driven astatine slightest erstwhile successful the past 30 days contempt feeling truthful bushed that they couldn't support their eyes open. Only 7.3% said they'd driven aft driving capable intoxicant to suffice for a DUI, and 5% admitted to utilizing THC wrong an hr of getting down the wheel. That fig was up implicit 2020's numbers but, similar intoxicant impairment, had been trending downward from 2018-2020. 

"The reversal successful the frequence of U.S. drivers engaging successful risky driving behaviour is disturbing. While drivers admit that definite activities down the instrumentality – similar speeding and driving impaired, are not safe, galore inactive prosecute successful these activities anyway," said Dr. David Yang, enforcement manager of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. "We indispensable beryllium alert of the superior consequences of unsafe driving behaviors and alteration course."

As we noted above, different cardinal metric has been trending the incorrect way: postulation fatalities. NHTSA estimates that 42,915 radical died successful car crashes successful 2021 — a 10.5% summation from 2020. Mind your mirrors retired there. 

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