In the quarter century from 1989 through 2013, the lives of more than a million men, women, and children have ended violently as the result of motor vehicle crashes in the United States. Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of death for children, teens, and young adults up to age 34, and the leading cause for people ages 15-34. 1 Statistics from the United States Department of Transportation indicate that 32,719 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2013. 2 This represents a decrease of 3.1 percent from 2012. It also represents an average of 90 lives per day that are needlessly cut short as the result of crashes on our roads. Since 2006, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has been sponsoring research to better understand traffic safety culture. 3-12 The Foundation’s long-term term vision is to create a “social climate in which traffic safety is highly valued and rigorously pursued.” 11 In 2008, the AAA Foundation conducted the first Traffic Safety Culture Index, 8 a nationally representative survey, to begin to assess a few key indicators of the degree to which traffic safety is valued and is being pursued. As in previous years, this Traffic Safety Culture Index finds that Americans do value safe travel and desire a greater level of safety than they now experience. They perceive unsafe driver behaviours such as speeding and impaired driving as serious threats to their personal safety and generally support laws that would improve traffic safety by restricting driver behaviour, even when such laws would restrict behaviours they admit to engaging in themselves. As in previous years, the survey also highlights some aspects of the current traffic safety culture that might be characterized most appropriately as a culture of indifference, in which drivers effectively demonstrate a “Do as I say, not as I do” attitude. For example, substantial numbers of drivers say that it is completely unacceptable to drive 15 mph over the speed limit on freeways, yet admit having done that in the past month. In past years, findings from the survey were reportable only at the national level. In addition, this year, sampling was expanded to allow for reporting at the state level for 24 states, which cover 80 percent of the U.S. population. This report presents the methods for the AAA Foundation’s seventh annual Traffic Safety Culture Index and summarizes major national-level results. Selected state level results are shown by state in Appendix B. (Author/publisher)
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