In the quarter century from 1990 through 2014, the lives of 991,814 men, women, and children have ended violently as the result of motor vehicle crashes in the United States. Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people ages 8, 13, 14 and 16-25.1 Statistics from the United States Department of Transportation indicate that 32,675 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2014.2 This represents a slight decrease from 2013, however preliminary data from the first half of 2015 indicate fatalities increased 8.1 percent compared to the first half of 2014.3 An average of 90 lives per day 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.4-15 The Foundation’s long-term term vision is to create a “social climate in which traffic safety is highly valued and rigorously pursued.”13 In 2008, the AAA Foundation conducted the first Traffic Safety Culture Index,10 a nationallyrepresentative 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 behaviors 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 behavior, even when such laws would restrict behaviors 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. This report presents the methods for the AAA Foundation’s eighth annual Traffic Safety Culture Index and summarizes major national-level results. (Author/publisher)
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