NRMA Motoring and Services and NRMA Insurance commissioned a telephone survey of 1000 drivers in July 2004 to ascertain perceptions and attitudes of drivers in NSW and the ACT to speed and speed enforcement. The survey shows continuing high acceptance of speeding as the main cause of casualty crashes. There also continues to be substantial support for general countermeasures to reduce speeding, particularly general police enforcement. Increasing the level of advertising campaigns and increasing the use of fixed speed cameras, meet with less support though it is still relatively high. Countermeasures that will impact more intrusively on drivers meet with the least support. The survey showed that a key attitude to address is ‘not wanting to break the law’ as a motivator for driving speed. The cues and situations that lead drivers to speed — such as being in a hurry, the risk of detection, the ‘roll on’ effect of the speed of other drivers, and light traffic — must also be taken into account in understanding the decision making process. There is a need to establish stronger social norms against speeding, learning from experience especially in the area of drink driving in which the behaviour is strongly seen as socially undesirable. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E214057. Printed volume contains peer-reviewed papers. CD-ROM contains submitted papers.
Abstract