2023 Traffic Safety Culture Index

Abstract

Introduction

There was a small decline in motor vehicle crash fatalities in the United States in 2023 relative to 2022. However, each death represents an unacceptable human, societal, and economic cost. While causes of motor vehicle fatalities are complex, risky driving behaviors such as speeding, alcohol involvement, and non-seat belt use are linked to tens of thousands of traffic deaths each year.

The 2023 Traffic Safety Culture Index provides insights into understanding public perceptions, attitudes toward, and engagement in unsafe driving behaviors. This report examines patterns of responses to questions on engagement in driving behaviors to identify and describe risky driving profiles.

Methodology

The 2023 TSCI survey used a probability-based sampling panel representative of the U.S. population to collect data between August 1 and August 21, 2023. Descriptive analyses were conducted based on weighted data that consisted of 2,739 licensed drivers ages 16 or older who completed the online survey and reported driving at least once in the 30 days prior to the survey. Additional analyses used a latent class approach to identify and describe profiles of risky driving.

Key Findings

Distracted Driving

• Roughly 93% of drivers identify both texting/emailing and reading on a hand-held cell phone as very or extremely dangerous. Despite these perceptions, more than a quarter of drivers (27%) reported having sent a text/email while driving and 37% reported reading a text/email while driving.
• Drivers predominantly agreed that people important to them would disapprove of distracted driving behaviors (85% to 96%, depending on the behavior).

Aggressive Driving Behaviors

• Most respondents perceive driving through a red light (81%) and aggressive driving (89%) as very or extremely dangerous.
• Fewer drivers perceive speeding as a dangerous activity and the speeding behaviors have the lowest perceived social disapproval of all the unsafe driving behaviors examined.

Drowsy Driving Behaviors

• Drivers predominantly perceive drowsy driving to be very or extremely dangerous (96%); however, 20% of drivers reported having engaged in the behavior in the past 30 days.

Impaired Driving Behaviors

• Drivers overwhelmingly perceived driving after drinking alcohol (95%) as very or extremely dangerous and 67% believed such a driver would likely be apprehended by police. Only 7% of respondents reported having engaged in this behavior in the past 30 days.
• By comparison, only 70% of drivers felt driving (within an hour) after using marijuana to be very or extremely dangerous and 26% believe such a driver would likely be apprehended by police. Only 6% of respondents reported having engaged in this behavior in the past 30 days.

Identifying Profiles of Risky Driving Behavior Engagement

• Based on the patterns of reported risky driving behavior engagement, the following five unique groups were identified using a latent class analysis and were interpreted as follows:
  • Safe Drivers (34.9%): Rarely engaged in any risky driving behavior.
  • Distracted Drivers (19.0%): Predominantly engaged in distracted driving behaviors.
  • Speeding Drivers (32.6%): Predominantly engaged in speeding behaviors.
  • Distracted and Aggressive Drivers (11.0%): Predominantly engaged in both distracted driving and aggressive driving behaviors.
  • Most Dangerous Drivers (2.5%): Engaged in all risky driving behaviors.
• Safe Drivers reported driving less frequently than other driving profiles, while Most Dangerous Drivers, Distracted Drivers, and Distracted and Aggressive Drivers reported driving more frequently than other driving profiles.
• Across all risky driving behaviors examined, more Safe Drivers perceived the behaviors to be dangerous and socially disapproved of, compared to all other driving profiles, though differences were not always statistically significant. There were no differences in perceived risk of apprehension between Safe Drivers and other driving profiles.