Underutilized strategies in traffic safety: Results of a nationally representative survey

Abstract

Objective: Numerous strategies proven to be effective in reducing crash fatalities have been underutilized in the United States, including sobriety checkpoints; automated enforcement; lower blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limits; primary enforcement of safety belt and motorcycle helmet use laws; alcohol ignition interlock installations; drugged driving screening; lowered residential speed limits; and roundabout installations. If these strategies are implemented widely in every state, traffic fatalities could be reduced by at least 50%. A barrier to implementation is the perception by officials that the public is against them. The purpose of this study was to determine which of these underutilized measures would be favorable to the American public given that they are educated on the research of their effectiveness.Methods: A representative survey of 2,000 U.S. drivers was conducted in October 2018 with 30 questions about these underutilized strategies using the National Opinion Research Center’s (NORC) AmeriSpeak® survey instrument. Our objective was to gauge the public’s opinion of these strategies when they are aware of the research on their effectiveness.Results: Respondents were given a summary of the research on the effectiveness of these strategies and then asked whether they were in favor of them in their communities; 64.7% of the respondents were in favor of conducting sobriety checkpoints at least monthly; 68.2% were in favor of police using passive alcohol sensors at sobriety checkpoints; 60.3% of respondents were in favor of using speed and red light cameras for automated enforcement; 70.1% were in favor of a law that required all cars to have seat belt reminders that continuously chime until the seat belt is buckled, including for rear seat passengers; and 62.5% were in favor of raising the fine in their state for not using a seat belt from $25 to $100. Other results indicated public support for these strategies.Conclusions: The results indicate that when drivers in the United States are given facts about certain strategies to reduce crash fatalities, the majority are in favor of the underutilized strategies. This information could be useful to legislators and highway safety officials in their decisions to implement these strategies.