(Updated 2012)
Thanks to all who have visited this website during the last five years; especially those who completed the questionnaire. An analysis of the data collected is now published in this website.
If you are a new or a returning visitor who has not answered the six questions below, it would be much appreciated if you would do so. Please do not refer to the results before you have submitted your answers.
Have you ever wondered …
1. What is the safest speed to travel in traffic and how can you find it? Click here to learn how to choose the safest speed.
2. Why the great majority of motorists exceed speed limits?
3. What can be done about motorists who
o impede others in the left-hand lane,
o do not signal soon enough,
o follow too closely,
o drive slower in left-hand lanes, forcing others to pass on the right,
o are inattentive or distracted?This website describes how these problems can be solved and everyone's driving experience can be safer and less stressful.
AMERICA’S MARVELOUS HIGHWAYS
The nation’s roadways are marvels of design and construction. 
Wide freeways cross the United States and local streets are generally well maintained.
Travel on our highways is very safe—much safer than ever before. The probability of dying in an automobile crash has decreased 75% during the last fifty years.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), 2008 was a hallmark year when highway deaths fell below 40,000 for the first time, declining 9.3% from 41,259 to 37,423. In 2009, fatalities further decreased by 9.7% to 33,808. This trend continued in 2010 with an additional 3% decrease to 32,788.
Nonetheless, while the great majority of motorists are careful, responsible drivers and highway design and construction have steadily improved, traffic laws and enforcement practices not kept pace. This creates safety problems and adds unnecessary stress to the driving experience.
Let’s take a detailed look at each of the driving practices in the questionnaire:
Slow drivers in the left-hand lane often cause vehicles to accumulate behind them. This congestion may spread to right hand lanes creating a cluster of closely spaced vehicles across all lanes--a ripe environment for safety problems:
- When an emergency vehicle is held back by a slow vehicle in the left lane or is trapped in a cluster, it may be delayed in reaching a crash site or medical facility. This means that injury crashes or other medical emergencies may convert to fatalities because emergency vehicles did not arrive in time to render life-saving aid or were delayed while traveling to a medical facility.
- Impatient, aggressive, or foolhardy drivers jockey from lane to lane trying to find their way through a cluster. They squeeze into small spaces and follow too closely endangering themselves and others.
TURN SIGNAL TIMING
Turn signals have been standard equipment for many years but are rarely used properly. The common practice is to signal at the same time, or even after, beginning a lane-changing or turning maneuver. A signal is a useless gesture when given too late for others to have time to respond .
FOLLOWING DISTANCE
It should be obvious to all drivers that following too closely increases the risk of a crash when a leading vehicle brakes suddenly. Changing lanes is also more hazardous when space between vehicles is restricted by drivers who follow too closely.
IMPROPER LANE USAGE
When slower drivers allow faster drivers to pass on the right, they create turbulence in the traffic stream, which decreases efficiency and safety.
SPEED OF TRAFFIC IN HOV LANES
Vehicles with two or more occupants may be permitted to use HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lanes. These lanes are provided to encourage car-pooling and produce faster, more efficient travel when other lanes are congested.
Unfortunately, HOV lanes may attract slow drivers who happen to have another passenger in their vehicle. Traffic backs up behind such drivers, frustrating following motorists and reducing traffic volume.
COORDINATING REGULATIONS AND LIMITING REGULATIONS
Before discussing speed limits, let’s pause for a moment to note that the purpose of traffic laws dealing with the first four items in the questionnaire is to coordinate vehicles into orderly, safe traffic flow. Traffic regulations dealing with these items are coordinating laws.
Note also that coordinating laws involve simple acts of courtesy. Those who violate them forgo opportunities to show courtesy and respect to other drivers and run the risk of offending them. No one gains by going against these reasonable requirements.
The speed limit is presently used as a limiting law to restrict the speed drivers are permitted to choose. Note also that speed limit laws are not necessarily related to courtesy. A person who chooses to drive faster or slower than others may be as courteous as any other driver.
A principle of good traffic management is that limiting laws must not interfere with coordinating laws. For example, obedience to unrealistically low speed limits may impede traffic and interfere with others' ability to obey coordinating laws.
ACHIEVING VOLUNTARY COMPLIANCE TO COORDINATING REGULATIONS
The rationale for expecting voluntary compliance to coordinating regulations is supported by the risk-reward principle.
In most cases, we must take a risk in order to enjoy a reward. Common sense dictates that we will only take a risk if we believe a reward will follow that is worth more than the risk. On the other hand, if we believe the reward would not be worth as much as the risk or there would be no reward at all, it would not be wise to take the risk.
It is very important to note that there is no reward for violating coordinating regulations. Motorists have nothing to gain by violating coordinating laws and they may experience an adverse result: Others may consider them rude and inconsiderate. Therefore, the key to achieving voluntary compliance to coordinating laws may be to vigorously enforce these laws, exposing drivers to a recognizable risk of being penalized for violating them.
Present enforcement policy seems to concentrate on speed limits with little attention to coordinating laws, possibly forgoing significant opportunities to improve safety on our highways. This neglect of coordinating law enforcement may also be a result of unrealistic or unenforceable coordinating laws.Therefore, achieving voluntary compliance to coordinating laws may be as simple as:
- Providing fair, enforceable coordinating laws, and
- Concentrating enough enforcement on these laws so that drivers recognize a significant risk of being cited for violations.
ACHIEVING VOLUNTARY COMPLIANCE TO SPEED LIMITS
Note that when considering speed limits, the risk-reward principle may have the opposite effect from coordinating laws: It may encourage disobedience.
As long as it is safe to do so, motorists may benefit from driving faster than posted speed limits—they may save time or avoid the tedium of driving at an unnecessarily slow speed. Therefore, when the perceived risk of receiving a speeding ticket is less than the perceived benefit of driving faster than a speed limit, the risk-reward principle may encourage drivers to exceed speed limits.
As noted above, there is no underlying relationship between speed and courtesy. A reasonable driver who chooses to drive faster or slower than others may be as courteous as any other driver. Furthermore, data collected from the questionnaire may indicate that other drivers are much less likely to consider violators of speed limit laws as inconsiderate than violators of coordinating laws.
When a speed limit is set scientifically, it becomes a coordinating law that notifies drivers of the safest speed at that location and will be voluntarily obeyed. Therefore, voluntary obedience to speed limits may be achieved by setting speed limits according to well-established engineering procedures with due regard for the normal speed of traffic.
An analysis of data collected from responses to the questionnaire above is shown on the next page.