SURVEY RESULTS
SURVEY DESIGN
The purpose of this survey is not to determine whether or not motorists obey traffic regulations. Rather, it was designed to discover how important motorists believe it is that certain traffic regulations should be obeyed.
Therefore, wording in the questions directs respondents to consider how important it is that others obey these traffic regulations. (See Traffic Regulation Compliance Survey on the Home Page).
To avoid biasing responses with information in the remainder of the website, the questionnaire was placed on the home page where visitors would encounter it before reading further.
Regulations concerning the following driver behaviors were considered.
1. Moving over to allow passing in the left-hand lane.
2. Signaling soon enough to allow others to accommodate maneuvers.
3. Following at a safe distance.
4. Using right-hand lanes when traveling more slowly than other traffic.
5. Traveling at least as fast in the HOV lane as traffic is flowing in other lanes.
6. Obeying posted speed limits.
RESULTS
Data from 163 respondents are listed in the following table.
| Behavior |
Very Important |
Important |
Somewhat Important |
Not Important |
| Impedance |
87 | 40 |
25 |
11 |
| Signaling |
88 | 52 | 18 | 5 |
| Following Dist. |
92 | 46 | 22 | 3 |
| Keeping Right |
110 | 30 |
14 | 9 |
| HOV Speed |
55 | 3 | 94 | 11 |
| Speed Limits |
22 | 37 | 52 | 52 |
Responses were scored by multiplying the numbers in the table above by weighting values shown in the following table:
| IMPORTANCE |
WEIGHTING VALUE |
| Very Important |
3 |
| Important | 2 |
| Somewhat Important |
1 |
| Not Important |
0 |
Plotting the weighted values as updated January 13, 2012 produces the following chart:
COMMENTARY ON SURVEY RESULTS
Note that the results for the first four coordinating regulations are similar and score approximately twice as high as the results for obeying posted speed limits. HOV lane speed data fall between results for other coordinating regulations and posted speed limits, which may indicate ambivalence toward impeding traffic in HOV lanes.
It is also noted that:
- 13.5% answered that obeying posted speed limits is very important while more than half (53.4%-67.5%) answered that compliance to the first four coordinating regulations is very important. In other words, four to five times as many drivers consider obeying the first four coordinating regulations is very important compared to those who consider obeying posted speed limits is very important.
- 31.9% answered that obeying posted speed limits is not important while only 1.8%-6.7% answered that obedience to the first four coordinating regulations is not important. In other words, five to twenty six times as many drivers consider obeying posted speed limits is not important compared to those who consider obeying coordinating regulations is not important.
- Additionally, 77.9%-85.9% believe it is important or very important that others comply with the first four coordinating regulations, but fewer than half, 36.2%, believe it is important or very important that others obey posted speed limits.
These results must not be interpreted as evidence that motorists do not respect the importance of speed in traffic safety. Rather, the reason for the preponderance of “Somewhat Important” and “Not Important” responses for posted speed limits may be that motorists know most of the time it is safe to drive at speeds faster than presently posted speed limits and they do not see a problem when others do the same.
Considering the fact that the great majority of citations are written for exceeding speed limits, it appears that enforcing coordinating regulations is a minor concern to enforcement agencies. This may indicate that present enforcement practices may be seriously out-of-touch with the needs and desires of the driving public.
The next page examines the relationship between vehicle speed and safety in normal traffic and provides a rule for selecting the safest speed in any traffic flow.