Skip to main content

Americans want more action and enforcement to improve highway safety

At a time when there is intense debate about the role of government, a majority of Americans support additional laws and want more action by government officials to improve highway safety, a new survey released yesterday by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety claims.
May 16, 2012 Read time: 2 mins
At a time when there is intense debate about the role of government, a majority of Americans support additional laws and want more action by government officials to improve highway safety, a new survey released yesterday by the 477 AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety claims.

"Despite shrinking federal and state transportation budgets and a public debate over the most appropriate role of government, it's clear that a majority of Americans want government officials to do more – not less – about highway safety," said 4939 AAA president and CEO Bob Darbelnet. "From passing and enforcing laws about teen drivers and distracted driving to programmes that improve the safety of our roadways and add safety equipment to vehicles, there are many steps government can take to reduce crashes, injuries, and deaths in the US."

The survey was released just ahead of the United Nations' official launch of the 'Decade of Action for Road Safety' campaign, which aims to stabilise and then reduce global road deaths by 2020. Major economies of the G20, including the United States as well as leading developing countries and public institutions like the  2000 World Bank and the 1819 World Health Organisation, have all endorsed the Decade of Action.

"At a time when more and more U.S. highway safety agencies are adopting "Toward Zero Death" goals, it is very heartening to see motorist support for more, not less action by government to make our roads safer," added J. Peter Kissinger, president of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, that commissioned this survey.

The survey shows that a majority of Americans are in agreement that the US needs more laws to prevent people from doing dangerous things while driving; that their respective state government needs to do more to make their roads safer;  that all new drivers should be required to complete a driver education course before they can get a driver's license; that both auto manufacturers and the federal government need to do more to make cars safer; while 70 per cent of Americans agree that driving safety laws should be enforced more strictly with only six per cent disagreeing.

Full details of the survey are available at %$Linker: External 0 0 0 oLinkExternal www.AAAFoundation.org. AAAFoundation false http://aaafoundation.org./ false false%>

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • EU awards finalists announced
    February 26, 2014
    The European Commission has announced the six finalists of two awards which honour the actions of European cities in developing and promoting sustainable approaches to urban mobility. This year’s Sustainable Urban Mobility Plan (SUMP) award recognises cities with SUMPs illustrating the ‘integration of economic, social, and environmental policy criteria’, the theme of the 2013 awards. The award is presented to local authorities which demonstrate excellence in developing and implementing their sustainable
  • Call for contributions for ITS Europe
    November 21, 2016
    Ertico-ITS Europe has issued a call for contributions for the 12th ITS European Congress, which takes place in Strasbourg, 19-22 June 2017. The main theme of the congress is ‘ITS beyond borders’ and contributions should address the seven main topics, including mobility services, next generation goods delivery, transport networks evaluation, connected and automated transport, satellite technology applied to mobility, ITS and the environment, or the author’s own ideas. More information on the topics is
  • Field-hardened communications
    May 21, 2012
    RuggedCom is using its appearance at the ITS America Annual Meeting to highlight a range of field-hardened communications products for ITS. As the company points out, creating a reliable, city-wide communication network to meet the demand for real-time information and support the growing need for mobility is no easy feat. But its solution can ease the pain: WiMax 4G broadband can cost-effectively extend the network and seamlessly integrate into existing infrastructure.
  • JUSP launches all-in-one Chip & Pin mPOS solution
    October 31, 2013
    JUSP has launched an all-in-one chip-and-pin mPOS solution for smartphones and tablets, which the manufacturer says has a lower price (¤39 per unit) and smaller transaction fee (2.5%) than other such products. It is also the only one of its kind that connects directly into a smartphone or tablet audio jack using its proprietary, patent pending technology, JUSP says, and works with the highly secure credit and debit cards in all countries outside the US. It means merchants can make payment transactio