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

  • Upgrading Koblenz's traffic information system
    March 1, 2013
    David Crawford reviews an award-winning scheme that delivered a 30% increase in website usage – below budget The German Federal Agricul­tural Show (Bundesgarten­schau, BUGA) runs between mid-April and mid-October every other year in a differ­ent city. The most recent, 2011, edition took place in Koblenz, a medium-sized community with a population of just over 105,000 in the Rheinland-Pfalz region, and was expected to draw an additional 40,000 visitors a day to its central area. Traffic access from the moto
  • Econolite celebrates 80 years in business at ITS America 2013
    April 23, 2013
    Econolite celebrated a major milestone here at the ITS America Annual Meeting – the company’s 80th birthday. It was in 1933 that Econolite began distribution of traffic signal controllers at a time when a gallon of gas cost just 10 cents and the interstate highway system hadn’t even been conceived.
  • US Transportation Secretary to speak at TRB annual meeting
    January 5, 2017
    More than 13,000 people from about 70 countries, including policymakers, administrators, practitioners and researchers from government, industry, and academia, are expected to gather for the US Transportation Research Board (TRB) 96th Annual Meeting. The event will be held at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, from 8-12 January and will involve more than 5,000 presentations at over 800 sessions and workshops covering all transportation modes. Approximately 130 sessions will addr
  • US DOT issues RFP for connected vehicle pilot deployment and program evaluation
    May 5, 2016
    The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has released a solicitation for a full and open competition to procure services for non-personal, technical support services for the Connected Vehicle Pilot deployment and program evaluation. The Connected Vehicle Pilot Deployment program includes three phases: Phase 1: Concept Development Phase, Phase 2: Design/Build/Test (for which this solicitation will ascertain that the objectives of the program are met), and Phase 3: Maintain and Operate.