Why do drivers speed? NHTSA wants to know

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants to know why drivers speed.

Although the answer may seem obvious, the agency is seeking approval to conduct a survey of 1,500 licensed drivers regarding speeding. A notice about the proposed survey was published in the Federal Register on Tuesday, Oct. 25.

The voluntary survey would coordinate with the Washington Traffic Safety Commission and the Washington Department of Licensing to question adult drivers in the state who received at least one speeding conviction in the past three years, as well as drivers not convicted of speeding in the same time frame.

According to the notice, the survey would include general and speeding-specific questions about moral reasoning, and legal reasoning, as well as attitudes and perceptions of laws, enforcement and sanctions. NHTSA did not indicate in the notice why it would limit the survey to drivers in the state of Washington.

“The results of this research will assist NHTSA in better understanding how to develop successful programs to improve driver safety,” the agency wrote in the notice. “The technical report will be distributed to a variety of audiences interested in improving highway safety. This collection will inform the development of countermeasures, particularly in the areas of communications and outreach intended to reduce speeding.”

Speeding-related crashes

NHTSA says that driving too fast was a contributing factor in 26% of traffic deaths in 2019. In the same year, the agency said speeding accounted for 9,478 fatalities and 326,000 injuries.

“In order to design countermeasures that address directly the factors that influence speeding behavior and intention to engage in this behavior, it is necessary to understand as much as possible about the internal reasoning of drivers who speed,” NHTSA wrote. “Insight into factors such as judgments about whether speeding is morally right or wrong and perceptions of the legitimacy of the speed laws, enforcement and sanctions can help to develop tailored and effective interventions.”

The agency said it will use the findings from the survey to assist states and communities to develop countermeasures to driving over the speed limit.

How to comment

The public has through Dec. 27 to comment on the proposed survey. You can comment here, or by going to Regulations.gov and entering Docket No. NHTSA-2022-0045. LL

Also on Land Line:

• Safety groups in July called for 60 mph speed limiters on commercial trucks.
• FMCSA Adninistrator Robin Hutcheson recently discussed speed limiters on Land Line Now.