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Despite awareness of the dangers, many Americans are still engaging in risky driving behaviors, according to a new survey from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.
Among those surveyed, 97% said scrolling social media while driving is extremely or very dangerous. However, 28% said they text and 37% said they read messages behind the wheel.
While 93% of drivers said driving after drinking is very or extremely dangerous, 7% said they had done so in the past 30 days. Among drivers, 70% said driving within an hour of using marijuana is very or extremely dangerous, yet 6% said they’d recently done so.
That gap between knowing and doing might explain why many of those surveyed said they support new technologies and stricter laws to help keep roads safer. More than 39,000 people died in U.S. traffic crashes in 2024.
Among drivers, 67% said they support requiring all new cars to include alcohol-impairment prevention technology. About half (51%) support lowering the legal blood alcohol content limit from 0.08 to 0.05.
“Findings from the AAA Foundation survey give us a strong sense of what drivers see as risky, and what they want done about it,” said Dr. David Yang, president and executive director of the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, in a statement. “Those insights can help safety stakeholders and policymakers focus on effective solutions with broad public support.”
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