State Study Finds 85% of Drivers Routinely Speed

For most California motorists, speeding has become a part of their lifestyle and about all that will slow them down is fear of a traffic ticket that leads to higher insurance rates or a bad driving record, according to a state survey.

Commissioned by the Office of Traffic Safety to help state officials determine what messages are most effective at curbing speeding, the survey released Thursday found that 85% of California drivers routinely break speed limits.

The findings, obtained from 1,029 motorists surveyed at random, placed Californians into three driver categories. There are the hard-core speeders--the daredevils who habitually and with no qualms exceed posted limits. This group, which makes up 11% of the drivers, includes what survey-takers called the “informal enforcers,” those who tailgate slower motorists to force the flow of traffic to move faster.

At the other end of the spectrum are the super-cautious motorists--accounting for 15% of the driving public--who religiously obey traffic rules and often stay below maximum speeds to ensure that they won’t break the law.

By far the largest group, the survey found, are the 74% who sometimes drive too fast but can be persuaded to slow down when they realize they are speeding.

Peter O’Rourke, traffic safety director, said the data showed that drivers in this group cross all demographic lines of age, gender and income. In contrast, he said nearly two-thirds of the hard-core speeders are young males and nearly two-thirds of the cautious drivers are older women.

O’Rourke said the $12,000 study by the Los Angeles-based firm of Manning, Selvage & Lee will be used to help design a new media campaign to combat speeding.

The current message that “speed kills,” he said, has not worked because most motorists believe “that won’t happen to me.”

O’Rourke said the clue to finding an effective message may be in data showing drivers can be made aware of certain consequences of speeding. Most drivers say they will slow down if they think they are in danger of getting a speeding ticket, which could lead to a hike in insurance rates or a bad driving record.