Apparently, the longer you drive, the harder it is to resist the lures of speeding, chatting on a cell phone, texting while driving or making rude gestures to other drivers.
Drivers with long commutes are more likely to speed and engage in other unsafe behaviors than those with shorter commutes or no commute at all, according to a recent study by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind, co-sponsored by the state’s Division of Highway Traffic Safety.
The study showed 61 percent of those who drive 20 miles or more to work saying they drive more than 65 mph on the highway “most of the time” or “often,” compared with 53 percent of those with shorter drives and 42 percent of those that don’t drive to work at all.
A quarter of all New Jersey drivers say they regularly drive more than 70 mph on New Jersey highways, with 39 percent of drivers with long commutes versus 22 percent with short ones reporting this.
And that’s a safety problem, says Gary Poedubicky, acting director of the Division of Highway Traffic Safety.
“In 2009 alone, unsafe speed was a factor in more than 23,000 crashes on New Jersey roads,” he said. “Long commutes can certainly be frustrating at times, however we have to recognize the serious danger that results from chronic speeding.”
Garden State drivers adhere more closely to the speed limit on local roads. Eighteen percent say that they regularly go more than 5 miles per hour over the speed limit on streets that have a limit of 30 mph, and 81 percent say that they “never” do it or only do it “once in a while.”
“Our results indicate that drivers don’t take the speed limits on highways too seriously, especially if they have a long drive every morning,” says principal investigator Dan Cassino. “But the speed limits where they live, and where their kids play, are a different matter.”
Nineteen percent of drivers with long commutes say that they talk on a handheld phone “very often” or “sometimes” compared to 9 percent of those who don’t drive to work at all. But a similar proportion of New Jersey drivers with commutes of less than 20 miles 17 percent report they talk on a handheld cell phone “sometimes” or “very often.”
While the proportion of drivers with short commutes 32 percent who admit to texting and driving is similar to drivers with commutes of more than 20 miles (31 percent), each group is significantly more likely to text while driving than those who don’t commute to work (16 percent).
“Texting while driving appears to be out of control on our roads,” says Poedubicky. “It is frightening when you consider the dangerous combination of texting and speeding.”
While they report speeding more, those with longer commutes apparently don’t expect to get caught. Those with the longest commutes are less likely than those with shorter commutes to think they will get a ticket for driving faster than the speed limit (80 percent compared to 89 percent). In reality, however, 14 percent of drivers traveling more than 20 miles to work have received a speeding ticket, compared with 7 percent of those who don’t regularly drive to work.
Drivers with long commutes (76 percent) also are more likely to rate their driving skills as “above average.” This is 10 points higher than those who have shorter commutes or don’t drive to work at all.
These same drivers also are more likely to admit to having made a rude gesture at another driver: 36 percent compared with 25 percent of those who don’t regularly drive to work.
“It makes sense for drivers with long hauls to work to get more frustrated,” said Cassino. “They feel like they know these roads better, they’re better drivers, and they just want everyone else to get out of their way.”
The survey was conducted by telephone from April 14 to May 17 using a randomly selected sample of 1,002 New Jersey residents aged 17 and older who report driving regularly, including an oversample of drivers under the age of 30. It has a margin of error of +/-3 percentage points. Peter Woolley, a member of St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Morristown, is executive director of the PublicMind poll.
I drive 60 miles to and from work 5 days a week. Cruise control and IPods with favorite music goes a long way to avoid speeding, and getting bored.