Another Pandemic Worry: Speeding, Reckless Drivers
The COVID-19 pandemic has drastically changed our daily routines. Schools and businesses have closed, events have been canceled, and most of us are staying home a lot more than normal. With one out of nine U.S. jobs depending on travel or tourism and millions of Americans filing for unemployment, it’s no surprise that we’re staying put. And as a result, highways that normally have bumper-to-bumper traffic during rush hour are now free and clear. But a problem has emerged as a result: people are traveling at unsafe speeds and are generally being reckless on the road.
Prior to the pandemic, congested roadways were common due to consistent motorist activity. Around 63% of drivers say they avoid driving to shopping sites, airports, sports centers, and other destinations due to parking challenges, but that doesn’t necessarily stop all drivers from heading out on the highway. The pandemic, however, put a major dent in most traffic nationwide. Back in May, the National Safety Council reported that the number of miles driven in the U.S. dropped by 25.5% compared to the year before.
However, having fewer drivers on the road doesn’t always make for safer conditions. As it was, 86% of drivers believed it was safe to drive at least 10 miles per hour over the speed limit on the highway. But now that roadways are a lot emptier, drivers are getting bolder. Across the nation, speeding tickets and fatal accidents are on the rise, thanks to aggressive driving behavior.
Jake Nelson, AAA’s director of traffic safety, advocacy, and research, noted in a statement: “Speed camera data that recorded as high as a 16% increase in drivers going 50% faster than the posted speed limit, and we have not seen that speed problem in other parts of the world.”
The speeding issue has resulted in a notable increase in traffic-related deaths. In Missouri, fatal accidents saw a 15% increase, despite traffic volumes dipping as low as 50% for the majority of 2020. As a result, Missouri was one of five states to crack down on speeding drivers during July. Kansas, one of the other five states with an increased police presence to catch speeding motorists, has seen a 41% increase in tickets issued to drivers traveling at speeds of more than 100 miles per hour. Ohio has seen similar increases in traffic tickets. Between March 24 and July 10, authorities issued 1,159 citations to drivers traveling in speeds above 100 miles per hour; during that same period in 2019, only 658 citations were issued.
While some states actually saw decreases in both speeding tickets and traffic fatalities during the pandemic, the national figures suggest a troubling trend. The national rate of road fatalities increased by roughly 25% in May compared to the year prior.
As businesses continue to reopen and traffic slowly returns to its pre-pandemic levels, it’s likely that aggressive driving behavior will start to dwindle a bit. It’s even possible that you might actually be thankful for rush-hour traffic for the sake of safety — but it would certainly be nice if neither problem existed.
