Edmonton drivers know better but take risks anyway, traffic study finds

Edmonton drivers don't always walk their own talk when it comes to distracted driving or other traffic safety issues, a new survey has found.

Results from the 2016 Edmonton traffic safety culture survey, conducted for the City of Edmonton's Office of Traffic Safety, came out Tuesday.

The survey of more than 3,600 people suggests some big gaps between drivers' attitudes about traffic safety and their actions behind the wheel.

Findings will be used to help support the city's Vision Zero goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries on Edmonton roads.

"Overall, the findings of this study tell us that people are concerned about traffic safety," the study said.

"They tell us that people find many behaviours to be a threat to their safety and unacceptable. Yet, at the same time, some people continue to engage in risky behaviours anyway."

Two-thirds of respondents said they believe it's not acceptable to speed on residential streets, and 93 per cent said they see such speeding as a serious threat to their personal safety.

Yet more than 43 per cent of people surveyed admitted doing it themselves in the past 30 days.

Ninety-five per cent of respondents said they believe running a red light is not acceptable behaviour, but 24 per cent admitted they had done it within the past month.

In a public online portion of the survey, 94 per cent of respondents said they believe text messaging, emailing or using social media to be a serious threat to their safety.

But 33 per cent said that in the past month they had text-messaged, emailed or used social media like Twitter or Facebook while driving and 62 per cent said they had done it while stopped at a traffic light.

Behaviour a factor in most collisions

The findings are important because attitudes and beliefs can increase or decrease the risk of being in a collision, said Laura Thue, senior research co-ordinator with the Office of Traffic Safety.

But people don't always do what they know they should, she said in an interview.

"It's not uncommon for there to be a gap between how we say we will behave or should behave and how we actually behave. We are human beings, and we don't always behave as we should, even when we have the best intentions."

The study said behaviour is a factor in the vast majority of collisions."Whether a driver is travelling too fast for conditions or a pedestrian is distracted," it said, "collisions are strongly related to road user behaviour."

More than 56 per cent of surveyed drivers who reported they had tailgated said they did so out of frustration that the vehicle in front "was not travelling as fast as I would like to."

Most people perceived themselves as better drivers than others on the roads. But fewer than 60 per cent of drivers said they always come to a complete stop at a stop sign.

Photo enforcement wins support

The study found strong support for the use of automated enforcement to reduce speeding and red-light running. But support was stronger for the use of intersection safety cameras than mobile photo radar.

Respondents also showed strong support for the use of cameras as a tool to combat distracted driving and stop-sign enforcement.

"People do admit to engaging in risky behaviours but they also show a lot of support for measures that are going to help increase their safety on the roadways," Thue said.

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The Office of Traffic Safety contracted the University of Alberta's Population Research Laboratory to conduct a telephone survey of 1,000 residents in the Edmonton region.

The laboratory also administered an online survey that collected responses from 778 people. As well, more than 1,800 responses were gathered from members of the City of Edmonton's Insight Community, an online citizen panel.

Respondents identified their top three concerns as:

• people driving after drinking alcohol;
• drivers text messaging, emailing or using social media, and;
• speeding on residential streets.

Speeding on freeways was considered less of a threat to personal safety.

The survey was also conducted in 2014.