Distracted Driving Report: New Research

Road trip season is upon us, and with higher traffic levels comes more distracted driving. Auto insurance rates are now at the highest levels in 50 years, so the cost of repairs that may come from distracted driving is also up. Ahead of this year’s Distracted Driving Awareness Month (April), there is new research under embargo from telematics company Arity which has over 1 trillion miles of driving behavior data from 40M+ vehicle connections in its dataset.

Topline finding: 68% of 1,000 surveyed US drivers agree that distracted driving is extremely unsafe, but Arity’s dataset found a 30% increase in distracted driving per mile between 2019 and 2023 – up 7% in 2023 alone. Could this increase be driving car insurance rate hikes?

When asked what drivers see as their biggest road distractions:

A majority (Nine in 10 drivers) agree that driving under the influence, ignoring traffic signals, and distracted driving are unsafe behaviors – yet they happen daily.

Only four in 10 drivers see hard braking (38%) and speeding (42%) as extremely unsafe

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration  reports that speeding-related crashes make up almost all of traffic fatalities

24% of drivers see fast acceleration as a neutral behavior, and 11% see it as safe.

Evening commutes bring greater distractions – the highest levels of distracted driving in 2023 took place during weekday afternoons from 3 – 6:59 p.m. (AKA workday commutes home). [IA]