Since cars were invented, there have been car accidents. But, over the years, people’s biggest concerns about the dangers of driving have changed.
In 1937, when people were behind the wheel of their Buick Specials and Ford Model 78s, a Gallup Poll showed 29% of Americans said they believed most highway accidents were due to carelessness. Another 24% blamed drunk driving and 20% thought speeding was responsible for most accidents.
Two decades later in 1957, as Plymouth Furys and Chevy Bel-Airs raced down America’s highways, people were focused on the dangers of speeding. In a Gallup Poll from that year, 47% of Americans said speeding was causing most highway accidents. But, the other causes saw similar results to the 1937 poll: 26% listed drunk driving and 25% named carelessness as the primary causes of auto accidents.
Nearly 50 years later, an entirely new concern appeared in a 2005 Gallup Poll sponsored by MADD and Nationwide Insurance: cell phones. While the top response was drunk driving at 37% and speeding came in second at 27%, 19% of licensed drivers identified the distraction of cell phones as the greatest highway safety problem.
Today, cell phones are still causing concern on the road. A Consumer Reports/National Opinion Research Center (NORC) survey from 2021 asking Americans if they thought things had improved over the prior 25 years found 50% saying the hazard of “distracted drivers” had gotten “much worse” and another 22% said it had gotten “worse” in that time. In this case, the survey lumped the use of cell phones and drunk driving into one category.
But when asked about “auto safety,” Americans were much more optimistic: 62% said auto safety is “much better” or “better” than it was 25 years ago.
So, while Americans see technology, like air bags and warning sensors, as having improved auto safety, they see technology, like cell phones, as having made peoples’ driving much worse. It will be interesting to see what a similar question asked 20 years from now will show if self-driving cars become the norm.
This post was written by Marist Poll Media Team member Rebekah Hendricks.