The Allstate Foundation recently conducted a new survey, Shifting Teen Attitudes: The State of Teen Driving 2009.
Texting is teen’s biggest distraction behind the wheel:
- More than 49% of teens report texting as a distraction, up from 31% in 2005
- 82% of teens report using cell phones while driving, while 23% admit to drinking and driving
- More than 60% of teens worry about getting into a car accident, but still admit to practicing distracting or harmful actions while driving
Girls express a new need for speed:
- Nearly half (48%) of girls admit they are likely to speed more than 10 m.p.h. over the limit, versus 36% of boys
- 16% of girls describe their driving as aggressive, up from 9% in 200
Joseph B. White from the Wall Street Journal weighs in on the need for speed among teens:
The results were “a surprise to many people,” says Meghann Dowd of the Allstate Foundation, an independent charitable organization funded by Allstate which sponsored the survey.
While teens fessed up about their own bad behavior, they also said their friends drive even worse. The study found that 65% of the respondents, male and female, said they are confident in their own driving skills, but 77% said they had felt unsafe when another teen was driving. Only 23% of teens agree that most teens are good drivers. This suggests teens recognize in their friends the dubious and dangerous behavior they won’t admit to indulging in themselves.
Tags: Teen driving
