Most American drivers do not see speeding as dangerous — and many consider it completely normal — even as speeding contributed to more than 11,000 traffic deaths in 2024, according to a new AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety study.
The study, which used focus groups and a large nationwide survey, found that most drivers consider going as much as 10 miles per hour over the speed limit totally acceptable. In some cases, drivers said going as much as 25 miles per hour over the speed limit felt normal.
Three in 10 drivers agreed with the statement that no one actually drives the speed limit.
"Many drivers don't see speeding as a problem and they find it widely acceptable," AAA spokesperson Kellan Howell said.
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Nearly 30% of all traffic deaths in 2023 were tied to speeding, and in 2024 — the most recent year for which national crash data is available — more than 11,000 people were killed in crashes involving a speeding driver.
"This idea that, oh, everybody does it and it's fine, is something that we're going to have to work really hard to change in order to help lower that number of fatalities," Howell said.
Keeping up with traffic: A dangerous misconception
More than half of drivers surveyed said keeping up with the flow of traffic is safer than obeying the posted speed limit. Howell said that belief was one of the top reasons drivers gave for speeding — to avoid holding up traffic.
"It's something that we can easily all get caught up in, right? You might not even realize that you're doing it when you're driving down the road and you're just going the pace that everyone else is going. And suddenly you look down and you realize, oh, I'm going 10, 15, sometimes 20 miles over the speed limit," Howell said.
AAA offers the following tips for drivers who want to slow down when traffic around them is moving faster than the speed limit:
- Stay in the rightmost lane and avoid traveling in the passing lane.
- Watch for vehicles approaching quickly from behind.
- Allow plenty of space to react to drivers slowing down ahead of you.
"It's that reaction time that can make all the difference in a crash," Howell said.
Tickets, not safety, are what slow drivers down
The study found a notable contradiction in what motivates drivers to reduce their speed. While drivers said they slow down to avoid crashes, the factor most likely to actually make them slow down is avoiding a ticket.
Drivers expressed the most support for increased law enforcement and automated speed cameras — even in their own neighborhoods. However, they were less supportive of physical countermeasures like speed humps and roundabouts, even though most acknowledged those measures would be effective.
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"The overall trend that was uncovered is that drivers are more likely to support countermeasures that encourage them to slow down versus countermeasures that would physically kind of force them to slow down. There's this idea of control that's really important to drivers," Howell said.
