Everyone’s speeding, so nobody’s sorry about it
Everyone complains about bad drivers, but there’s one bad driving habit they’re willing to excuse, it seems: speeding. Analyzing a new AAA study of nearly 16,500 drivers shows that 79 percent of Americans admit to speeding themselves, and relatively few see it as a serious driving offence. In fact, three out of ten people said no one drives the limit anymore, which should reinforce what you’ve been seeing out on the road lately.
Why Fast Feels Fine Now
Funny enough, with 74 percent of drivers saying they regularly see other cars blowing past them, nearly half of all drivers in the study said that matching traffic above the limit is actually safer than sticking to the limit. Most people don’t think too much of going 10 mph over, probably because tickets aren’t usually a problem till you start going 10-12 mph over the limit anyway. Over a third of drivers speed to get past slower traffic, a fine excuse for law enforcement but hardly practical if everyone’s going faster than the limit anyway.
On the other hand, 79 percent slow down out of fear of getting a ticket, 72 percent slow down so they don’t have an accident, and 60 percent ease off in bad weather. Which means that a ticket still holds more weight than a clean conscience. It also explains why speeding carries the lowest social stigma of any risky road behavior that AAA measured, including texting or drunk driving. It’s beginning to seem like, as far as America is concerned, speeding is being efficient, not reckless.
Some States Are Better Behaved Than Others
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Despite most people treating speed limits like suggestions, most drivers still back stricter enforcement when it comes to speeding. 87 percent support more policing in crash-prone areas, and 71 percent wouldn’t mind AI speed cameras either. Diving into the statewide data from the AAA report reveals that 54 percent of California drivers are more likely to speed in the belief that keeping pace with traffic is safer, compared to the national average of 49 percent.
Essentially, there’s a bunch of us speeding; we know it’s common enough, and we want the cops to fix it, except when it comes down to it, it’s not our driving that’s at fault. NHTSA data shows speeding contributed to nearly 30 percent of traffic deaths in 2024, but that’s a statistic that most drivers seem to think doesn’t apply to their own right foot.
