Key Findings from Arity’s Driver Safety SurveyKey Findings from Arity’s Driver Safety Survey – High Awareness of Risks but Persistent Risky Driving: – 68% of drivers recognize the extreme danger of distracted driving, yet it has increased by 30% in recent years. – Only four in ten drivers view hard braking and speeding as extremely unsafe, despite their proven role in accidents. – Awareness Starts with Educated Drivers: – 59% of drivers believe improving driver training will significantly impact road safety. – Arity’s partnership with mobile apps and insurance programs provides drivers with insights to improve their driving behaviors. – Data as a Catalyst for Change: – 86% of drivers are willing to share data to prevent loss of life. – Drivers are receptive to sharing data with auto insurers (54%) and automakers (51%) but less so with government agencies (58%). – Collective Responsibility for Safer Roads: – 79% of drivers acknowledge their own responsibility for improving driving safety. – Arity emphasizes the need for collaboration among drivers, automakers, technology companies, governments, and other transportation stakeholders. – About Arity: Arity is a mobility data and analytics company that leverages data from over a trillion miles of driving to provide insights for safer, smarter, and more fuel-efficient mobility services. Its mission is to empower transportation stakeholders with data to make informed decisions and improve road safety.
Despite technological advances in automobiles, increased traffic, distracted driving and insurance premiums have made driving more time-consuming, expensive and dangerous, with traffic fatalities increasing by 30%.1 in the past decade. The willingness of motorists to provide their data underlines the growing recognition of the crucial role of data in addressing road safety issues across the country.
“Today’s transportation ecosystem is broken, costing people money and even lives. But it doesn’t have to be this way,” said Gary Hallgren, president of Arity. “With more driving data available than ever before, Arity is committed to identifying the factors that contribute to road hazards and enabling solutions that create a smarter, safer, and more useful way to navigate the world. With this latest data report, we explore ways to shape a better future of mobility, revealing how every transportation stakeholder can contribute to safer roads.”
To gauge current attitudes toward road safety, tolerance for dangerous driving, and related concerns, Arity surveyed 1,000 U.S. licensed drivers and conducted an in-depth analysis of anonymized, user-consented data from 40 million U.S. mobile connections. This provided detailed insights into driving trends that can be used to guide and inspire action.
The key findings from the research report are:
Despite awareness of the dangers, risky driving behavior persists
The survey found that 68% of drivers agree that distracted driving, including using your phone behind the wheel, is extremely unsafe. Despite this, the behavior continues. When compared to Arity’s dataset of over 1 trillion miles of driving data, a troubling reality emerges: distracted driving increased by 30% between 2019 and 2024. Additional insights from Arity show that driving during the COVID-19 pandemic—a decline of around 30%, or a staggering 50% in 2020—has not reduced risky behavior. Even as traffic volumes and congestion return to pre-pandemic levels in 2023, these dangerous behaviors have persisted, signaling a lasting shift in driving behavior.
In addition, the survey found that there is less concern about more common, proven accident-causing behaviors such as hard braking, speeding and rapid acceleration. Only four in ten drivers see braking hard (38%) and speeding (42%) as extremely unsafe. Shockingly, 24% of drivers see rapid acceleration as a neutral behavior, while 11% see it as safe or extremely safe. These findings highlight a stark contrast between drivers’ recognition of unsafe practices and their actual behavior on the road, pointing to a persistent problem in driving habits that transcends the pandemic.
Awareness starts – but doesn’t end – with better informed drivers
Creating awareness of and preventing dangerous driving behavior starts with drivers – 59% say improving driver training will have the biggest impact on road safety. However, there is an opportunity to accelerate safer roads with a concerted effort to share, monitor, and respond to driver behavior data. Drivers generate enormous amounts of data as they drive, use their phones and move around throughout the day. This information can provide vital insights into areas where accidents are likely to happen, dangerous driving behavior and ways to develop a safer, more efficient and fairer transportation system.
Arity solves this by partnering with consumer mobile apps, insurance programs, and more to educate drivers. By providing coaching and actionable insights to drivers who choose to share their driving behavior, drivers are better equipped to understand and improve their driving behavior, ultimately contributing to overall road safety.
Driving change with driving data
Drivers are willing to share their data with entities that directly affect their wallets and their experiences behind the wheel—54% would share it with auto insurers to lower insurance prices, and 51% would share it with automakers for improved safety features. However, 58% of U.S. drivers are unwilling to share their driving data with city, state, and federal officials—a missed opportunity to better inform safer intersections, road investments, and traffic and safety policies.
When asked who is responsible for curbing this behavior and creating safer roads, 79% of drivers said that drivers themselves are responsible for improving driving safety. However, Arity believes it will take a collective effort from everyone who relies on and works in transportation—including drivers, automakers, technology companies, governments, advocacy groups, city planners, marketers, and auto insurers—to make transportation safer and smarter. This mission requires insights that can only come from data about how people move. It’s time to build, share, and use this data at scale. Learn more at arity.com.
Click here to download the report: Data in Action: Solving the Driver Safety Crisis.
Arity
Arity is a mobility data and analytics company that provides data-driven solutions to companies investing in transportation, enabling them to deliver smarter, safer, and more fuel-efficient mobility services. Arity collects and analyzes more than a trillion miles of driving data to better understand how people move. With the world’s largest driving dataset coupled with insurance claims data collected from mobile devices, in-car devices, and vehicles themselves, Arity gains unique insights that help insurers, developers, marketers, and communities understand and predict driving behavior at scale. Arity was founded in 2016 by Allstate Corporation.
