UC Berkeley SafeTREC is excited to release the 2018 California Statewide Public Opinion Traffic Study led by Ewald & Wasserman Research Consultants (E&W). This study was conducted on behalf of the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) at the University of California, Berkeley.
The 2018 Survey
The California Statewide Public Opinion Traffic Study is an annual cross-sectional survey of California drivers ages 18 and over regarding their opinions on traffic safety issues such as speeding, distracted driving, impaired driving, and pedestrian and bicycle safety, as well as their perceptions on other critical safety topics. The survey has been conducted since 2010.
The data collection in 2018 resulted in 1,395 completed intercept surveys with California drivers representing a span of fifteen counties in the state. Survey data was collected at over 70 fueling stations across the fifteen counties and survey sites within counties were selected based on population density within those counties based on Census reports. For Los Angeles, San Diego and Orange Counties, the geographic areas were divided into two separate clusters.
Survey respondents were asked to identify the biggest safety problems on California roadways. The top five answers (drivers could give more than one answer) included: speeding/aggressive driving; distracted driving because of texting; bad road surfaces; distracted driving because of talking; and drunk driving.
Read more about our findings:
- Download the full survey
- Download the Research Brief summarizing key findings from the 2018 Survey