Part 1: Averages and Overall Findings
Preface: This is a wordpress blog that I started in college then abandoned for 15 years! I thought it might be a better way to present this analysis.
I got curious one day how fast other people drive, and thought it’d be interesting to make a survey for my friends.
I am no statistician or data scientist, so this is just for fun. I received 56 responses to the survey, and the sample is a very narrow population of “my Facebook and frisbee friends,” so it won’t contain any groundbreaking insights into the human psyche behind the wheel. For a more rigorous look at how fast people drive given different speed limits, this article from about 15 years ago asks similar questions to my survey (though that study’s sample isn’t broad either: it largely gets its data from about 200 Purdue University engineering students).
This is the first of a few posts where I will share some basic charts and observations from the survey. In the future posts, I will explore topics like how people drive at each of the different speed limits, whether age is a factor, how people imagine they avoid getting caught by the cops, and so on.
The raw results from this survey are available here, and you’re invited to have a look yourself and point out anything you think I might have missed!
Part 1: OVERALL FINDINGS
- MOST PEOPLE SPEED. Across all different speed limits, 15.2% of respondents drove at or below the speed limit, and 84.8% went any amount over the speed limit. The 25 mph speed limit predictably had the most people driving at or below the speed limit, but still 68% of respondents said they drive over the speed limit.
- HOWEVER, PEOPLE DON’T SPEED VERY MUCH! Across all different speed limits, the average speed people were exceeding the speed limit was just 5.9 mph.
- I thought fewer people would speed at low speed limits, and more people would speed at higher speed limits. That’s pretty much true, but the difference is not as drastic as I thought. There is only a 4.3 mph difference between the least and most exceeded limits. Plus, people sped slightly more at 65 than at 70. One possible explanation could be, as one person commented, “Once I get to 70, I feel like that’s fast enough, so I don’t tend to go too much over the speed limit here.”
- Most of the variation between different speed limits is people switching between going 1-5 over (at lower speeds) to 6-10 over (at higher speeds).
- Based on the comments/explanations, What makes people drive faster or slower? The top answer was fear of tickets or cops. Next was following the flow of traffic, like one commenter who said they drive 5 over the speed limit because “people up my ass otherwise.” Then came pedestrian risk, especially mentioning kids and families. Finally, some mentioned road type (residential vs. highway) and quality (straight and wide vs. curvy and narrow). Some answers were vague, like “it’s a neighborhood” or “it feels safe”. I’m guessing if pressed for follow-up, they would probably say the real reason is one of those three former considerations (speeding tickets, flow of traffic, or pedestrians).
See Part 2 for a breakdown of each different speed limit! Drive safe, friends!
life of andyman 