Monitoring Road Safety.

• Author: Bowman, Karen

"The number of drivers indicating they had been a designated driver, used a designated driver, used a taxi or public transportation or ridesharing rose from 177,000,000 drivers in 2017 to 187,000,000 in 2019," says Carl Wicklund, senior advisor for the Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF), which has released its fifth annual Road Safety Monitor (RSM) on alcohol- and drug-impaired driving.

"In light of this increase, the belief there are no alternatives to driving under the influence may simply be an excuse, at least by a subgroup of impaired drivers. Understanding who is at risk for impaired driving, and the conditions leading to this behavior, is important to ensure people have access to safe rides."

However, results of this RSM also show that the percent of respondents who reported driving when they thought they were over the legal limit in the last 12 months significantly increased from 11.6% in 2018 to 20% in 2019. This is the highest prevalence recorded during the past five years of data collection. Additionally, the percent of respondents who admitted driving impaired often or very often also was the highest during the past five years, with an increase from 3.4% in 2018 to 11.1 % in 2019.

Cautions Ward Vanlaar, chief operating officer of TIRF: "While more data is needed to monitor trends, the significant increase in self-reported alcohol-impaired driving is a concern. It is an early warning that the number of alcohol-impaired driving fatalities may increase without continued and increased efforts."

The public would appear to be supportive considering 60% of U.S. drivers said that...