How unacceptable is speeding? Insights from a Social Acceptability Survey in Victoria.
Keywords: Speeding
ACRS
Submission Date: 2012 Journal
Abstract
Compliance with speed limits among vehicle operators, and attitudes towards speeding behaviour, do not appear to have changed significantly in Victoria over the last eight or nine years. Contrary to drink driving behaviour, which in Victoria is met with almost unanimous social disapproval, speeding behaviour does not attract the indignation of the populace; consequently there is little or no social pressure to comply with speed limits. Building community acceptance for effective speed management is, therefore, a priority for road safety agencies, including the Transport Accident Commission (TAC). The TAC believes its efforts in public education and road safety promotion over the past 20 years have contributed to a shift in the community’s social norms in relation to drink driving behaviour. Making speeding behaviour similarly socially unacceptable is likely to be a long term process. This article considers the current level of social acceptance of speeding in light of a range of survey data collected by the TAC.