When it comes to road safety, there are two moralities, one private and the other public. Motorists proclaim one thing but practise another. The extent of this ambivalence is perhaps the most shocking finding of a survey on driver behaviour and attitudes, the results of which are published in today's Motors supplement.
Under the cloak of anonymity, drivers admitted offences such as knowingly speeding (77.9 per cent), driving after taking alcohol (22.7 per cent), breaking red lights (27.2 per cent) and a myriad of other infringements. Yet more than 80 per cent still consider themselves to be good, very good and even excellent drivers.
Respondents to the survey conducted by the Waterford Institute of Technology on behalf of FBD and Advance Pitstop went on to identify speed and alcohol as two of the main factors in road accidents, calling for more policing and tougher penalty points. Such responses reflect our attitude to speeding as illustrated by behaviour following the introduction of the penalty points system. Drivers initially slowed down but, as it became clear that enforcement was lax, they began to revert to type.
The truth is that Irish motorists display a deeply ambivalent attitude to authority. We take risks we know we shouldn't but are really quite glad when we're made to do what's good for us. Unfortunately two crucial developments in the State's response to this ambivalence - legislation to privatise the operation of speed cameras and to introduce random breath-testing - are still some way off. It will be late next year at the earliest before these parts of the Government's road safety strategy are introduced.
It is equally regrettable that tragedy appears to be a key ingredient in encouraging motorists to change. Some 58 per cent of respondents claimed to have known someone killed in a car crash. Of these 60 per cent said they had now changed their driving habits.
This survey provides a welcome benchmark of motorists' attitudes. It shows that the cost of insurance is still the main concern, ahead of road conditions and fuel prices. It highlights also the amount of time spent in cars, with 45 per cent of motorists travelling between one and two hours to work. In that context, it is hardly surprising - although no less alarming - that 13 per cent claim to have nodded off behind the wheel.
If the survey becomes an annual event, as promised, it will serve as a useful tool in gauging changes in public attitudes to road safety. For now though it provides further evidence that many motorists prefer to take risks rather than responsibility for their behaviour on the road.