Fieldwork conducted for the LTSA by National Research Bureau Ltd.
Introduction
The New Zealand public attitudes survey has been undertaken periodically since 1974, and annually since 1994, to evaluate attitudes to road safety issues, primarily alcohol-impaired driving and speed. Surveys are carried out in May and June of each year by trained interviewers who conduct face-to-face interviews in respondents' homes.
The sample is chosen to be representative of the New Zealand adult population, and includes men and women aged 15 and over from towns, cities and rural areas throughout New Zealand. In 2004, 1640 people were interviewed, including 1440 who held driver licences. Further details of the sample and methodology may be found in Appendix A.
Overview
2.1 Speed and alcohol are widely acknowledged as major road safety problems. The once commonly-held attitude that speeding and drink-driving are not risky, as long as the driver is careful, has gradually lost currency over the last nine years, as Figure 1 shows.
Fig 1: People who agreed that there isn't much chance of an accident if careful when…
2.2 Public support for alcohol, speed and seatbelt enforcement continues to be high. Seventy-six percent of New Zealanders think compulsory breath testing (CBT) helps to lower the road toll; 77% agree that enforcing the speed limit helps to lower the road toll; and 87% said that seatbelt enforcement helped to lower the road toll.
2.3 Public awareness of the presence and value of enforcement has increased since the NZ Police State Highway Patrol was introduced in 2000 – 2001. More people now think they are likely to be caught when drink-driving, speeding or not wearing a safety belt. This improvement in awareness over the last three years was apparent across a range of questions about various aspects of enforcement. Figure 2 below shows this improvement as a decrease in the number of people who think the risk of being caught is small.
Fig 2: People who agreed that the risk of being caught is small when…
3. General attitudes to road safety and enforcement
3.1 How safe is road travel in New Zealand? Only 7% of New Zealanders describe road travel in this country as 'very safe'. A further 72% describe it as 'fairly safe'. 17% describe it as 'fairly unsafe' and 4% as 'very unsafe'.
3.2 Road safety enforcement. Overall, public support for Police enforcement remains high. Forty percent think that Police effort to catch people breaking road safety laws should be increased further, and another 50% want that effort maintained at current levels. Only 8% think Police effort should be decreased.
3.3 As actual enforcement levels have risen over the last decade, public demand for more enforcement effort has decreased. For the first time in 2004, the number of people wanting Police effort to stay the same exceeds the number wanting more enforcement.
3.4 Penalties. Support for harsher penalties for road safety offences decreased in 1999-2000, when new vehicle impoundment and roadside suspension laws were introduced. Since then it has been fairly steady. In 2004, 56% of New Zealanders said that penalties should be kept the same and 34% wanted increased penalties. Very few people are in favour of reducing the severity of penalties (6%).
3.5 Advertising. Prior to the introduction of an intensive advertising and enforcement campaign in 1995, 60% of New Zealand adults thought that there should be more publicity and advertising about road safety. In May 2004, 35% thought that such advertising should be increased further, and 57% thought the amount of advertising should remain at current levels. While this still reflects a high level of overall support for the advertising programme, demand for more advertising is at its lowest level since 1999 and is considerably lower than in May 2003, when 44% said they wanted more advertising.
3.6 Road design and standards. Only 10% of New Zealanders describe the design and standard of the roads they normally used as 'very safe'. A further 72% think that their usual roads are fairly safe. 18% described the roads they normally used as 'very unsafe' or 'fairly unsafe'.
3.7 People in Northland and Waikato are most likely to say the road design and standards are unsafe. 38% of Northland residents and 27% of Waikato residents think the design and standard of the roads they normally used is very or fairly unsafe. 11% of Northland residents rate their roads 'very unsafe'.
Answers to this and other questions may not add to 100% due to rounding, and in some cases because a small number of people answered 'Don't know'.
4. Alcohol-impaired driving
4.1 Risk of crash. Recognition of the risk of drink-driving is being maintained at a high level. Only 7% of New Zealanders agree that 'there is not much chance of an accident when driving after drinking if you are careful' (see Fig.1). Men were less likely than women to acknowledge the risk of drink-driving. Those least likely to recognise the risk of drink-driving were young men aged 15 to 24 and men aged 60+.
4.2 Social influences. Peer pressure and social drinking are strong influences, though fewer people than in previous years agree that it is difficult to drink less than the group when drinking with friends. In 2004, 34% of men and 27% of women agreed with this statement, a slight decrease from 39% of men and 31% of women in 2003. More than a third said that it was hard to keep track of what they drank on social occasions. Young people and Maori were most likely to admit to the influence of peer pressure.
4.3 Self-reported drink-driving. The percentage of people who said they had driven while slightly intoxicated during the 12 months before the survey, is continuing to decrease. In 2004, only 20% of drivers (26% of males) said they had driven while slightly intoxicated, down from 24% (31% of males) in 2003 and 30% (41% of males) in 1995.
4.4 People who said that they had driven while slightly intoxicated were more likely than others to say they enjoyed driving fast, and to have had a speeding ticket in the previous year.
4.5 Drink-driving enforcement. New Zealanders recognise that enforcement effort has increased over the last few years. Only 32% now believe that the risk of being caught drink-driving is small, down from 38% in 2003 and 46% five years ago, in May 2000.
4.6 Effectiveness of law. Sixty-one percent of New Zealanders agree that our drink-driving laws are very or quite effective at reducing the road toll. This has returned to the 2001 level after increasing to 64%–66% in 2002 and 2003. 36% say that our drink-driving laws are not very effective and only two percent think NZ's drink-driving laws have no effect on the road toll.
4.7 Penalties. The view that 'penalties for drinking and driving are not very severe even if you are caught' has become less prevalent as people become more aware of the penalties incurred for drink-driving (see Fig. 3). In 2004, 44% agreed with this statement, compared to 57% in 1998 before roadside licence suspension and vehicle impoundment were introduced.
Fig. 3: Penalties for … are not very severe even if you are caught
4.8 Blood alcohol limit. Forty-one percent of New Zealanders favour a lower legal blood-alcohol limit for driving. 31% think the limit should be lowered from 80mg/100ml to 50mg/100ml, and a further 8% want it lowered to zero. There is very little support for raising the legal limit. Public opinion on this issue has remained essentially unchanged over the last eight years.
5. Compulsory breath testing
5.1 CBT lowers road toll. Just over three quarters (76%) of New Zealanders agreed that compulsory breath testing (CBT) helps to lower the road toll. This is slightly lower than in 2002 and 2003, (82% and 83% respectively), and is a return to the levels of support in 1996 – 2001. Only 14% disagreed with this statement. (The remaining 10% said they were neutral or didn't know).
5.2 Checkpoints. People are more aware of seeing checkpoints than they used to be. The number of people who said that they seldom saw checkpoints except during blitzes has decreased from around 66% in the years 1997 to 2001, to 58% in 2003 and 59% in 2004.
5.3 Forty-six percent of drivers reported having been stopped at an alcohol checkpoint during the preceding 12 months. 14% of all drivers had been stopped at a checkpoint 3 or more times in the last year.
5.4 Chance of being stopped late at night. More New Zealanders now believe there is a good chance of being stopped at a checkpoint if driving late at night. 56% agreed that there was a good chance of being stopped, compared to 48% when this question was first asked in 1997 and 53% in 2003. About half this number, 26%, disagreed with the statement; the remaining 20% were neutral or said they didn't know.
5.5 Chance of being stopped, by driving situation. The number of people who expect to be stopped and tested if they drink-drive in a large city increased from 54% in 2003 to 63% in 2004 (see Fig. 4). This is higher than the perceived risk of being caught in a small town (31%), on a major highway (41%), or on a rural road (15%). These haven't changed substantially since 2003.
5.6 Chance of being stopped, by time of day. Fifty-nine percent of New Zealanders would expect to be caught if they were drink-driving between 10pm and midnight. This is an increase on last year (54%) and is higher than in any previous survey. 43% would expect to be caught if drink-driving between midnight and 2am (much the same as in 2001-2003).
Fig 4: Chance of being stopped and tested if drink-driving during …
5.7 Avoiding checkpoints. About a third of New Zealanders (35%) think that they could tell where checkpoints would be, and a quarter (25%) use the back streets to drive home when they might be over the limit. This has remained essentially unchanged since 1998.
5.8 In Gisborne and Northland, more than half the residents think they can tell where checkpoints would be (55% and 58% respectively). Using the back streets when over the limit was most commonly reported in Manawatu/ Wanganui (36% of residents), Gisborne (34%) and Auckland (32%).
5.9 Fewer people now think they can dodge checkpoints if they see them early. Only 22% said they could avoid checkpoints if they saw them early enough, down from 29% in 2003 and 34% in 2001. Gisborne and Manawatu / Wanganui residents were the most likely to say they could avoid checkpoints, at 42% and 41% respectively.
5.10 Compulsory screening. Only one in eight (13%) New Zealanders now believes that some people stopped at checkpoints were not tested even when they were over the limit. The number of people who hold this view has decreased from 23% in 1995, to 19% in 2003 and 13% in 2004.
6. Speed
6.1 Risk of crash. Recognition of the risk of speeding has gradually increased over the last ten years. 15% of New Zealanders still think there is not much chance of an accident when speeding if you were careful. This is an improvement on last year's 18%, and a return to the 2002 level.
6.2 The attitude that speeding isn't risky as long as you are careful is most common among men (22%) and in the 20 to 24 year age group (23%). People who said that there was not much chance of an accident when speeding, as long the driver was careful, were more likely than others to have received a speeding ticket in the previous year (26% vs. 18%).
6.3 Like driving fast. More than one-third (36%) of drivers say they enjoy driving fast on the open road. Overall, 42% of males and 31% of females say they like driving fast on the open road. Half of all males aged 15 to 34 like driving fast.
6.4 Effectiveness of enforcement. Support for speed enforcement remains high: 77% of New Zealanders agree that enforcing the speed limit helps to lower the road toll. 13% disagree and 9% said they were neutral on this issue.
6.5 Risk of being caught. Awareness of speed enforcement has increased markedly in the last four years. Only 25% of New Zealanders now think the risk of being caught speeding is small, compared to 33% in 2002 and 2003, and around 40% in earlier years. People aged 60 and over are most likely to think that the risk of being caught was small.
6.6 Speed limits. The great majority of New Zealanders (84%) think that speed limits on the roads they normally use are about right. 4% think they are too high and 10% think they are too low.
6.7 Most New Zealanders are in favour of retaining the open road speed limit at 100km/h. 80% want the speed limit kept at 100km/h or lower.
6.8 It's a similar story in urban areas – 85% of New Zealanders want the urban 50km/h speed limit retained or lowered. Since these questions were first asked in 1995, there has been in a gradual decline in support for raising speed limits.
6.9 Automatic licence loss. Most New Zealanders find extremely high speeds unacceptable. 90% describe automatic loss of licence for drivers caught speeding at 150 km/h on the open road as fair or very fair, up from 87% in 2003. Three quarters think loss of licence for speeds of 140km/h is fair and half think loss of licence is fair at 130km/h.
6.10 Speeding in an urban area was regarded equally unfavourably. 92% support loss of licence for speeding at 90km/h in a 50km/h zone. Three quarters (76%) now support loss of licence for doing 80km/h in a 50km/h zone, an increase from 72% in 2003 and 68% in 2002.
6.11 Just under two-thirds (63%) of New Zealanders think automatic loss of licence for three speeding tickets in a year is fair or very fair. 19% said it was unfair or very unfair, and 16% were neutral on this issue.
6.12 Support for automatic loss of licence for three speeding tickets in a year has decreased slightly in the last year, from 67% in 2003 to 63% in 2004. This may reflect the perception that speeding tickets are more often issued at speeds of 110 – 115 km/h (see sections 6.15 and 7.3 below).
6.13 Penalties. Twenty-six percent agree with the statement 'penalties for speeding are not very severe even if you are caught'. Over the last eight years this has gradually become a less prevalent view. In general, penalties for speeding are more often thought to be severe than those for drink-driving or failing to wear a safety belt, though the gap is closing as the public becomes more aware of safety belt enforcement (see Fig. 3).
6.14 Self-reported speeding infringements. Nearly one fifth (19%) of all drivers reported receiving at least one speeding ticket in the previous year. This is a slight increase on 16% in 2001-2003. Fourteen percent of women and 24% of men reported receiving a speeding ticket in the year preceding the survey.
6.15 Chance of receiving a ticket. The number of people who expect to get a ticket if passing a Police officer (without a speed camera) at speeds over 110 km/h has continued to increase (see Fig 5). 42% said they would expect to get a ticket if they passed a Police officer (without a speed camera) at 115 km/h, compared with 36% in 2003 and 28% before the advent of the State Highway Patrol in 2000. 68% would have expected a ticket at 120 km/h, compared with only 54% in 2000.
6.16 However, expected ticketing rates are still lower for Police officers than for speed cameras – 13% of New Zealanders still do not think they would be likely to receive a ticket if they drove past a Police officer at 130 km/h.
Fig. 5: Perceived chance of receiving a speeding ticket if passing a Police officer without a camera, at selected speeds (percentage saying 'high' or 'very high')
6.17 In 2004, several new questions about speed enforcement were added to the survey.
6.18 Definition of speeding. Respondents were asked 'On the open road, what speed do you consider to be speeding?' 55% named speeds of 115 or lower, as speeding. This may reflect widespread knowledge of the 10km/h enforcement tolerance applied by Police in practice.
6.19 The other new questions relate to the use of unmarked vehicles, other than speed camera vehicles, to detect offending on the roads.
6.20 Unmarked vehicles for traffic enforcement. 84% of New Zealanders are aware of the use of unmarked vehicles for this purpose.
6.21 Most New Zealanders think unmarked cars are good for road safety. 70% said the use of unmarked cars to detect traffic offending was very effective or quite effective in helping to reduce the road toll. 21% thought the use of unmarked cars was not very effective, 4% said they have no effect and 5% said they didn't know.
6.22 Most New Zealanders are happy with the use of unmarked cars. 78% think using unmarked cars to catch traffic offenders is fair or very fair; 9% think it is unfair or very unfair, and the remaining 12% were neutral.
7. Speed cameras
7.1 Effectiveness of speed cameras. A majority of New Zealand adults (57%) thinks speed cameras help to lower the road toll. 33% disagree that speed cameras help to lower the road toll and 11% are neutral on this issue. This support for speed cameras has returned to 2000 – 2001 levels after an increase in 2002 and 2003.
7.2 Cameras operated fairly. Fifty-nine percent agree that speed cameras are operated fairly. 29% disagree with this statement and 12% were neutral on this issue or had no opinion. 65% of women and 52% of men believe that speed cameras are operated fairly. Aucklanders (70%) and people living in Gisborne (69%) were most likely to think speed cameras were operated fairly.
7.3 Chance of receiving a ticket. New Zealanders are more aware of speed camera enforcement. 77% think it likely or very likely that they would receive a ticket if they pass a speed camera at 115 km/h, compared with 71% in May 2003, and 56% in 2000. 92% would expect to receive a ticket if they passed speed camera at 120km/h. 39% thought they would get a ticket if they passed a camera at 110 km/h.
Figure 6. Perceived chance of receiving a speeding ticket if passing a speed camera, at selected speeds (percentage saying 'high' or 'very high')
7.4 Awareness of cameras. 37% of New Zealanders say they often see speed cameras on their usual roads. This varied from over 40% of Auckland and Wellington residents, to fewer than 20% of people living in Southland and Nelson/ Marlborough.
7.5 Hidden cameras. A new question about hidden speed cameras was added in 2004. This replaces the earlier question, which asked respondents to say to what extent they thought speed cameras should be hidden, ranging from 'Always in full view' to 'Always hidden'.
7.6 In 2004, respondents were asked 'Do you support or oppose the use of hidden speed cameras to catch speeding drivers?' Twice as many people supported the use of hidden cameras, as opposed them. 56% of New Zealanders support or strongly support the use of hidden cameras; 28% are opposed, or strongly opposed, to their use. The remaining 16% said they neither supported nor opposed the use of hidden cameras.
8. General enforcement and compliance
8.1 General traffic enforcement. 36% of New Zealanders think a driver who breaks a traffic law, other than drink-driving or speeding, is likely to be stopped by the Police. This has increased from 32% last year, and 23% when this question was first asked in 1997.
8.2 Vehicle impoundment. Most New Zealanders support vehicle impoundment for disqualified or repeated unlicensed driving. 92% said this was fair or very fair, an increase from 89% in 2003 and 84% when the question was first asked in 1998.
8.3 Licence carriage. 96% of drivers say they 'always' or 'mostly' carry their licences while driving a private vehicle. Most drivers (81%) were already doing this in 1998, before licence carriage became mandatory.
9. Safety belts and child restraints
9.1 Effectiveness of safety belts. Almost all New Zealanders (96%) agree that safety belts are effective in reducing the road toll.
9.2 Enforcement of adult safety belt use. Forty percent of New Zealanders now think it 'likely' or 'very likely' that they would be caught, if they drove without wearing a safety belt. This is a significant increase from 33% in 2003, and around 28% in the years 1997 – 2001.
9.3 Similarly, more people now expect to be caught if travelling as a front-seat passenger without a safety belt, from 31% in 2003 to 37% in 2004. Only 16% think it likely or very likely that they would be stopped if they travelled unbelted in the rear seat. This has increased slowly, from 12-13% in the years 1996-2001.
9.4 Child restraint enforcement. Child restraint use is thought to be more rigorously enforced than adult safety belt use: 46% said there was a high chance of being stopped if travelling with an unrestrained child in the front seat, but only 27% said this would be the case if the child was in the back seat.
9.5 Effectiveness of safety belt enforcement. 87% of New Zealanders agree that enforcing the use of safety belts helps to lower the road toll. This has remained fairly constant over the last nine years.
9.6 Penalties. Almost one-third of New Zealanders still think the penalties for not wearing a safety belt are not very severe. The perception that the penalties are not very severe has become less widespread in recent years, declining from 48% in 1997 to 32% in 2004.
10. Roading
A set of supplementary questions on road engineering and design was asked for the first time in 2002.
10.1 Importance of roading improvements. Respondents were asked how important improving road engineering and design is for road safety. 71% said 'very important' and a further 25% said 'fairly important'. These results have changed little in the last two years.
10.2 Roading priorities. Respondents were asked a series of questions designed to prioritise the importance of safety engineering improvements to different types of road. As in previous years, open road state highways emerged as the highest priority overall. They were followed by motorways, other open roads and major roads in towns and cities. Residential streets received the lowest priority rating for safety engineering improvements.
10.3 Pedestrians and cyclists. Respondents were also asked 'how high a priority for road safety is making the roads better for pedestrians and for cyclists?' Similar priority ratings were given to safety improvements aimed at pedestrians and cyclists. Making the roads safer for both pedestrians and cyclists was accorded similar priority to motorway improvements.
11. Conclusion
Good progress is being made in improving road-user behaviour and related attitudes. Increasingly, New Zealanders are accepting that drink-driving and speeding are major contributors to the road toll and carry risks for the individual. Public awareness of enforcement, particularly speed enforcement, has increased markedly in the past year.
This survey is part of the LTSA's suite of tools used to evaluate progress in road safety. Along with other measures, including surveys of road-user behaviour, tracking of responses to advertising, enforcement data, and of course crash outcome data, the public attitudes survey contributes to the evidence-based evaluation of road safety programmes.