Safe Transportation Research & Education Center

The 2024 California Traffic Safety Public Opinion Study was conducted on behalf of the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center of UC Berkeley (SafeTREC), using an online self-administered survey. Similar to previous years of the study, the survey panelists were provided through Marketing Services Group, a commercial sample and panel vendor. To ensure a comparable sample disposition to previous years of data collection, six quota groups were set for age and gender groups based on the California census and previous waves of the Traffic Safety Study. The eligibility criteria for participating in the study included a valid California driver’s license, living in California and being 18 years or older. Screened and eligible respondents were forwarded to a brief 10-minute online survey programmed and managed by E&W. A total of 2,507 responses were collected in May and June, 2024. The survey findings of the 2024 Traffic Safety Public Opinion Study, together with a comparison to previous years of data collection are outlined in this report.

2023 marked the fourteenth year of the California Office of Traffic Safety’s (OTS) Annual Traffic Safety Study. The study is intended to create a better understanding of trends in traffic safety behaviors and help focus traffic safety programs, which include enforcement efforts along with public education campaigns to ensure they are effective in targeting areas with disproportionate traffic safety injuries. The survey is sponsored by the OTS and administered by Ewald and Wasserman Research Consultants, along with University of California Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC). The 2023 wave of data collection for the statewide traffic safety survey was conducted with an online panel of California drivers instead of an intercept interview, as were previous waves of data collection. The survey questions and data analysis of survey items presented in this report are largely similar to previous waves of the survey, including survey items on traffic safety opinions and knowledge on traffic safety campaigns, distracted driving and perceptions about pedestrian and bicycle traffic interactions. In 2022, the survey underwent a revision with new survey items added to gain understanding of opinions about the Safe System approach, which was introduced by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT). The participants for the online survey panel were obtained through Qualtrics, a commercial panel vendor utilizing multiple subcontractors, to provide a representative cross-section of pre-screened and qualified respondents. SafeTREC paid attention to matching age and gender distributions with previous years. Below are the results from the 2023 California Traffic Safety Public Opinion Study. Overall, 2,815 eligible panelists completed the online survey in 2023. Panelists consisted of California drivers who were forwarded to an online survey portal. The criteria for eligibility included a valid California driver’s license and being at least 18 years of age. Numbers in the tables below may not add to 100% due to rounding error.

Similar to the survey waves since 2020, the 2023 California Traffic Safety Public Opinion Study was conducted by Ewald & Wasserman Research (E&W) on behalf of the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center of UC Berkeley (SafeTREC), with an online self-administered survey. Survey panelists were provided through Marketing Services Group, a commercial sample and panel vendor. 

The eligibility criteria for participating in the study were possessing a valid California driver’s license and being 18 years or older. Eligible respondents were forwarded to an online survey portal programmed and managed by E&W. To manage the sample composition and to ensure a similar distribution of age and gender compared to the California census and previous waves of the Traffic Safety Study, quotas by gender and six age groups were implemented. 

Participation in the survey was anonymous, and a total of 2,815 responses were collected in April, 2023. 

This report describes the findings of the 2023 Traffic Safety Public Opinion Study, along with a comparison of previous years of data, which include opinions from a representative sample of California drivers on a range of factors affecting traffic safety. 

2022 marked the thirteenth year of the Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) California’s Annual Traffic Safety Study. The study is intended to create a better understanding of trends in traffic safety behaviors and help focus traffic safety programs, which include enforcement efforts along with public education campaigns to ensure they are effective in targeting areas with disproportionate traffic safety injuries. The survey is sponsored by the OTS while being administered by Ewald and Wasserman Research Consultants along with University of California Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC). The 2022 wave of data collection for the statewide traffic safety survey was conducted with an online panel of California drivers instead of an intercept interview, as were previous waves of data collection. This decision was made due to the COVID-19 pandemic as alternative data was collected to avoid in-person contact between field interviewers and respondents. The survey questions and data analysis of survey items presented in this report are largely similar to previous waves of the survey, including survey items on traffic safety opinions and knowledge on traffic safety campaigns, distracted driving and perceptions about pedestrian and bicycle traffic interactions. However, the 2022 survey underwent a revision with new survey items added to gain understanding of opinions about the Safe System approach, which was introduced by the U.S. Department of Transportation. The participants for the online survey panel were obtained through Qualtrics, a commercial panel vendor utilizing multiple subcontractors, to provide a representative cross-section of pre-screened and qualified respondents. SafeTREC paid attention to matching age and gender distributions with previous years. Below are the results from the 2022 California Traffic Safety Public Opinion Study. Overall, 2,768 eligible panelists completed the online survey in 2022. Panelists consisted of California drivers who were forwarded to an online survey portal. The criteria for eligibility included a valid California driver’s license and being at least 18 years of age. Numbers may not add to 100% due to rounding error. The survey instrument appears at the end of this report summary. To review the full report, please click here

Ewald & Wasserman Research (E&W) conducted the 2022 California Traffic Safety Public Opinion Study on behalf of the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and the Safe Transportation Research and Education Center of UC Berkeley (SafeTREC). Similar to previous years and since 2020, the data collection transitioned from an intercept survey to an online panel with survey panelists provided by Marketing Services Group, a commercial sample and panel vendor.

Panelists consisted of California drivers who were forwarded to an online survey portal programmed and managed by E&W. The criteria for eligibility included possessing a valid California driver’s license and being 18 years or older. To manage the sample composition and to ensure a similar distribution of age and gender compared to the California census and previous waves of the Traffic Safety Study, quotas by gender and six age group ranges were implemented. Participation was anonymous and no personal data was collected, and a total of 2,768 responses were collected in April of 2022.

The 2021 California Traffic Safety Study was conducted with an online panel of California drivers, as in the prior year of data collection. While in previous years, data was collected via in-person intercepts, the 2020 wave transitioned to an online, self-administered survey, a mode that was continued in 2021 to avoid in-person contact in light of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. This report describes the findings of the 2021 Traffic Safety data, with a comparison to previous years of data, which include opinions on traffic safety, distracted driving, bicycle and pedestrian interactions, and other driving behaviors from a representative sample of California drivers. 

The online survey panelists were provided by MSG, a commercial sample and panel vendor. Participants were forwarded to an online survey portal programmed and managed by E&W. Eligibility criteria for participation included a valid California driver’s license and being 18 year or older. Quotas were specified for age groups and gender to align the 2021 survey with previous waves of the Traffic Safety Study and to achieve a representative cross-section of pre-screened and qualified respondents. 

Survey participation was anonymous, and a total of 2,801 responses were collected in May of 2021. 

The 2020 wave of data collection for the California Traffic Safety Study was conducted with an online panel of California drivers instead of an intercept interview, as were previous waves of data collection. This decision was made due to the COVID-19 pandemic occurring in 2020, and the need for an alternative data collection mode avoiding in-person contact between field interviewers and respondents. The survey questions and data analysis of survey items presented in this report are similar to previous waves of the survey, including survey items on traffic safety opinions and knowledge on traffic safety campaigns, distracted driving and perceptions about pedestrian and bicycle traffic interactions.

The participants for the online survey panel were obtained through Qualtrics, a commercial panel vendor utilizing multiple subcontractors, to provide a representative cross-section of pre-screened and qualified respondents. The panel was implemented anonymously and with distinct quota cell percentage ranges per age group and an equal gender distribution to match the field data collected in previous years as much as possible. Additionally, the presumed proportion of completed surveys by survey region was matched as closely as possible, although the overall number of completed surveys was higher this year than in previous years. Overall, 2,867 eligible panelists completed the online survey in 2020, while 1,298 completed intercept surveys in 2019.

The UC Berkeley Safe Transportation Research and Education Center (SafeTREC) and California Walks (Cal Walks) developed the Community Pedestrian Bicycle Safety Training (CPBST) program to train and mobilize communities to address pedestrian and bicycle safety and to strengthen collaboration with local officials and agency staff. SafeTREC and Cal Walks work hand-in-hand with communities to plan and facilitate workshops that are reflective of each community’s needs and priorities.

This report provides a summary of the qualitative and quantitative methods used to evaluate the CPBST program, the findings of the evaluation, and lessons learned during the process. The report may provide an evaluation framework that other organizations can use, as the current goals and objectives can be modified to suit individual program requirements. It is suitable for many purposes, including measuring program effectiveness and monitoring program implementation. The measurement tools used are included in the Appendices.

The 2018 California Traffic Safety Study is the ninth wave of a statewide representative survey of California vehicle drivers on traffic safety perceptions, distracted driving and level of awareness of traffic safety media outreach campaigns. The following data analyses is based on 1,395 survey responses collected in August and September of 2018.

The analyzed data only includes the valid answers for survey items, while excluding all reported “Don’t know” responses as well as response refusals. For this reason, the valid percentage of responses differs for each question due to the number of valid answers given to a particular question. The total answer per survey question is reflected in the total number of completed surveys, which are listed in each table. In addition, some questions are skipped based on selected answer and the sample sizes for each survey item vary accordingly. Due to rounding to one decimal point, some percentages presented do not always add up to the exact value of 100.0%.

All comparisons to previous years’ data refer to the comparable longitudinal field surveys conducted with California vehicle drivers since 2010. The scope and overall sample size of the 2018 survey was comparable to the sample size of the 2017 data collection.

In total, 1,395 vehicle drivers were intercepted for the study, resulting in an overall confidence interval of +/- 2.63, at a confidence level of 95%.