Courtesy: Tilson Public Relations
Do you have your beeping under control? According to a recent U.S. driving study from Safeco Insurance, 58 percent of drivers report honking behavior with 47 percent of respondents reporting they get honked at and 39 percent admitting to honking at other drivers.
What’s your honk style?
The survey identified the following three honk styles among U.S. drivers:
- Quick Tapper (beep, beep!) – 54 percent
- Moderate Honker (beeeep!) – 38 percent
- Prolonged Beeper (beeeeeeeep!) – 8 percent
How the noise nonsense makes drivers feel?
- Angry – 20 percent
- Frustrated – 19 percent
- Stressed – 18 percent
Tomorrow is Drive It Forward Friday (#DIFF), a movement to inspire positive driving actions and encourage drivers to put the brakes on aggressive driving. More than 72 percent of U.S. drivers are willing to change their driving discourtesy on Drive It Forward Fridays.
Here’s what you can do to make a #DIFF tomorrow:
- Model good driving behavior by being friendly and courteous on the road. Your good behavior can inspire others to be courteous as well. Give up a parking spot, and when it’s safe to do so, allow other drivers to move into your lane.
- Accept that some undesirable road conditions, such as heavy traffic, slow drivers or excessively fast ones are a normal and unavoidable reality of driving. If you normalize these irritations, you’re less likely to be frustrated by them.
- Don’t take it personally. A driver who cut you off was likely just being thoughtless, and didn’t intend to anger or endanger you. Consider other explanations; perhaps the driver is traveling to an emergency or simply didn’t see you.
Additional findings from the study reveal the reasons behind the beep:
- Remind the driver in front of you the light has turned green – 77 percent
- When another driver cuts you off – 73 percent
- When passing / allowing someone to pass – 42 percent
- When another driver is going too slow – 40 percent
- When stuck in traffic – 32 percent
To take part in the movement, drivers can visit www.safeco.com/diff or use the hashtag #DIFF to pledge to be a more courteous driver and share their positive driving actions.
