AAA EnCompass

In the past two issues, the President's Message and Commentary pages of EnCompass have addressed the critical issue of changing Colorado's seat belt law from a secondary to primary offense as a way of saving more lives on our roads.

While seat belts are a major component of traffic safety, they are by no means the only component. AAA is committed to educating, promoting, advocating and lobbying for numerous and various safety issues that it feels will benefit all motorists, passengers and pedestrians. In fact, AAA has been doing so for 100 years—an example is this issue's article celebrating the 50th anniversary of the American interstate highway system, which AAA helped promote as a way of improving roadway safety.

Today, AAA Colorado is committed to numerous and varied traffic safety issues under its Lifelong Mobility umbrella:

Child passenger safety
Teen driving
Distracted driving
Mature mobility

While safety studies and roadway statistics (including those from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety) are major pointers, another factor is listening to our members to find out what your concerns are. As a way of determining that, each year AAA Colorado participates in a AAA nationwide survey of members about traffic safety. This year's survey found three safety concerns of Colorado motorists that stood out from all the rest:

Drunk drivers—74% of respondents said this was one of their top safety concerns as a motorist.
Distracted drivers—71% of respondents were concerned.
Aggressive drivers—70% of respondents were concerned.

It's interesting to note that within the distracted drivers category, the survey found the three forms of distracted driving that caused the most concern were, on a scale of 1 to 6 (1 being the highest):

Cell phone use—ranked 1.71
Personal grooming—ranked 3.21
Eating or drinking—ranked 3.71

Throughout 2006, look for more information regarding this survey and details of AAA Colorado's traffic safety efforts. This organization remains committed to roadway safety for all, and will continue to utilize its resources—everything from EnCompass and the website, to public relations/public affairs efforts and community outreach programs—to educate and inform, advocate and lobby so that our roadways become safer for all.