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Survey reveals driver weaknesses

General driving safety knowledge – where Americans are lacking:
• Drivers 18-24 years old are most likely to fail a written driving test (78 percent passing rate); drivers 50-64 years are most likely to pass (85 percent passing rate).

• Drivers in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic are the least knowledgeable; 1 in 5 were unable to pass the written drivers test.

• Drivers in the Pacific Northwest and Great Lakes are the most knowledgeable with a failure rate of 1 to 3 percent.

Pedestrians beware
• At least 1 out of 5 drivers do not know that a pedestrian has the right of way at a marked or unmarked crosswalk. This is of special concern considering that drivers in urban areas are among the least knowledgeable in the nation.

• 1 out of 3 drivers claim to speed up to make a yellow light even when pedestrians are in the crosswalk.

• 1 out of 4 drivers would roll through a stop sign rather than come to a complete stop.
According to IIHS in 2003, 48 percent of all pedestrian injuries and 21 percent of fatal injuries to pedestrians occur in collisions with motor vehicles at intersections.

Fasten your seatbelts: Speeding remains a problem
• The nation's least knowledgeable drivers (Northeast and Mid-Atlantic drivers) are the most likely to speed.

• Nebraska's drivers are least likely to exceed the speed limit.

• 1 out of 10 drivers regularly drives over the speed limit by 11 or more miles per hour, although 58 percent of drivers feel that driving 10 miles per hour over the speed limit on the interstate is dangerous.

• Younger drivers (18-24 years old) are most likely to speed; older drivers (65+) are least likely.

More bad driving habits
• Half of Americans report that they do not know how to merge into heavy traffic.

• 60 percent of Americans say that they change lanes on a highway without using their blinker.

• One-third of Americans have packed their car so tightly that their vision was obstructed.

• 17 percent of Americans have driven without a rear view or driver's side mirror.

• 1 out of 5 drivers do not know that highways are the most slippery just when it starts to rain after a dry spell. Fortunately, 96 percent of those tested say that they know what to do when they hydroplane.

The test was administered by TNS NFO, a custom research company and a provider of social and political polling, www.tns-global.com. Drivers were given a 20-question test representative of a DMV written drivers test typically used to award a driver's permit or license.