Shocking? 9 out of 10 drivers speed on New Jersey Turnpike, study finds
Busbud video
A new report finds a high percentage of drivers routinely break the law while traveling on the New Jersey Turnpike.
A company called Busbud, which compares prices, schedules and services from hundreds of different bus companies, recently took a road trip from Washington, D.C., to New York City to see how drivers were behaving.
“We wanted to document the total number and type of traffic violations that occurred while making the trip, just so we could get an idea how dangerous the roads might be,” said Jason Warley, a spokesman for Busbud.
He said during the trip, which included the entire length of the Turnpike, spotters kept track of how many vehicles were speeding, changing lanes without using turn signals, and cutting off other drivers.
“We saw 1,345 vehicles, and out of those, there were 1,193 violations, so it’s quite a bit. It comes to about 89 violations per 100 vehicles,” he said.
Warley noted during the trip “we had 1,177 people going over the speed limit so that’s a lot."
He said the spotters did not document how many drivers had been pulled over by police.
Warley said that while most drivers were traveling faster than the speed limit, “the good news was that we didn’t witness any excessive speeding or any dangerous cutoffs. However, we did witness 16 lane changes without a turn signal. That really scares me personally because it’s really dangerous to do that.”
Excessive speeding is defined as “much faster than the general flow of traffic.”
Warley believes the study confirms that driving through New Jersey can be quite dangerous.
“It’s truly shocking how many people drive over the speed limit. It only takes one small mistake or one mishap to cause a fatal accident, and no one wants that to happen just so they can get to where they’re going a bit faster,” he said.
During the entire trip from D.C to NYC, which took 4 hours and 39 minutes, a total of 2,561 vehicles observed committed a total of 2,252 violations.
There were 2,182 speeding violations observed and 11 were for excessive speeding. They saw 56 cars changing lanes without signaling and there were three dangerous cutoffs.
You can contact reporter David Matthau at David.Matthau@townsquaremedia.com.