As a part of the company’s ongoing commitment to road and transportation safety, 3M commissioned a third-party independent research in 11 countries, including India, to identify the top concerns of adults relative to getting to and from home safely, as well as their views on the current state of transportation safety in their communities.
Seventy-three percent* of survey respondents from India (*see survey methodology) have a family member or close friend who has died or been seriously injured in a car crash, and eighty-two percent of these incidents occurred during the pandemic. “The results of our global survey reaffirm that improving road and transportation safety around the world must remain a top priority, especially as the number of traffic collisions rises in many countries,” said Dan Chen, President of 3M Transportation Safety Division. “Helping families get home safely has never been more important and we are committed to continuing our work in improving access to safe transportation and developing safety solutions across the globe.”
The impact of the pandemic on transportation safety
The survey results for India revealed elevated concern about transportation and roadway safety since the start of the global pandemic. In fact, more than 3 out of 4 respondents (78 percent) believe transportation access is an issue in their community. 67 percent of respondents believe road safety is more important as more people travel by car, instead of airplane or train, for vacation/trips due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Safety and visibility concerns
Around the world, people are highly concerned about the behaviors of other drivers, visibility issues and road conditions. According to the survey, the top seven concerns for Indians include:
- Drivers texting or speaking on the phone while driving (91 percent)
- Negligence of other drivers (90 percent)
- Night Visibility (90 percent)
- Large vehicles (buses, trucks, and trailers) (89 percent)
- Curved roads or sharp turns (89 percent)
- Traffic congestion (89 percent)
- Signs or road markings that are difficult to see (89 percent)
Access to safe and reliable transportation
People in India believe their communities should do more to help people safely access a variety of transportation options. Seventy eight percent of respondents believe transportation access is an issue in their community and 67 percent of respondents think COVID-19 has made it more important to improve road safety so that vehicles, bikes, and pedestrians can safely co-exist as people avoid public transportation.
More than half (52 percent) feel they do not have reliable and safe access to roads for driving and nearly half (49 percent) feel they do not have reliable and safe access to public transportation.
Ranking high among community transportation safety concerns, three-quarters of parents are concerned about getting their children to and from school safely.
The issue of road and transportation safety is not new to 3M. In fact, more than 80 years ago, 3M's Transportation Safety Division invented reflective sheeting and installed the first fully-reflective sign. Since then, 3M technologies have been used to produce high-performance materials that improve reflectivity and visibility across roads and highways, work zones, pedestrian crossings, school zones, and more.
Pawan Kumar Singh, Country Business Leader for Transportation Safety Division, 3M India says “Around 150,000 fatalities occur on Indian roads every year, 3M India is dedicated to working with relevant stakeholders to improve road safety through our innovative and customized products for Indian road conditions. Our mission is to help authorities build the safest roadways to help bring families home safely.”
3M transportation safety solutions
3M reflective sign sheeting, ink, and overlays increase visibility and driver recognition of these signals. Studies have found that where more-visible signs are installed, crash numbers have fallen up to 46 percent within three to six years.
Pavement markings help guide drivers and keep roads safe, but in dark and wet conditions, standard reflective pavement markings can disappear. 3M reflective technology makes road markings visible from longer distances and in wet conditions.
In India, 3M launched 3M Young Change Agents in Road Safety (3M Y-CARS) in 2019, a CSR program that aims to educate children on road safety, keeping children at the heart of change. The program, now in its third year, leverages 3M’s global expertise and experience as a promoter of road safety, in partnership with United Way of Bengaluru and CoRPS. The program enabled children to become observers of the roads around their school and provide an audit of how safe the school is, which was a guided process. The observations from the children went into implementation of a Safe School Zone.
Survey Methodology
This poll was conducted by Morning Consult between Oct. 9, 2021 and Oct. 26, 2021 among a sample of 22,000 adults in the following 11 countries: Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, South Korea, United Kingdom, United States. The interviews were conducted online and the data were weighted based on gender, age, and region. Results from the full survey have a margin of error of plus or minus 2 percentage points.
