Notable findings from this year’s Lytx report highlights the importance of knowing how to drive safely, as well as the understanding of the risks associated with when and where to drive.
“Road travel surged to record highs in 2023, and with more vehicles come more risks, as well as increased logistical complexity,” says Brandon Nixon, chairman and CEO of Lytx. “It’s crystal clear that the need for safety and efficiency amid increasingly congested roadways has never been stronger. Despite an overall rise in road risk, our data indicates that companies that have implemented fleet safety programs are seeing the results across a number of success metrics – from lower claims costs and more efficient fuel use to improved collision avoidance.”
Key takeaways:
- Powered by 40 billion miles of new driving data from 2023, the report reveals a significant difference in risk between morning and afternoon commute hours. Despite similar congestion patterns, afternoon commute hours were three times riskier than morning commute times.
- Using the proprietary Lytx Risk Score, which calculates behavior averages across a variety of industries using learnings from 261 billion miles of driving data from Lytx’s global database, the report found that driving risk per vehicle increased 9.5%, from 2022 to 2023; Lytx Risk Score per vehicle increased to 13.4 in 2023, from 12.9 in 2022; and collisions per vehicle increased 3%, from 2022 to 2023.
- Top 10 behaviors contributing to risk in the United States entail following distance (1-2 seconds), use of a handheld device, no seatbelt, posted speed violation, following distance (less than 1 second), incomplete stop, use of fod or drink, failed to stop, inattentive and late response. Speeding, distraction, and following too closely continue to top the list of risky behaviors in 2023. New to the Top 10 list this year is incomplete stop.
- Top 5 riskiest U.S. cities for driving (risk per vehicle) include New York, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, and Dallas/Fort Worth. For the third year in a row, New York has held the No. 1 spot as the nation’s riskiest driving city and is twice as risky as the next riskiest city (Los Angeles). Atlanta, which dropped to No. 7 in 2022, has returned to the Top 5 as the fourth riskiest city in 2023. Philadelphia, which ranked second in 2022, made the biggest improvement by moving down six spots to No. 8 in 2023.
- Riskiest time to drive in the United States in 2023 occurred during the afternoon commute hours from 4-7 p.m.
- The biggest increases in collisions came from the automotive (+226%), concrete (+148%), and emergency medical services (EMS) (+131%) industries. Collision frequency and severity varied by industry in 2023. Concrete (+49%) and utilities (+14%) showed the biggest increases from 2022 to 2023, while services (-8%) and EMS (-5%) saw the biggest decreases in collision frequency and severity in 2023.
“The data around commute hours was one of the more interesting and surprising insights to emerge from this year’s analysis,” says Erin Baucum, director of Lytx client intelligence. “This type of finding is extremely valuable for us as we build and refine our safety tools and programs, as well as for fleets to take into account as they plan their routes.”
