With the official start of winter, Hankook Tire America Corp.’s Hankook Gauge Index has reported 86 percent of drivers change their driving behavior during the winter season.

Additional Hankook Gauge Index findings include:

• 70 percent of drivers keep a longer distance between their vehicle and other cars on the road when there is snow on the ground
• 48 percent of Americans will change their driving habits to avoid driving in the dark during the winter months
• 71 percent of Americans say they are less likely to take a taxi or ride share service if it’s snowing

Driverless cars also are a concern to American drivers on the road. According to Hankook, roughly 50 percent of Americans are not comfortable with the idea of autonomous cars driving in the snow, and 24 percent of drivers are not comfortable sharing the road with an autonomous car in the winter weather.

The Hankook Tire Gauge Index is a quarterly survey of American drivers. The winter survey was conducted Dec. 2-4, 2016, and polled 1,022 people at random.

Article courtesy Tire Review.