Hankook Tire Gauge Reveals 79% of Americans Are Steering Towards Family Fun This Summer

Survey indicates what’s driving Americans to hit the road, where they’re heading, and what they’ll do along the way

NASHVILLE, Tenn., June 19, 2019 – As summer travel heats up and drivers ready their engines, the Hankook Tire Gauge Index examines what drives Americans to hit the road—and discovered that friends and family play the biggest role when deciding in what direction to steer this season.

Road Trip Reasons

When it comes to why they’ll travel this season, family and friends takes the top spot. Most Americans (79 percent) say they would drive over 50 miles for a family event, such as a wedding, baby shower or birthday party.

When asked what influences their road trip plans, two thirds (67 percent) credit family and friends, followed by social media recommendations (22 percent) and television (9 percent). A road trip to visit family and friends also ranked as the top destination by 42 percent of drivers. And the older people get, the more likely they will visit with loved ones: Hankook reveals that drivers 55 and older are nearly twice as likely to do so than drivers 18-24 (58 percent vs. 35 percent, respectively). Another 26 percent said that they’ll pick a place recommended by their inner circle.

Interests like music and sports are also a driving force when selecting where to go this summer. More than half (55 percent) of drivers say they would road trip for a concert or music festival. Another third are looking to drive to a baseball game, and that’s especially true for men, who are 15 percent more likely to drive over 50 miles for some peanuts and Cracker Jack.

Picture Perfect

Regardless of their destination, drivers will document their cross-country treks this summer with plenty of pictures, both of people and the sites. According to the Gauge, the most popular road trip photos across age groups include recognizable monuments or landmarks (22 percent) and the perfect sunset (20 percent). Millennials, however, opt for selfies as their most treasured trip photo more than any other age group (20 percent vs. 14 percent for those 35-54, or 3 percent for those 55 and up).

Determining when to post those photos varies for every driver. Hankook found that 45 percent post their photos on the way home or once they return, while another 41 percent prefer to upload them in the moment to share the fun. And of course, there’s a handful (14 percent) who won’t share their snapshots on social media at all.

Highway Hijinks

Whether it’s holding their breath while driving through a tunnel or crossing their fingers as when going past a graveyard, the list of roadway superstitions is a mile long. Americans are most likely to do something superstitious over railroad tracks or while going through tunnels (37 percent), but most drivers (65 percent), don’t do anything at all.

That said, the Gauge revealed that men are significantly more superstitious than women when on a long car ride. While 72 percent of women swear off the road trip superstitions, only 58 percent of men don’t do anything at all. The Gauge also revealed that the younger drivers are more easily spooked: more than 50 percent of those 18-34 do something superstitious on the road, while 90 percent of those over the age of 55 don’t.

The Hankook Tire Gauge Index is a quarterly survey of Americans’ attitudes and opinions about all things related to driving. The latest installment of the survey, conducted Apr. 30 – May 1, polled 1,157 randomly selected Americans.