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More speeding and aggressive driving on CT roads, state data shows© Provided by WFSB Hartford

(WFSB) - If you’ve been seeing people drive a lot faster and more aggressively, you’re not alone.

Drivers are speeding at a scary rate, and Eyewitness News got the data to prove it.

Whether it’s on I-91, I-84, or Route 2 in Hartford, it doesn’t take long to find people speeding.

“Oh they’ll fly by you in groups,” said John Leone.

Leone is driving to New Hampshire from Florida. He stopped in Southington after a couple close calls on I-84.

“People are getting a little more ‘I don’t care about anyone else I just wanna do what I wanna do, get where I wanna go, and I don’t care if cut you off or run past you,’” Leone said.

Renee DuPuis knows a thing or two about speed. She’s a race car driver.

But even for a pro, what’s happening on our highways is frightening.

“When you’re going 65, 70 mph there are people passing you like you’re standing still so that’s a little unnerving,” said DuPuis, of Marlborough.

Reporters at Channel 3 have been noticing it as well. It feels like people are driving faster.

On I-95 in Norwalk back in 2018, just 0.3-percent of drivers were going more than 85 miles an hour.

But last year that number jumped to over 3-percent.

It’s the same thing in East Lyme, from 0.6-percent to more than 2-percent.

That’s about thousands more drivers a year.

In East Lyme on I-95, just 1-percent of drivers were going over 85 in December 2021.

That skyrocketed to more than 9-percent last December, and there are plenty of examples like this.

“It just boils down to impatience,” said Martin Adler, a truck driver from Las Vegas.

Adler lives it every day, driving around the country.

He said it’s not just speeding, but more drivers cutting trucks off and not using blinkers.

“It takes a lot longer distance for us to stop this vehicle and the heavier we are the longer that distance,” Adler said.

But why is this happening more?

Josh Morgan with the CT Department of Transportation believes COVID was a major factor, causing people to be more stressed, angry and less patient.

“Going the speed limit is almost a sin right now,” Morgan said. “It’s not worth your life. It’s not worth the life of any else on the roadway.”