Hand-held cellphone use by drivers down, says Auto Club

Do the laws against using a hand-held cellphone or text messaging while driving give you pause before picking up your BlackBerry or iPhone when you're behind the wheel? The Auto Club of Southern California says the laws have worked, based on a pair of studies in which researchers went out before and after the laws went into effect and counted how many motorists they saw using hand-held cellphones and other devices.

Unscientific? Yes, says the Auto Club. But, by its count, 9.3% of drivers in Orange County were using hand-held cellphones and driving before the law went into effect. That number, the Auto Club says, has dropped to 3.4%. In addition, the survey found that use of any type of electronic device had dropped from 5% of all motorists to 3.2%.

Is this what you're seeing out there on the roads? Seems to me I've seen about the same number of people with a phone pressed to their ear over the last few weeks, including one idiot trying to drive-and- talk through The Times' garage last night. On the other hand, I've yet to see anyone text messaging and driving in the last eight days -- and I've been on the lookout.

You can read the Auto Club news release at its website.

--Steve Hymon

Photo: Hand-held cellphones are a trend of the past. Credit: Don Bartletti / Los Angeles Times

Comments

[Carol]

Yesterday I saw one of those Access Paratransit vans, which I believe was MTA affiliated, and the driver was talking on a phone held right up to her ear. She didn't even hold it like a walkie talkie, which is what most jabberers are doing now.

The ticket should have been at least $50, not $20. That would give the cops more incentive to cite, too. When seatbelts became mandatory decades ago, the ticket was more than $20, and now you have to add in inflation.

[KateNonymous]

Down or not, it's still ridiculously easy to spot someone using a cellphone that is not hands-free. On top of that, on more than one occasion the driver of my bus (not always the same driver, not always the same bus line) has been talking on the cellphone he's holding up to his ear--and has almost hit another vehicle.