mobile phone use in carsEven though it is now illegal to use your mobile phone in your car and the punishment for being caught currently stands at 3 points on your license and a £60 fine, more and more people are using their mobiles whilst driving. A recent study in London has shown that when the law on mobile use changed their use dropped. However in the last year the number of people texting or calling people without using a bluetooth headset has surpassed the figures from before the law was introduced.

The Transport Research Laboratory has released the results of their yearly look into mobile phone and seatbelt usage and has found that 2.8% of people are still using their mobiles whilst driving. Compared to 2006 when the legislation was introduced (2.6%) and the following year, when the punishment increased to include 3 points on your license, only 1.4% of people used their phones.

From the 14,000 people surveyed men aged between 30-59 where most likely to be breaking the law, but for women it was the 17-29 age group that was more likely to be operating their mobiles whialt driving. There is some positive from the report though, which has shown a steady increase in the use of Bluetooth devices from 1.2% to 4.8%. Using a mobile phone can drastically reduce a driver’s concentration level down to almost a quarter of that of a driver who is not.

Related posts:

  1. Study Shows Women Are Worse at Parking
  2. Meet Sixt at the Mobile World Congress 2010
  3. The iPhone 4
  4. Car Hire And Culture In Kings Cross With Worlds First Mobile Poetry Competition
  5. Ford Reveals Future Plans at CES