Several studies have confirmed that speeding rates increased during the pandemic, but disturbing new data from a mobile analytics company finds that American motorists have also been engaging in other types of dangerous behaviors at higher rates since the pandemic.
New data by Cambridge Mobile Telematics, a company that offers apps that can be downloaded to lower motorist insurance rates finds that the rates of distracted driving actually increased during the pandemic. What is worse is that those distracted driving rates have actually continued even after the pandemic. The Cambridge apps that can be downloaded by drivers measure a number of parameters, including the actions involved in holding a phone and interacting with an unlocked screen while driving.
The analysis found that there was an increase in the rates of both interaction with an unlocked screen, as well as phone motion by as much as 20% between 2020 and 2022. For instance, the company states that in 2022, drivers used their phones for these activities on close to 60% of all their trips. These are alarming figures, and should be worrying to any traffic safety expert. Far from cutting down on distracted driving behaviors like using cell phones while driving, American motorists are actually engaging with their phones even more than ever before, placing them at risk of being involved in car accidents. Most distracted driving behaviors occur when the car is at 50 miles per hour.
The study also finds that the distracted driving rate among American drivers is as much as three times higher than that among European drivers. European drivers spend 44 seconds per hour on their cell phone, while the average American driver spends 2 minutes and 11 seconds per hour on a cell phone. The comparison with European drivers comes against the backdrop of information that car accident deaths in the United States spiked during the pandemic, while the same did not happen in Europe.
While road design could be a factor in the lower auto accident death rates in Europe – where roads are designed to be less motorist-centric and with pedestrian and bicycle safety in mind, contributing to lower car accident fatalities involving these users – the fact is that dangerous behaviors like driving while using cell phones is also contributing to a spike in car accident deaths in the United States. Add to that the fact that traffic enforcement rates are currently the lowest in decades, and you have the perfect recipe for devastating auto accidents to occur.
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