One year later: has BC’s distracted driving law made the roads safer?
February 1 marks the one year anniversary of B.C.’s ban on hand-held cell phone use and texting while driving. The British Columbia Automobile Association (BCAA) wants to know if BC drivers are abiding by the rules, and if they think the new law is working. Until January 20, BCAA is surveying the province’s drivers through an anonymous, five minute web poll.
“In a previous survey conducted at the six-month mark, we learned that most drivers were aware of the new law and were complying with it,” said Trace Acres, BCAA’s director of corporate communications and public affairs. “What we want to find out now is if compliance is increasing or if drivers are slipping back into their old habits. We also want to know if drivers feel the law has improved their own driving, along with the effect it has had on road safety generally.”
BCAA’s distracted driving survey in July 2010 attracted over 7,500 participants, with over half saying that, before the law, they talked on a hand-held phone while driving, regularly or occasionally. Of those, 21 per cent said they had since switched to using a hands-free device; 35 per cent said they now pull over and stop to make or take their call; and 28 per cent said they had stopped using a phone while driving altogether. Six percent said they were continuing to take and make calls on a hand-held phone, in spite of the law.
B.C. drivers can access the survey here.
