Although smart cameras have recently been used to monitor phone use behind the wheel, this does not stop many motorists from reading apps while driving. In more than half this has an (sometimes strong) influence on driving behaviour.
Two thirds of all Dutch road users simply read apps or text messages while driving or cycling when they arrive on their phone. This is evident from the Social Media Diary Research commissioned by the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management (I&W) for the awareness campaign ‘MONO’. For more than half of the people, this leads to slowing down, swinging, missing a turn or even accidents.
For four days, 1,200 drivers kept such a diary in which they accurately described how many messages they received and sent during the drive, what they were about and how important they were. It turns out that even though they are not important, most of them want to read them. The respondents called the messages they receive while driving ‘unimportant’ (84 percent) and ‘not worth the risk of a fine’ (94 percent). Almost half of them even consider them ‘nonsensical and useless’. Yet two-thirds look at the telephone to read incoming messages. What is relatively not so bad, is how many people also send a message themselves. Only 15 percent say they send messages while driving.
Effects
More than half of the people who use the telephone behind the wheel indicate that something has happened as a result. Driving slower is the most frequently mentioned consequence, but hitting off the road or swinging and reacting more slowly are also common. In some cases, this led to a fine from the police or even to an accident. In retrospect, it was not necessary at all to deal with the telephone at that time, 80 percent think. The Ministry of I&W has a simple tip for road users to avoid this distraction: set your phone to ‘do not disturb’ while driving. Apparently it’s not that important most of the time.
Smart cameras
The chance that you will be caught when you are using your phone behind the wheel of a car, increases considerably. The police have been testing smart cameras since last year, which automatically register whether someone is behind the wheel with a phone in their hand. A spokesperson for the National Police recently informed AutoWeek that the test phase is over. The cameras will now gradually be used in more and more places.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl