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Sep. 27, 2009

Late Friday afternoon, the Automobile Club of Southern California said street surveys show California's ban on in-vehicle text messaging appears to have influenced driver behavior in a positive way so far this year.

Preliminary results indicate that in-vehicle text messaging has declined significantly in the seven months after the law went into effect on Jan. 1, 2009.

The decline clearly indicates that a state-wide texting ban can potentially change driving behavior of motorists, reduce dangerous driving while distracted and greatly improve safety, according to the Auto Club.

Also on Friday, the NTSB put a recommendation on its list of most important safety measures. Industry and safety groups had no objections with that.

California's Auto Club says its study is the first to examine the effects of the state's texting new law and the only study conducted on a texting ban anywhere in the U.S.

The study was conducted using systematic random samples of a total of 16,500 vehicles passing seven roadside sites in Orange County. Three Auto Club surveys conducted before the texting ban went into effect showed that about 1.4 percent of drivers were texting while driving.

The two post-law surveys showed that level had dropped to about 0.4 percent, or a decline of about 70 percent overall. Through August, the California Highway Patrol issued 1,061 texting tickets statewide.

So far, California is the 6th state to ban texting while driving.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood plans to host a distracted driving summit with regulators and stakeholders next Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

But some parties are still calling for a nationwide ban instead of state-by-state laws. A survey on behalf of Ford Motor Company released Friday showed 86 percent of licensed U.S. drivers described handheld texting while driving as "very dangerous," with 93 percent supporting a nationwide ban on texting.

The Governors Highway Safety Association reversed an earlier position on text messaging laws and now urges states to pass texting bans much like nearly every state has passed for seat belt use and DUI laws.

More than 67 percent of drivers said they believed voice-activated technology is a safe alternative to handheld texting. Of course they weren't referring to texting but rather to voice calls using Bluetooth technology.

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Source: The Automobile Club of Southern California.