Is the Cell Phone Ban a Success Story?

In a March 2010 news release, ICBC thanked commuters for “planning ahead and commuting creatively," and making “smart decisions” that contributed to there being “approximately 20 per cent fewer claims [in the Lower Mainland] reported during the 2010 Winter Games than the same time period in 2009."

Likewise, crashes were down across BC: 17,400 crashes in February, 2,200 less than in February 2009, and 18,600 reported crashes in March 2010, 2,200 less than in March 2009. On a percentage basis, these numbers translate into an 11.2 per cent reduction in February and a 13.5 per cent reduction in March.

Commentators have surmised that the “transit-friendly Olympics” and the [mostly good] weather were important contributing factors, but also noted that, “ the new provincial law against hand-held cell phone use and texting while driving, imposed in January and enforced since February” may also have had an impact.

That the Olympics were ‘transit friendly’ and that this helped to reduce crashes is indisputable. The Vancouver Sun reported that “more people than ever before in Metro Vancouver took transit in the first week of the Olympics and cited Translink statistics of ridership on buses up 34 per cent, the Sky Train’s Expo/Millennium line up 54 per cent, the SeaBus up 200 per cent, and the West Coast Express up 78 per cent.

That the new cell phone law (banning the use of hand held cell phones) contributed is less conclusive. ICBC spokesman Mark Jan Vrem was quoted as saying “he’d like to think the new law is making the roads safer.” Enforcement during the Olympics was problematic but across the province the police reportedly handed out 2,200 tickets in February for cell phone law infractions. In March, the VPD handed out 249 such tickets and in West Vancouver police reported issuing 54 such tickets since February 1st, amounting to “about 10 per cent of all tickets issued in West Vancouver for driving violations.”

A recent study by Professor Sheldon H. Jacobson, University of Illinois, analyzing the relationship between pre- and post-law crash rates using public data from 62 counties in New York concludes that it does make a positive difference, especially “in densely populated urban areas with a higher number of licensed drivers than in rural areas.” Professor Jacobson’s study found that after banning hand-held cell phone use while driving, 46 counties in New York experienced lower fatal accident rates, 10 of which did so at a statistically significant level, while all 62 counties experienced lower personal injury accident rates.

According to a US Highway Loss Data Institute study (also recent), however, insurance claims in four states that have “cell phone bans” in place compared to areas where drivers can talk freely were not significantly different. HLDI president, Adrian Lund, said "If crash risk increases with phone use and fewer drivers use phones where it's illegal to do so, we would expect to see a decrease in crashes, but we aren't seeing it." Mr. Lund reportedly believes that drivers in jurisdictions with such bans may be switching to hands-free phones, which may pose similar risks for driver distraction.

Time will tell.

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