When was the last time you drove someplace and didn’t pass at least one driver who was distracted by something inside their vehicle? Distractions are more prevalent than they’ve ever been, and to get a sense of just how common it is, Consumer Reports recently conducted a survey on the matter.
The organization’s National Research Center carried out the study, which polled slightly more than 1,000 people as to how often they witnessed distracting activities while driving. They also asked drivers to admit how often they themselves engaged in distracting habits.
More than nine out of ten people said they had seen someone at the wheel talking on their phones in the past month. A full 62% said they witnessed somebody inputting or reading a text. And as if that weren’t distracting enough, 22% of respondents explained that they had seen somebody taking their hands off the wheel in order to use an app on their phone.
But when it came to drivers’ admittance of their own loss of focus, the numbers are much lower. 43% admitted to talking on a handheld phone, while just 14% said that they were guilty of texting. One third copped to using an app while they were driving, and 18% of people said they had used their phones for social media and email while in transit.