A law banning the use of mobile phones whilst driving was passed in the UK and went into effect on 1 December 2003. A study demonstrated that within 10 weeks of enforcement of the new law, mobile phone usage while driving fell from 1.85 to 0.97% across three different sites around Birmingham (See C 30638 fo). As a follow-up to that study, the authors of the present study aim to assess the longer-term impact of the legislation 2 years on from its implementation. The same three sites were used: a traffic-light T-junction (A), a pedestrian crossing (B) and a roundabout (C). Samples were taken on four consecutive Tuesday evenings between 17:00 and 18:00 hours in October 2005. The new data show statistically significant rises in the rate of mobile phone usage at two of the three sites since the previous study. The overall rate of mobile phone usage from this data is 1.63%, demonstrating an increase of mobile phone usage back to nearly pre-legislation levels.
Abstract