Calling, meeting, gaming: three-quarters of road users use their mobile phone behind the wheel

This is evident from a new report from Swov, the national scientific institute for road safety research, commissioned by Interpolis. The insurer has the investigation carried out every two years. Telephone use has grown by almost 10 percent compared to six years ago. Campaigns that point out the dangers have no effect – at least: they do not cause a decline.

It’s not just phone calls that are made behind the wheel. Almost one in five motorists use the telephone to meet online during the journey. One in eight cyclists plays games while cycling and 11 percent are guilty of this in the car, almost four times more than six years ago. A quarter of motorists take photos and one in three cyclists takes pictures during the ride.

It is not known how many accidents happen because road users are busy with their phones. There are only estimates based on old foreign research: every year, several dozen to more than a hundred fatal traffic accidents in the Netherlands are the result of distraction.

Online meetings

Interpolis previously raised the alarm about online meetings behind the wheel. Even if this happens without a camera, it is much more dangerous than a hands-free telephone conversation because participants pay attention to who is speaking and what is being said when people talk over each other.

Adriaan Heino, traffic psychologist at Interpolis: “People are too optimistic and think that they can safely participate in traffic while using their phone. We also see that those who have a lot of confidence in their own skills use their phone more often in traffic.”

The high percentage of people who sometimes pick up their phone during the ride does not mean that they do so always and everywhere, previous research shows. Smartphone users estimate whether it is quiet enough to pick up the phone.

Novice drivers between the ages of 18 and 24 use the phone most often while behind the wheel. And that is a cause for great concern, because drivers in this age category already have a higher accident risk. According to Swov, this is partly because their brains are still developing. They are also not very good at recognizing danger.

Unable to turn the tide

In recent years there have been several public campaigns to point out the dangers of the telephone in traffic, but according to these figures they were unable to turn the tide. In fact, the share of adult cyclists and motorists who do not see their phone use in traffic as a problem has doubled compared to 2021. About 40 percent of motorists and cyclists do not consider their own phone use to be a problem. This is almost half among young people.

Heino: “This has to do, among other things, with overestimation. People know that using your cell phone in traffic is dangerous, but they do it anyway because they think they can do it safely themselves.”

Heino finds it disturbing that telephone use in traffic seems to be becoming more normal for many young people. “The more young people become accustomed to using their mobile phone in traffic at a young age, the greater the chance that they will continue to do so later in life. Today’s cyclists are tomorrow’s drivers.”