Cell-phone-use-while-driving bans work best in urban areas

The pileup of studies on the negative effect of cell phones on driving ability resulted in some states banning their use; now studies on the effect of the bans are piling up, too. A study, set to be published in the journal Transportation Research Part A, provides some evidence that a ban has had more effect in urban areas, but the statistics aren't very robust.

The report shows that, overall, there have been lower crash rates in the State of New York since the institution of a ban on cell phone use by drivers. The biggest differences in rates were in areas with a high density of licensed drivers, such as New York City. The numbers indicate that both personal and fatal injury crash rates have dropped. The report's authors caution that they made little effort to dispense with any spurious variables that could have contributed to the lower accident rates, such as "road construction, safety education, introduction of new automobile safety features, and/or changes in alcohol and illegal substance control policies."