SWOV: 71.5 percent of road users say they use their phone in traffic

SWOV’s road safety research shows that 71.5 percent of all road users ‘occasionally’ use their telephone in traffic. This is almost three percentage points more than two years earlier, when the survey was last conducted.

In front of the Interpolis Barometer 2021 survey 3730 adults and 324 young people were asked how they use their mobile phone in traffic. According to SWOV, no ‘significant’ increase was seen among pedestrians, but among cyclists and motorists there was. Telephone use among cyclists rose by more than 3 percentage points in two years to 59.3 percent. 70 percent of motorists say they use the telephone, more than 4 percentage points more than before.

According to the research, young people use their phone most often in traffic: 85.3 percent of young people say they sometimes use their smartphone. This too is not much more than two years earlier. As adults get older, phone use declines, according to the study. According to SWOV, the research also shows that if parents use their smartphone behind the wheel or on a bicycle, their children will also do this more often.

Adult drivers usually use the phone to make hands-free calls, set up navigation or play music. Playing games is done by 9.5 percent of the respondents. This is more than three times as much as four years ago. Adult cyclists say they mainly use the phone to set up navigation, take photos and videos, and to make hands-free calls.

The road safety organization says it is striking that hands-free calling has increased more in this Barometer than in the previous study. According to SWOV, a possible explanation is the use of meeting apps in traffic.

Insurer Interpolis, client of the Barometer, warns opposite the FD for the use of meeting apps in traffic. “Meeting on the road is simply unacceptable,” says Interpolis CEO Chantal Vergouw. It therefore calls on employers to make clear agreements about participating in traffic meetings. Earlier research by Interpolis would show that 16.8 percent of small and medium-sized enterprises indicate that employees log in to meetings ‘regularly’ in the car or by bicycle.

From left to right: the percentage of adults who say they sometimes perform a certain action in traffic, the percentage of young people who say they sometimes perform a certain action in traffic and the percentage of road users who say they sometimes use their smartphone in traffic