Best Way to Stop Phones at the Wheel? Make It a Game

Texting while driving causes hundreds of deaths each year, and despite most licensed drivers knowing the dangers, a large percentage still use their phones while at the wheel. A new study from Progressive insurance company shows that education campaigns only go so far in stopping distracted driving, Ars Technica reports—but making a competition of phone usage may make a huge difference.

• What is distracted driving? Eating, taking a swig of a drink, and texting or talking on the phone are all forms of distracted driving because they take a driver's focus away from the road. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says distracted driving accounted for 3,308 deaths in 2022.
• Sobering stats: Phones account for at least 13% of those deaths (around 400 per year), and the stats are worse for younger drivers (1 in 5). Per Bankrate, 35% of teens say they have texted behind the wheel, despite 94% knowing how dangerous it is.
• Tracking drivers: The study's 1,653 participants were recruited from a Progressive program that tracks handheld smartphone use while driving, which also gave the company data on their previous phone habits. They averaged 6.4 minutes per hour of handheld device use on the road prior to the study—while the company says the safest drivers use their phones for less than a minute.
• Education didn't help: The study broke those drivers into five groups with varying levels of intervention over 10 weeks. The first three groups all had educational materials, and some received phone mounts and a written agreement not to use phones while driving. These groups saw little improvement in their phone usage on the road.
• Promising results: There was more hope with the fourth and fifth groups, who had more innovative intervention tactics, including gamifying the experience. Group four, which saw a 20.5% reduction rate in handheld usage, took part in a weekly game that gave points to participants who met certain usage goals. Group five upped the ante by providing monetary rewards to that same game (and saw a 27.6% reduction, lowering usage to 89 seconds per hour). Even more promising? Those groups continued to use their phones less at the wheel when the study was over.

(How insurance companies can see every drive you take.)