July 3, 2002
Report & Analysis · Other Poll Releases
A recent Peach State Poll finds that 87 percent of the public believes that using a hand-held cell phone while driving is either very dangerous (44 percent) or somewhat dangerous (43 percent). Most Georgians also believe that their safety has been compromised very often (38 percent) or somewhat often (33 percent) by other people using a cell phone while driving. Additionally, about four out of five (81 percent) respondents report very often seeing other drivers using cell phones.
The Peach State Poll is a quarterly survey of public opinion conducted by the University of Georgia's Carl Vinson Institute of Government.
Survey respondents made a clear distinction regarding safety between hand-held cell phone use and hands-free cell phone use while driving. A slight majority believe that using hands-free cell phones while driving is either somewhat safe (45 percent) or perfectly safe (10 percent).
A majority of Georgians (63 percent) believe that the use of hand-held phones while driving should be illegal. On the other hand, about three out of four respondents (77 percent) believe that the use of hands-free phones while driving should remain legal. Not surprisingly, those who use a cell phone while driving most often are less likely to support making the practice illegal; in fact, a majority (57 percent) of those who use their cell phones while driving every day say the use of hand-held phones should remain legal.
Other survey results:
* Of those who use a cell phone while they drive (51 percent of all respondents), only 10 percent say it is exclusively for business purposes, whereas 34 percent say it is strictly for personal calls. For the majority of those using a cell phone while driving (54 percent), cell phone use is for both business and personal purposes.
* Georgians who use their cell phones on a daily basis while driving are more likely to use a hands-free device than are those who use the cell phone less frequently while driving. While two-thirds of all cell phone users (67 percent) exclusively use a hand-held device, only half (50 percent) of those who use their phone while driving daily rely exclusively on a hand-held phone.
* Women are more likely than men to believe that the use of hand-held cell phones while driving should be made illegal (67 percent compared with 59 percent).
* The public prefers to see legislation regarding the use of cell phones while driving addressed at the state level (47 percent) as opposed to the local (21 percent) or federal level (26 percent).
* Whether or not they believe it should be illegal, about three in four respondents (76 percent) believe that using a cell phone while driving is a bad idea.
These data are taken from a Peach State Poll conducted between June 10 and June 17, 2002. The poll included 801 telephone interviews of randomly selected adults in Georgia. For a sample of this size, the margin of error at the 95 percent confidence level is +/- 3.5 percent.
