According to an new poll taken by Harris Interactive, despite knowing that driving while talking on a cell phone is dangerous, the vast majority of US drivers still do it.
Starting from the fact that 78% of all US adults who drive have a cell phone, almost three-quarters of them say that they talk on their cells while driving. Two-thirds say they only sometimes talk, and 6% claim they always talk. Slightly over a quarter say they never talk on their cell while driving.
The pattern shows little variation across the country. The South and Midwest are slightly higher, and only in the states that have laws requiring the use of a hands-free devices (New York, New Jersey, Connecticut and Washington DC) are the percentages lower.
Not surprisingly, younger drivers are more likely than older to talk-and-drive. Almost nine in ten Echo Boomers (ages 18 to 29) say that they talk on their cell phone while driving, while only about half of drivers over 61 admit to the dangerous behavior.
Still, regardless of age, most people do it — even though nearly all of them say the activity is at least to some degree dangerous, and 31% say it is very dangerous.
For more information on another mobile subject, read the new eMarketer report Mobile Music.