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Stay Focused on Distracted Driving Enforcement Analysis of New York ticket data and recommendations for public officials and police departments
Alec Slatky, Legislative Analyst (516) 873-2266 / [email protected]
April 10, 2017
Table of Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................. 1
The Risks of Distracted Driving ............................................................................................................... 2
Distracted Driving is Dangerous .................................................................................................................. 2
Distracted Driving is an Epidemic ................................................................................................................ 3
Distracted Driving is on the Rise.................................................................................................................. 4
Analysis of Distracted Driving Tickets in New York ............................................................................... 5
2012-2015 Trends ....................................................................................................................................... 5
Age .............................................................................................................................................................. 6
Gender ........................................................................................................................................................ 7
Time ............................................................................................................................................................ 8
Where are the drivers coming from? .......................................................................................................... 9
Who is giving out the tickets? ................................................................................................................... 10
Where is distracted driving enforcement a priority? ................................................................................ 11
Which tickets are being given out? ........................................................................................................... 14
Success Stories ...................................................................................................................................... 15
New York Police Department .................................................................................................................... 15
Town of New Castle (Westchester) ........................................................................................................... 16
Village of Florida (Orange) ........................................................................................................................ 17
Kingston State Police (Ulster) .................................................................................................................... 17
Cornell University ...................................................................................................................................... 18
Recommendations ................................................................................................................................ 19
Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 22
Appendix A – New York State Distracted Driving Laws ....................................................................... 23
Appendix B – Raw 2015 Ticket Data by County ................................................................................... 27
1
Introduction
New York has long been a leader in combating distracted driving. In 2001, New York passed the nation’s first
law prohibiting hand-held cell phone use behind the wheel. In 2013, texting and driving became a five-point
violation.
These laws are only as effective as they are enforced. Yet AAA’s analysis of publicly available ticket data from
the Department of Motor Vehicles reveals that enforcement efforts across the state remain uneven.
Of the approximately 217,000 distracted driving summonses issued by New York police officers in 2015,
nearly 60% were issued by the NYPD. Outside of New York City, police issue 11 distracted driving tickets for
every 1000 licensed drivers, and under 4% of all moving violations are distracted driving offenses.
These statistics pale in comparison to the extent of the problem. The National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration estimates that nationally, 7% of drivers are using cell phones at any given daylight moment.
Traffic fatalities have increased markedly across the country over the last few years and over 3000 people
are killed annually in crashes involving distracted drivers. While police departments should not specify how
many tickets they aim to issue or utilize a quota in any form, more clearly needs to be done.
Fortunately, some police departments have successfully made distracted driving enforcement a top priority:
the NYPD, the Town of New Castle, the Village of Florida, the Kingston State Police station and Cornell
University. Their experiences will be highlighted in this report and synthesized into best practices for their
peers across the state.
This report will lay out the case for increasing distracted driving enforcement, including national trends,
scientific research, distracted driving ticket data, success stories from around the state, and
recommendations for the future.
Communities and legislators alike should work together with safety organizations to leverage effective
strategies statewide. After all, we need all hands on deck to make sure drivers’ hands stay on the wheel.
2
The Risks of Distracted Driving
Distracted Driving is Dangerous
Vehicles contain many potential distractions: unruly passengers, loose objects, and even sandwiches can all
divert a driver’s attention from the road. But cell phone use has become the symbol of this epidemic, and
with good reason – it is both enforceable and particularly dangerous.
When drivers take their eyes off the road for two seconds, they double their crash risk. But the average
texting driver takes his or her eyes off the road for 4.6 seconds – long enough to drive the length of a
football field blindfolded at 55mph. Overall, any type of cell phone use quadruples the risk of a crash, with
higher risks for novice drivers and operators of large trucks.
Although talking on a hands-free cell phone is not illegal, it is far from risk-free. According to a University of
Utah study, drivers talking on hands-free phones are “more likely than drivers not using phones to fail to
notice traffic signals, slower to respond to the brake light of the vehicle in front of them, more likely to
cause rear-end crashes, and less likely to be able to recall detailed information about specific visual stimuli
– even on those which they fixated their vision – suggesting that cell phone conversation can induce
inattentional blindness in the context of driving.”
Groundbreaking AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reports have added to this body of research. The latest
release in the Foundation’s cognitive distraction series highlights the risk of texting or talking on the phone
at a stoplight. Cognitive impairment continues well after the conversation ends, with drivers needing 27
seconds to return to their pre-distraction reaction time.
The American public generally understands the dangers of distracted driving. According to the AAA
Foundation for Traffic Safety’s 2016 Traffic Safety Culture Index, survey respondents rank drivers text
messaging or emailing as the greatest threat to their personal safety on the road – higher even than drunk
drivers. Ninety-four percent of drivers deem such behavior unacceptable.
3
Distracted Driving is an Epidemic
Unfortunately, the practice of distracted driving is nearly as widespread as its condemnation. In the 2016
Traffic Safety Culture Index, drivers admitted to engaging in distracting behavior at an alarming rate:
Behavior At least once within past 30 days “Regularly” or “fairly often”
Typing a text message/email 31% 8%
Reading a text message/email 40% 11%
Talking on a cell phone 68% 32%
Phone-addicted millennials often get blamed for this epidemic, with some justification: approximately two-
thirds of drivers ages 19-24 admitted to reading a text or email while driving within the past thirty days.
But young drivers are far from the only offenders. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s
(NHTSA’s) most recent observational survey estimated that 7% of drivers ages 25-69 are using cell phones
at any particular daylight moment. In fact, the Traffic Safety Culture Index’s highest self-reported rate of
cell phone use behind the wheel belonged to the 25-39 age group.
Despite the prevalence of such dangerous behavior, law enforcement officers have difficulty explicitly
citing cell phone use on crash reports. In New York, texting was listed as a contributing factor for a mere 70
collisions in 2015 – a number so shockingly low as to be literally unbelievable.
Indeed, there is evidence that police reports drastically underestimate the number of crashes attributable
to distractions. In 2016, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety reviewed in-vehicle footage from over 2200
crashes involving teen drivers. Nearly 60% of crashes were preceded by some distracting behavior,
including 12% of crashes involving cell phone use – a far cry from NHTSA’s estimates of 14% and 1%,
respectively.
Distracted drivers usually don’t admit to their violations after a fender-bender. But despite the difficulty
pinpointing cell phone use, New York police officers identified “driver inattention/distraction” on 48,476
crash reports in 2015, making it the most common contributing factor to collisions.
Observational studies, traditional surveys, in-vehicle camera footage, data from crash reports, and likely
the reader’s own personal experience all concur: distracted driving is widespread across the state.
4
Distracted Driving is on the Rise
Making matters worse, distracted driving is becoming more ubiquitous and causing more traffic fatalities
as a result. Deaths on U.S. roads increased by 7.2% from 2014-15 – the largest year-over-year percentage
increase in nearly 50 years – while distraction-affected fatalities increased by 8.8%. News outlets from the
New York Times to the Chicago Tribune to the Wall Street Journal have all written at length on the
connection between distracted driving and increasing traffic fatalities.
This behavior change is partly driven by technological advancements. In 2011, only 35% of the U.S.
population owned a smartphone; today, more than three-quarters do. As text messaging becomes more
popular in everyday life, it is likewise becoming more common behind the wheel, as responses to the AAA
Traffic Safety Culture Index show:
Frequency of reading a text
message/email while driving
At least once within past 30 days “Regularly” or “fairly often”
2010 24% 7%
2016 40% 11%
NHTSA’s observational surveys corroborate this pattern. Handheld cell phone use has declined by 20%
from 2010-15, but texting or otherwise manipulating a device has more than doubled over the same
period. A staggering 4.9% of drivers aged 16-24 were observed manipulating a handheld device in 2015, up
from 1.5% in 2010. Auburn’s viral Pokémon Go crash from July 2016 is a distinctly modern occurrence.
Drivers with their heads in their phones obviously have less time to react – and increasingly, they are
crashing without attempting any evasive maneuver. The AAA Foundation’s review of in-vehicle camera
footage found that teen drivers had no reaction before 25% of rear-end crashes in 2014, double the
percentage from 2008. Over the same period, the average amount of time drivers took their eyes off the
road in the six seconds immediately preceding a crash increased from 2.0 to 3.1 seconds.
People sense that distracted driving has become a much more pervasive problem. In the 2016 Traffic
Safety Culture Index, 70% of people said distracted drivers were a much bigger problem today than three
years ago. For perspective, less than half of respondents believed that aggressive drivers were a much
bigger problem – and it was the next closest choice.
5
Analysis of Distracted Driving Tickets in New York
Traffic enforcement plays an essential role in combating distracted driving. Police officers across the state
are doing yeoman’s work, but more needs to be done.
In 2015, officers in New York issued 132,174 tickets for violations of section 1225-c of the Vehicle and Traffic
Law (hereafter referred to as cell phone tickets) and 84,769 tickets for violations of section 1225-d (hereafter
referred to as texting tickets; both violations will be referred to as distracted driving tickets). The data comes
from New York State’s open data website and full text of the laws can be found in Appendix A.
This section begins with an overview of the trends in distracted driving enforcement in New York between
2012 and 2015, and proceeds with an analysis of enforcement patterns in 2015: who receives tickets, who
gives out tickets, and when and where tickets are issued.
2012-2015 Trends
The number of texting tickets nearly tripled between 2012 and 2015. The number of cell phone tickets
declined by 39% during that same time period, but still accounts for the majority of distracted driving
tickets issued.
This finding aligns with NHTSA’s observations: handheld cell phone use has declined over the past five
years, but manipulation of a personal device has more than doubled.
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
2012 2013 2014 2015
Tick
ets
issu
ed
Cell Phone Texting
6
Age
In 2015, drivers ages 25-34 received the most tickets, but drivers of all ages engaged in distracting behavior:
Middle-aged drivers received far fewer texting tickets than their younger counterparts but received only a
slightly lower number of tickets for cell phone use. The oldest driver to receive a distracted driving ticket was
a 95-year-old Connecticut woman ticketed for cell phone use by the Mamaroneck Village Police Department.
Drivers ages 16-19 seem to have an unusually low level of tickets, but those drivers encompass less than 3%
of the licensed drivers in New York. The analysis of tickets per licensed driver produces different results:
The 16-19 age group still receives fewer tickets per licensed driver, but the disparity is not as dramatic and
may be caused by this age group spending less time on the road than others.
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
16,000
18,000
16-19 20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59 60-64 65-69 70-74 75-79 80-84 85+
Tick
ets
Issu
ed
Cell phone Texting
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
Tick
ets/
10
00
lice
nse
d d
rive
rs
Cell phone Texting
7
Gender
Males are twice as likely as females to be ticketed for distracted driving behavior in New York. In 2015,
144,286 cell phone or texting tickets were issued to males, while only 72,652 such tickets were issued to
females, with each gender receiving approximately the same proportion of texting and cell phone tickets.
This result conflicts with NHTSA’s finding that women are more likely than men to be distracted by cell
phones, but aligns with previously documented patterns from other states. On average, men spend 20%
more hours on the road than women and male drivers are generally more likely to be stopped by the police.
Males are more likely to be given a ticket for distracted driving regardless of age:
0
10,000
20,000
30,000
40,000
50,000
60,000
70,000
80,000
90,000
100,000
Cell Phone Texting
Tick
ets
issu
ed
Female Male
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
Tick
ets/
10
00
lice
nse
d d
rive
rs
Female Male
8
Time
Tickets were issued throughout 2015, with heightened enforcement in April and May, during and
immediately following Distracted Driving Awareness Month and New York’s “Operation Hang Up,” which
provides grants to local agencies and the State Police.
Police were most likely to give out tickets in the middle of the week and least likely to give out tickets on the
weekends.
Both nationally and in New York, the two days with the most fatalities in 2015 were Saturday and Sunday.
While the rate of hand-held cell phone use is demonstrably lower on weekends, NHTSA’s most recent
estimates found no difference in texting rates between weekdays and weekends.
0
2,000
4,000
6,000
8,000
10,000
12,000
14,000
16,000
Tick
ets
issu
ed
Cell Phone Texting
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday
Tick
ets
issu
ed
Cell Phone Texting
9
Where are the drivers coming from?
The vast majority of the drivers ticketed for distracted driving in New York reside in the Empire State.
In 2015, over 20% of distracted driving tickets were written for out-of-state residents. New Jerseyans
received close to 16,000 tickets to earn the dubious honor of second place, while no other state had more
than 6,000. At least one driver from each of the fifty states and the District of Columbia was ticketed for a
distracted driving offense, as were citizens of American territories including Puerto Rico (47 tickets) and the
U.S. Virgin Islands (16).
Foreign visitors were not immune either. Canadians were issued 247 summonses, mostly to drivers hailing
from neighboring provinces Ontario (126) and Quebec (96).
10
Who is giving out the tickets?
City police departments gave out the majority of the distracted driving tickets in 2015.a
However, New York City doles out more than half of the distracted driving tickets in the state. Outside of the
five boroughs, the State Police issue the plurality of tickets.
a “State” includes Thruway Troop T; “other” includes park, transit, tribal, and university police, who may be state employees but are not governed by the State Troopers.
City62%
State18%
Town6%
County6%
Village6%
Other2%
216,941 tickets issued in NYS
State45%
Town16%
County14%
Village14%
City10%
Other1%
89,902 tickets issued outside NYC
11
Where is distracted driving enforcement a priority?
In 2015, distracted driving offenses were enforced unevenly across the state.
Unsurprisingly, the most tickets are given out in the areas with the greatest population: New York City, Long
Island, the Hudson Valley, and the cities along the Thruway corridor. The better way to tell which police
departments most emphasize distracted driving enforcement is to account for population.
12
Even when considering population, New York City still comes out on top by a large margin. The NYPD doled
out 35 tickets for every 1000 licensed drivers that live in the five boroughs.
Outside of New York City, police agencies issued only 11 tickets for every 1000 licensed drivers. Ulster County
stands out for prioritizing distracted driving enforcement, with the State Police issuing nearly 1700 tickets in
the County (see “Success Stories”) and the Towns of New Paltz and Marlborough issuing over 130 violations
each.
Contrastingly, Long Island doesn’t perform as well when considering population size: Suffolk County issued
nine distracted driving tickets per 1000 licensed drivers and Nassau County issued eight.
13
Another way to view the prioritization of distracted driving is to consider what percentage of all traffic
violations were cell phone or texting infractions.
In New York City, distracted driving tickets accounted for 12.1% of moving violations in 2015. But outside of
the five boroughs, only 3.7% of tickets were issued for distracted driving offenses. Only Albany, Rensselaer,
St. Lawrence, and Westchester Counties issued more than 5% of their tickets for distracted driving.
These numbers are low compared with the number of crashes related to distraction. Driver
inattention/distraction was the most common contributing factor to motor vehicle crashes in New York in
2015, contributing to 20.3% of crashes resulting in injury (21.7% in New York City, 19.5% outside of New York
City). Driver inattention/distraction was one of the top five contributing factors to crashes in each of New
York’s 62 counties. In all but six counties, distraction contributed to more than 10% of injury crashes.
14
Which tickets are being given out?
In 2015, 39% of all distracted driving tickets were texting tickets – the rest were cell phone violations.
Unsurprisingly, New York City doles out a high percentage of texting tickets – 43%, compared with 33% in
the rest of the state. The density of the street network, the slower speed of traffic, and the emphasis on
texting violations likely all contribute to this high percentage.
Ulster County is the only county to issue more texting summonses than cell phone summonses – thanks in
large part to the State Police issuing an extremely high percentage of texting tickets (see “Success Stories”).
15
Success Stories
New York Police Department
The New York Police Department issued distracted driving tickets at high rates across each of the five
boroughs in 2015 (location determined by court county):
Borough Cell phone
tickets
Texting tickets Total distracted
driving tickets
Tickets/1000
licensed drivers
% of all moving
summonses
Bronx 7,210 3,963 11,173 24.5 7.7%
Brooklyn 22,865 15,731 38,596 39.2 13.3%
Manhattan 18,197 18,532 37,449 50.0 12.9%
Queens 18,650 13,445 32,095 28.3 13.3%
Staten Island 3,229 2,581 5,810 19.1 8.4%
All NYPD 70,871 54,252 125,123 34.5 12.3%
Nearly 60% of all distracted driving tickets issued throughout the state are doled out in New York City. The
NYPD writes 35 tickets for every 1000 licensed drivers residing in the five boroughs, compared with officers
elsewhere in the state issuing only 11 tickets for every 1000 licensed drivers. New York City doesn’t just have
more people – it places a greater emphasis on distracted driving. Over 12% of NYPD’s tickets are issued for
distracted driving, compared with under 4% of tickets outside the City.
Inspector Dennis Fulton believes this emphasis results from NYPD’s data-driven policies and deliberate
prioritization. Under the City’s Vision Zero initiative, which aims to eliminate traffic fatalities by 2024, the
NYPD categorized the six offenses most likely to result in serious injury or death as “Vision Zero violations”
and instructed officers to focus their efforts accordingly. Distracted driving is one of the six violations.
“We really try to get the officers to buy in,” says Fulton. “We really have pushed the texting summonses.”
The department uses TrafficStat, an assembly of officers throughout the City where specific local
enforcement numbers are analyzed, to push for a shift towards texting enforcement. Crash victims have also
visited precincts to share their stories and help motivate officers.
The patrol cars are sited thoughtfully. “The dimensions of each street have some impact on how the officers
will be able to enforce these two violations,” says Fulton. “The officers will park on streets where a lot of
traffic is going by…[and] set up at a tactically advantageous location where they’re not as visible to the
driver.” For example, an officer policing texting on a Manhattan avenue may wait on a side street.
Fulton acknowledges that the slow traffic in the denser parts of the City might make cell phone and texting
offenses easier to police. Ultimately, though, he attributes the NYPD’s high rate of texting tickets to the
motivation of the officers and the organizational priorities of the department.
Fulton supports banning cell phone use at red lights, recognizing the behavior as both dangerous and easily
enforceable. But he doesn’t see the current law as an excuse. “The difficulties of writing a texting summons
are known,” says Fulton. “But there are a lot of things police officers do that are difficult.”
16
Town of New Castle (Westchester)
The Town of New Castle in Westchester County has a population of approximately 18,000 and encompasses
just over 23 square miles and 102 centerline miles of roadway. Its Town Offices are located in Chappaqua.
In 2015, the Town’s Police Department issued 207 tickets for cell phone use and 588 tickets for texting –
more texting tickets than the Albany, Binghamton, Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, and Yonkers police
departments combined. In total, the Department issued 38% of its moving violations for distracted driving,
equivalent to 45 tickets for every 1000 residents – both figures the highest of any town in the state.
The 2011 death of 19-year-old resident Evan Lieberman as a passenger in a distracted driving crash sparked
a conscious effort to educate the community. “I thought we should become leaders in the area,” says
Supervisor Robert Greenstein. The Town announced its “Hands Off the Phone and On the Wheel” initiative
in September 2014, complete with branded banners and magnets, a PSA, and multiple high-visibility
enforcement weeks – all with the full support of the Board, the Police Department, and the community.
Officer Chad Golanec was the point person for distracted driving enforcement. Once his week of warnings
ended, the summonses came pouring in. Golanec sited himself deliberately: “I scouted out the town and
looked for spots where vehicles would be moving a little slower than normal and I was at a higher vantage
point – in a parking lot or somewhere where I would be able to see the hands with an unobstructed view.”
Even though it’s not illegal to text while a car is not in motion, Officer Golanec doesn’t find it difficult to write
tickets at traffic control devices. He’ll ticket drivers “on a slower road, coming to a traffic light or pulling away
from a traffic light.” And while he rides in SUVs and motorcycles in addition to ordinary patrol cars, he says
that “no matter what [vehicle] you’re in, you’re gonna catch ‘em.” He’s even issued multiple summonses to
the same drivers in the same locations within a matter of weeks.
Chief Charles Ferry says he was “surprised at how many tickets [Golanec] was able to write.” He believes
that specifically assigning Officer Golanec to distracted driving enforcement was essential to the success of
the program. “We dedicated the resources of one traffic officer,” says Ferry. “Creating that position was a
big thing for us.” Officer Golanec has other responsibilities, and other officers can write cell phone tickets,
but having a single officer focus on the problem was especially helpful.
Initially, the Town planned to take all tickets to trial without the possibility of a plea bargain. But that plan
proved to be burdensome. “We’ve given out tickets to so many people that it’s overwhelmed our courts,”
says Greenstein. The Town reversed course and decided to offer plea bargains – but is now starting a
diversion program where offenders attend a distracted driving course prior to their court date.
New Castle officials don’t believe the Town has an unusually high proportion of distracted drivers. “Every
town has the same problem,” says Golanec. “The officers just need a little bit of motivation.”
Chief Ferry hopes that other departments can learn from New Castle and have that motivation without a
hometown tragedy. “We’re just one small jurisdiction,” says Ferry. “When we started, we talked about being
able to become an example for police departments who would want to replicate it in some way.”
17
Village of Florida (Orange)
The Village of Florida in Orange County has a population of approximately 2,800 and encompasses just over
2 square miles and 40 centerline miles of roadway.
In 2015, the Village’s Police Department issued 132 tickets for cell phone use and 110 tickets for texting.
Distracted driving summonses accounted for 35% of all moving violations issued by the Florida Police
Department; on average, villages in New York issue under 5% of their tickets for distracted driving infractions.
In total, the Village issued 85 tickets for every 1000 residents.
Police Chief James Coleman attributes this rate to the extraordinary efforts of a single (unnamed) officer.
“One guy really enforces them,” Coleman says of distracted driving violations.
The geometry of Florida’s streets – aside from turning lanes, the main arteries through the Village only have
one lane in each direction – keeps the speed of traffic down, which in turn makes it less difficult to spot
offenses. “Everybody travels so slowly, [the violations are] easy to pick up,” according to Coleman.
He doesn’t believe the Village utilizes any particularly unique tactics. The tickets are issued by officers in
marked patrol units. The officer who issues the majority of the summonses “sits in the same spot and hits
the same people two or three times,” says Coleman.
Ultimately, the number of tickets a department gives out is a function of how much it prioritizes distracted
driving – and in Florida, one officer in a small department can make a big difference. “It’s just so blatant,”
says Coleman. “It comes down to not being lazy.”
Kingston State Police (Ulster)
The Kingston State Police station (Troop F, Zone 3) mostly covers Ulster County but also patrols Orange,
Dutchess, and Greene Counties. It issued 838 texting tickets, more than any troop subdivision in the state.
Just over 10% of the summonses issued by officers assigned to the Kingston station were issued for distracted
driving offenses. More than three-quarters (76%) of its distracted driving tickets were issued for texting –
the greatest percentage of any troop subdivision in the state that issued at least 40 distracted driving tickets.
Sergeant James Cleary with the State Police attributes this pattern to Troop F’s deployment of its concealed
identity traffic enforcement (CITE) vehicle. Each Troop has at least one CITE vehicle, and in Troop F, one
particular Kingston-based officer is assigned to use it for traffic enforcement. The trooper is strictly dedicated
to traffic enforcement throughout Troop F’s territory and prioritizes distracted driving. Cleary believes this
single officer is a major reason why the Kingston State Police station issues so many more texting tickets
than other troop stations across the state.
More broadly, Sgt. Cleary asserts that the State Police have been able to focus on distracted driving because
improving highway safety is an essential part of its Mission Priorities.
18
Cornell University
Most drivers don’t expect to be stopped for a traffic violation when they’re on a college campus. But at
Cornell University, drivers shouldn’t be surprised, says Deputy Chief David Honan.
“We’ve worked very hard to change” the perception that campus cops don’t do traffic enforcement,
according to Honan. “The members of the community know.”
The Cornell University Police issued 107 distracted driving tickets in 2015, the most of any university in the
state and more than some cities.
Cornell is focused on three offenses that pose the most danger to its students, employees, and visitors:
distracted driving, failure to yield to pedestrians, and disregarding a traffic control device. The lines between
those categories are often blurred. “There’s a correlation between failure to yield and texting,” says Honan.
Cracking down on one violation helps reduce all three.
Cornell officers enforce distracted driving laws while on foot, on bike, and in vehicles. The Department was
a “pioneer of mountain bike policing in New York State,” according to Honan. The bike patrols aren’t solely
intended for traffic enforcement, of course; they provide mobility for officers on paths that cars cannot
access. But officers on bikes can get closer to a vehicle’s window, particularly helpful in distracted driving
enforcement. At Cornell, an officer on bicycle patrol will radio down to a marked vehicle to pull over a
particular car. The bike-riding officer will then ride down and issue the ticket him or herself.
Some patrol vehicles are also Chevrolet Tahoes, which provide elevation for police officers. “The cars are a
little bit higher” than the average sedan, says Honan. As with the officers on bicycles and on foot, officers in
the Tahoes have better sightlines into the vehicle.
Deputy Chief Honan attributes the success of the Department’s traffic safety plans to its public engagement
efforts. “The key is to communicate with the community that [distracted driving] is not acceptable,” says
Honan. “The goal is voluntary compliance.”
19
Recommendations
Prohibit cell phone use at red lights
New York law prohibits drivers from using a cell phone or portable electronic device while a vehicle is in
motion. But research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has revealed that cognitive distraction
doesn’t end when the conversation does. A driver’s reaction time can be inhibited for up to 27 seconds after
the distracting behavior is finished. Accordingly, the law should reflect the universal traffic safety message:
Keep the phone down for the entire length of the trip.
Governor Andrew Cuomo’s proposed 2017 Executive Budget (Sections 7-11 of Part L of the TED bill) would
have prohibited cell phone use while a vehicle is being operated, regardless of whether the vehicle is in
motion – in effect, prohibiting texting at red lights. Despite AAA’s support, this provision was not enacted.
Standalone bills introduced by Senator Carl Marcellino and Assemblymember Felix Ortiz (S.1261-A.2649)
would make similar amendments to the Vehicle and Traffic Law. AAA New York State supports these bills.
Utilize data to prioritize dangerous violations
Driver inattention/distraction was the most common contributing factor to motor vehicle crashes in New
York in 2015 and is one of the top traffic safety issues across the state. Yet the percentage of tickets issued
for distracted driving offenses lags well behind the percentage of crashes related to inattention.
To be sure, the percentage of tickets given for distracted driving cannot perfectly mirror the percentage of
crashes related to distracted driving, and not every inattention-related crash resulted from cell phone use.
But undeniably, municipalities should monitor trends in local crash data to determine which violations are
producing the most injuries in their community, and prioritize enforcement accordingly. NHTSA and the
Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee offer a program called “Data-Driven Approaches to Crime and Traffic
Safety” (DDACTS) to perform this sort of analysis. Police agencies should avail themselves of this resource.
New York City is the local model for data-driven enforcement. It classified six infractions, including cell phone
use/texting, as “Vision Zero violations” due to their involvement in the greatest number of injury crashes.
This reprioritization has produced not only a large number of distracted driving tickets, but the lowest
number of fatalities in the City’s recorded history for two consecutive years.
Choose an officer or officers to specialize in distracted driving
While all officers should be trained to identify cell phone offenses, sometimes an initiative needs a champion.
At smaller departments, assigning one officer or team to take the lead on distracted driving enforcement
might help increase summonses, as it did in New Castle, Florida, and the Kingston State Police station.
Motivating officers is key. Whether the motivation comes from talking to crash victims (NYC, New Castle),
hearing from superiors (NYC, New Castle, Kingston), or simply being self-motivated (Kingston, Florida),
officers should be personally inspired to enforce distracted driving laws to make the roads safer. According
to one study of officer productivity, “officers who perceived traffic enforcement as a personal priority
engaged in more enforcement efforts and subsequently issued more citations.”
20
Strategically deploy officers on local roads
The State Police do yeoman’s work enforcing distracted driving laws on state parkways and expressways,
especially considering how difficult it is to enforce texting laws when cars are traveling at 55 miles per hour.
Most local police departments don’t patrol limited-access highways. But they might patrol high-speed rural
roads with one lane in each direction – environments that make it relatively infeasible to issue texting
summonses. Fortunately for enforcement purposes (but unfortunately for society), drivers who text on
highways are also likely to text on arterial roads and local streets. NHTSA’s observational studies have found
that drivers use cell phone at similar rates on both expressway exit ramps and other surface streets.
Departments must therefore deploy officers at high-crash locations that are also conducive to distracted
driving enforcement. Officers from New York City, New Castle, and Florida all report choosing their positions
strategically. Exit ramps, or roads onto which exit ramps merge, offer opportunities to catch offending
highway drivers at non-highway speeds. Even if texting at a red light remains legal, officers can still ticket
distracted drivers approaching a light or leaving once the signal turns green. Urban areas and suburban or
rural downtowns offer perhaps the best opportunity to view texting drivers, due to slow traffic speeds –
though officers may need to exit their cars to witness the violation, depending on the geometry of the street.
Invest in equipment
Unlike most violations, which require observation of the vehicle itself, distracted driving tickets require
officers to see inside the vehicle – a difficult geometric task when the officer is in an ordinary patrol car and
the offending drivers are in SUVs with their phones in their laps. Police departments should consider
investing in SUVs earmarked for distracted driving (and seatbelt) enforcement that give police officers a
better angle to peer inside the vehicle. New Castle, Cornell, and the State Police all use SUVs to great effect.
Additionally, some departments may want to explore bike patrols for traffic enforcement in their
downtowns, and would need to purchase bicycles and related equipment. Motorcycles can also offer an
advantageous proximity to other vehicles.
Work in two-person teams
An officer on a bike or on foot has better sightlines and a wider potential viewing angle than an officer in a
low-riding patrol car. But such enforcement likely requires teams of two or more. Officers may not be able
to pull a driver over with just the wave of a hand – they’ll need to radio down to another officer in a marked
vehicle and have that officer stop the offender.
Spotters can be plainclothes officers walking on the sidewalk, on a median, or in the road. Some departments
around the country have even dressed spotters as construction workers or homeless people, but such
measures aren’t necessary – some drivers will be so distracted that they won’t even notice a uniformed cop.
Despite the extra manpower required, police departments should explore pedestrian/bicycle enforcement.
It seems to work for Cornell. Given the volume of offenses an officer would witness by standing at a busy
suburban intersection, such enforcement could be more efficient than a single officer in a patrol car.
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Create an original safety plan
April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month across the country. During that time, NHTSA purchases
advertisements, the state announces a crackdown, and media usually cover the issue. All of these initiatives
are necessary and appropriate.
High-visibility enforcement works. In 2011, the City of Syracuse partnered with NHTSA to conduct a study on
high-visibility enforcement of distracted driving offenses. The program used a combination of paid and
earned media and consistent enforcement from officers to help increase awareness of distracted driving
laws and reduce the rate of handheld phone use and cell phone manipulation by 32%. The New York
Association of Chiefs of Police created a video of enforcement strategies using lessons from Syracuse’s pilot
program.
But municipalities shouldn’t just rely on grants and marketing materials from higher levels of government.
As both New York City and New Castle reveal, creating a unique, branded safety initiative for one community
(or multiple nearby communities) can raise awareness of the issue and increase compliance with the law.
Add an additional distracted driving enforcement mobilization
A study of New York’s handheld cell phone ban found that cell phone use declined significantly immediately
after the law was passed, thanks to heightened publicity. But a year later, cell phone use was nearly as high
as the pre-law level. The study concludes that “vigorous enforcement campaigns accompanied by publicity
appear necessary to achieve longer term compliance with bans on drivers’ cell phone use.”
April should not be the only month with announced enforcement blitzes. NHTSA has multiple mobilization
efforts for drunk driving; it should consider adding a second wave of publicized enforcement for distracted
driving. But municipalities shouldn’t wait – they should act on their own with their unique safety plans.
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Conclusion
Distracted driving is one of today’s greatest traffic safety challenges, and the problem is getting worse. Police
departments ought to be ramping up enforcement of such dangerous behavior and exploring innovative
efforts to reduce its frequency.
In New York, some police departments are following that advice. But others are not making distracted driving
enforcement a top priority.
This must change, and it must change soon. While police departments have many responsibilities, they must
treat traffic safety as one of their first obligations, not an ancillary duty that can be fulfilled if grant money
flows in from outside sources. Traffic enforcement is law enforcement; more New Yorkers are killed in car
crashes than are murdered. Local police departments must take the initiative; they know their community,
and they are best positioned to make educational inroads with publicity.
State legislators also have a role to play. Currently, cell phone use behind the wheel is only prohibited when
a vehicle is in motion. Such a provision not only hampers enforcement efforts, it actually condones
dangerous behavior: AAA research has found that drivers’ reaction times are slowed after the distracting
behavior ends. The Vehicle and Traffic Law should prohibit cell phone use and texting while a vehicle is being
operated – including at traffic lights and stop signs.
Regardless of whether state legislators make this change, communities should rethink their distracted driving
enforcement efforts. They should deploy their resources strategically: texting is more difficult to enforce on
high-speed limited-access highways than it is on downtown streets or arterial roads. Municipalities should
also consider innovative solutions such as using officers on foot or bike patrol, investing in vehicles that allow
for higher vantage points, and creating their own safety plans.
Fortunately, there are examples of police departments throughout the state that have employed such
initiatives. Other communities should review these successes and adopt effective strategies that will work
for them to help New York sharpen its focus on distracted driving enforcement.
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Appendix A – New York State Distracted Driving Laws
Hand-Held Cell Phone Law
§ 1225-c. Use of mobile telephones. 1. For purposes of this section, the following terms shall mean:
(a) "Mobile telephone" shall mean the device used by subscribers and other users of wireless telephone
service to access such service.
(b) "Wireless telephone service" shall mean two-way real time voice telecommunications service that is
interconnected to a public switched telephone network and is provided by a commercial mobile radio
service, as such term is defined by 47 C.F.R. § 20.3.
(c) "Using" shall mean (i) holding a mobile telephone to, or in the immediate proximity of, the user's ear;
and (ii) with respect to a person operating a commercial motor vehicle, holding a mobile telephone to, or
in the immediate proximity of, the user's ear, or dialing or answering a mobile telephone by pressing more
than a single button, or reaching for a mobile telephone in a manner that requires such person to
maneuver so that he or she is no longer in a seated driving position, restrained by a seat belt that is
installed in accordance with section 393.93 of title 49 of the code of federal regulations and adjusted in
accordance with the vehicle manufacturer's instructions.
(d) "Hand-held mobile telephone" shall mean a mobile telephone with which a user engages in a call
using at least one hand.
(e) "Hands-free mobile telephone" shall mean a mobile telephone that has an internal feature or
function, or that is equipped with an attachment or addition, whether or not permanently part of such
mobile telephone, by which a user engages in a call without the use of either hand, whether or not the use
of either hand is necessary to activate, deactivate or initiate a function of such telephone. Provided,
however, that for purposes of this section, a mobile telephone used by a person operating a commercial
motor vehicle shall not be deemed a "hands-free mobile telephone" when such person dials or answers
such mobile telephone by pressing more than a single button.
(f) "Engage in a call" shall mean talking into or listening on a hand-held mobile telephone, but shall not
include holding a mobile telephone to activate, deactivate or initiate a function of such telephone.
(g) "Immediate proximity" shall mean that distance as permits the operator of a mobile telephone to
hear telecommunications transmitted over such mobile telephone, but shall not require physical contact
with such operator's ear.
(h) "Commercial motor vehicle" shall have the same meaning as such term is defined by subdivision four-
a of section two of the transportation law.
(i) "Motor carrier" shall have the same meaning as such term is defined by subdivision seventeen of
section two of the transportation law.
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2. (a) Except as otherwise provided in this section, no person shall operate a motor vehicle upon a public
highway while using a mobile telephone to engage in a call while such vehicle is in motion; provided,
however, that no person shall operate a commercial motor vehicle while using a mobile telephone to
engage in a call on a public highway including while temporarily stationary because of traffic, a traffic
control device, or other momentary delays. Provided further, however, that a person shall not be deemed
to be operating a commercial motor vehicle while using a mobile telephone to engage in a call on a public
highway when such vehicle is stopped at the side of, or off, a public highway in a location where such
vehicle is not otherwise prohibited from stopping by law, rule, regulation or any lawful order or direction of
a police officer.
(b) An operator of any motor vehicle who holds a mobile telephone to, or in the immediate proximity of,
his or her ear while such vehicle is in motion is presumed to be engaging in a call within the meaning of this
section; provided, however, that an operator of a commercial motor vehicle who holds a mobile telephone
to, or in the immediate proximity of, his or her ear while such vehicle is temporarily stationary because of
traffic, a traffic control device, or other momentary delays is also presumed to be engaging in a call within
the meaning of this section except that a person operating a commercial motor vehicle while using a
mobile telephone to engage in a call when such vehicle is stopped at the side of, or off, a public highway in
a location where such vehicle is not otherwise prohibited from stopping by law, rule, regulation or any
lawful order or direction of a police officer shall not be presumed to be engaging in a call within the
meaning of this section. The presumption established by this subdivision is rebuttable by evidence tending
to show that the operator was not engaged in a call.
(c) The provisions of this section shall not be construed as authorizing the seizure or forfeiture of a
mobile telephone, unless otherwise provided by law.
(d) No motor carrier shall allow or require its drivers to use a hand-held mobile telephone while
operating a commercial motor vehicle as provided in this section.
3. Subdivision two of this section shall not apply to (a) the use of a mobile telephone for the sole purpose
of communicating with any of the following regarding an emergency situation: an emergency response
operator; a hospital, physician's office or health clinic; an ambulance company or corps; a fire department,
district or company; or a police department, (b) any of the following persons while in the performance of
their official duties: a police officer or peace officer; a member of a fire department, district or company; or
the operator of an authorized emergency vehicle as defined in section one hundred one of this chapter, or
(c) the use of a hands-free mobile telephone.
4. A violation of subdivision two of this section shall be a traffic infraction and shall be punishable by a
fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than two hundred dollars upon conviction of a first violation;
upon conviction of a second violation, both of which were committed within a period of eighteen months,
such violation shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than two hundred fifty
dollars; upon conviction of a third or subsequent violation, all of which were committed within a period of
eighteen months, such violation shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than four
hundred fifty dollars.
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Use of Portable Electronic Devices Law
§ 1225-d. Use of portable electronic devices. 1. Except as otherwise provided in this section, no person
shall operate a motor vehicle while using any portable electronic device while such vehicle is in motion;
provided, however, that no person shall operate a commercial motor vehicle while using any portable
electronic device on a public highway including while temporarily stationary because of traffic, a traffic
control device, or other momentary delays. Provided further, however, that a person shall not be deemed
to be operating a commercial motor vehicle while using a portable electronic device on a public highway
when such vehicle is stopped at the side of, or off, a public highway in a location where such vehicle is not
otherwise prohibited from stopping by law, rule, regulation or any lawful order or direction of a police
officer.
1-a. No motor carrier shall allow or require its drivers to use a portable electronic device while operating
a commercial motor vehicle as provided in this section.
2. For the purposes of this section, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
(a) "Portable electronic device" shall mean any hand-held mobile telephone, as defined by subdivision
one of section twelve hundred twenty-five-c of this article, personal digital assistant (PDA), handheld
device with mobile data access, laptop computer, pager, broadband personal communication device, two-
way messaging device, electronic game, or portable computing device, or any other electronic device when
used to input, write, send, receive, or read text for present or future communication.
(b) "Using" shall mean holding a portable electronic device while viewing, taking or transmitting images,
playing games, or, for the purpose of present or future communication: performing a command or request
to access a world wide web page, composing, sending, reading, viewing, accessing, browsing, transmitting,
saving or retrieving e-mail, text messages, instant messages, or other electronic data.
(c) "Commercial motor vehicle" shall have the same meaning as such term is defined by subdivision four-
a of section two of the transportation law.
(d) "Motor carrier" shall have the same meaning as such term is defined by subdivision seventeen of
section two of the transportation law.
3. Subdivision one of this section shall not apply to (a) the use of a portable electronic device for the sole
purpose of communicating with any of the following regarding an emergency situation: an emergency
response operator; a hospital; a physician's office or health clinic; an ambulance company or corps; a fire
department, district or company; or a police department, (b) any of the following persons while in the
performance of their official duties: a police officer or peace officer; a member of a fire department,
district or company; or the operator of an authorized emergency vehicle as defined in section one hundred
one of this chapter.
4. A person who holds a portable electronic device in a conspicuous manner while operating a motor
vehicle or while operating a commercial motor vehicle on a public highway including while temporarily
stationary because of traffic, a traffic control device, or other momentary delays but not including when
26
such commercial motor vehicle is stopped at the side of, or off, a public highway in a location where such
vehicle is not otherwise prohibited from stopping by law, rule, regulation or any lawful order or direction of
a police officer is presumed to be using such device, except that a person operating a commercial motor
vehicle while using a portable electronic device when such vehicle is stopped at the side of, or off, a public
highway in a location where such vehicle is not otherwise prohibited from stopping by law, rule, regulation
or any lawful order or direction of a police officer shall not be presumed to be using such device. The
presumption established by this subdivision is rebuttable by evidence tending to show that the operator
was not using the device within the meaning of this section.
5. The provisions of this section shall not be construed as authorizing the seizure or forfeiture of a
portable electronic device, unless otherwise provided by law.
6. A violation of this section shall be a traffic infraction and shall be punishable by a fine of not less than
fifty dollars nor more than two hundred dollars upon conviction of a first violation; upon conviction of a
second violation, both of which were committed within a period of eighteen months, such violation shall
be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than two hundred fifty dollars; upon conviction
of a third or subsequent violation, all of which were committed within a period of eighteen months, such
violation shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars nor more than four hundred fifty dollars.
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Appendix B – Raw 2015 Ticket Data by County
State Local Total
County Cell Phone Texting
Cell Phone Texting
Cell Phone Texting
Total Distracted Driving Tickets
Tickets/1000 Licensed Drivers
% Distracted Driving Tickets (of all tickets)
Albany 1,299 580 1,514 531 2,813 1,111 3,924 18.5 5.5%
Allegany 212 151 17 2 229 153 382 11.7 3.4%
Bronx 10 8 7,210 3,963 7,220 3,971 11,191 24.5 7.7%
Broome 509 255 356 153 865 408 1,273 9.2 3.1%
Cattaraugus 232 93 111 29 343 122 465 8.4 2.3%
Cayuga 203 111 127 29 330 140 470 8.9 3.2%
Chautauqua 853 313 291 67 1,144 380 1,524 16.8 4.1%
Chemung 310 179 157 57 467 236 703 11.6 3.2%
Chenango 148 76 39 11 187 87 274 7.4 2.6%
Clinton 233 159 51 8 284 167 451 7.8 1.9%
Columbia 396 167 172 24 568 191 759 15.8 3.0%
Cortland 128 85 59 32 187 117 304 9.6 2.1%
Delaware 64 34 32 10 96 44 140 4.2 0.8%
Dutchess 1,083 642 1,015 276 2,098 918 3,016 14.1 4.4%
Erie 1,657 841 3,298 1,424 4,955 2,265 7,220 11.0 3.4%
Essex 149 142 26 14 175 156 331 12.1 1.9%
Franklin 148 107 67 12 215 119 334 9.8 3.2%
Fulton 64 13 142 37 206 50 256 6.6 3.4%
Genesee 169 61 99 34 268 95 363 8.3 2.0%
Greene 225 96 143 18 368 114 482 12.8 2.5%
Hamilton 7 6 2 9 6 15 3.4 0.6%
Herkimer 193 95 138 32 331 127 458 10.2 2.5%
Jefferson 697 394 111 35 808 429 1,237 16.7 3.9%
Kings 30 33 22,865 15,731 22,895 15,764 38,659 39.3 13.3%
Lewis 151 93 18 15 169 108 277 15.1 4.3%
Livingston 87 54 202 59 289 113 402 9.0 1.8%
Madison 342 69 198 97 540 166 706 14.4 5.0%
Monroe 1,083 869 920 820 2,003 1,689 3,692 7.1 2.8%
Montgomery 128 55 160 14 288 69 357 9.7 2.4%
Nassau 1,729 981 4,257 1,054 5,986 2,035 8,021 7.8 2.6%
New York 319 220 18,917 18,532 19,236 18,752 37,988 50.7 12.9%
Niagara 434 247 605 130 1,039 377 1,416 8.9 3.3%
Oneida 847 337 766 189 1,613 526 2,139 13.4 3.9%
Onondaga 1,244 811 1,212 613 2,456 1,424 3,880 11.9 4.3%
Ontario 282 176 344 153 626 329 955 11.5 4.1%
Orange 1,217 744 1,824 866 3,041 1,610 4,651 18.2 3.7%
Orleans 34 39 34 24 68 63 131 4.5 2.2%
Oswego 590 238 144 65 734 303 1,037 12.2 4.2%
Otsego 304 164 58 10 362 174 536 12.4 3.3%
Putnam 285 162 384 205 669 367 1,036 13.0 4.0%
Queens 445 295 18,650 13,445 19,095 13,740 32,835 29.0 13.3%
Rensselaer 793 340 422 212 1,215 552 1,767 15.4 5.2%
Richmond 351 198 3,229 2,581 3,580 2,779 6,359 20.9 8.4%
Rockland 627 225 1,179 438 1,806 663 2,469 11.6 4.2%
Saratoga 542 239 388 292 930 531 1,461 8.2 3.5%
Schenectady 447 233 338 106 785 339 1,124 10.2 3.7%
Schoharie 138 37 25 6 163 43 206 9.7 2.7%
Schuyler 24 4 19 16 43 20 63 4.4 1.6%
Seneca 217 114 96 25 313 139 452 18.9 3.6%
St. Lawrence 633 426 105 50 738 476 1,214 16.6 5.1%
Steuben 802 292 120 117 922 409 1,331 18.7 3.7%
Suffolk 1,422 856 4,960 2,574 6,382 3,430 9,812 8.8 4.3%
Sullivan 429 142 114 31 543 173 716 12.9 2.8%
Tioga 104 57 96 34 200 91 291 7.5 2.4%
Tompkins 309 156 134 84 443 240 683 10.8 4.4%
Ulster 768 1,187 592 307 1,360 1,494 2,854 20.9 4.8%
Warren 132 101 296 97 428 198 626 12.0 3.4%
Washington 63 16 131 97 194 113 307 7.1 2.5%
Wayne 508 236 129 97 637 333 970 13.9 4.3%
Westchester 1,612 903 4,406 2,719 6,018 3,622 9,640 14.5 5.4%
Wyoming 32 33 100 56 132 89 221 7.5 2.1%
Yates 11 9 15 26 9 35 2.1 0.9%
New York State 28,504 15,999 103,629 68,759 132,133 84,758 216,891 18.6 6.2%
NYC 1,155 754 70,871 54,252 72,026 55,006 127,032 35.0 12.1%
Outside NYC 27,349 15,245 32,758 14,507 60,107 29,752 89,859 11.2 3.7%
*State = Park, State, Thruway, Transit, University *Local = City, County, Town, Tribal, Village
