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Top Cellphone-While-Driving Roads Identified

Roads with the highest observed cell phone use from commercial drivers in 2018 were located in the Los Angeles port complex, Tennessee's second largest city of Memphis, and Irving, Texas, according to a new study by video telematics and analytics provider Lytx.

February 25, 2019
Top Cellphone-While-Driving Roads Identified

The roads with the highest cellphone use among drivers included the Los Angeles port complex (shown), according to a Lytx study.

Photo via Hyfen/Wikimedia.

2 min to read


Roads with the highest observed cell phone use by commercial drivers in 2018 were located in the Los Angeles port complex, Tennessee's second largest city of Memphis, and Irving, Texas, according to a new study by video telematics and analytics provider Lytx.

The study reveals the top 10 stretches of road where Lytx observed the most driver cell phone use. Based on Lytx client data from around the country, the study identifies half square-mile road segments that had the highest volume of observed cell phone use behind the wheel last year. To arrive at its findings, Lytx studied telematics data from public and private fleets in the trucking, waste, transit, government, construction, and field services industries.

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The intersection of Compress Drive and South Lauderdale Street in Memphis leads the way followed by Ferry Street and CA-47 at the Los Angeles port complex. TX-482-SPUR W near Century Center Boulevard in Irving ranks third, while a second area of Memphis — East Homes Road and Lamar Avenue — takes fourth place.

Other areas of the country that ranked among the top 10 for containing roads with the highest driver cell phone use include the Port of Los Angles; Edison, N.J; Hutchins, Texas; the Port of Long Beach, Calif.; Las Vegas; and Bloomington, Calif.

The study also identified the top five riskiest half square-mile road stretches of 2018 in each of the five most populated U.S. states — California, Illinois, Florida, New York and Texas.

The majority of concentrated risk fell in high-density areas, including cities, ports, and road stretches with interchanges or on/off ramps, where there are a high volume of merging vehicles and overall activity, note the study authors.

Specifically, the data indicates areas of Long Beach, Calif.; New York City; and Berkeley, Ill. have the riskiest roads of the top five populous states in the nation.

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Drivers who use handheld cell phones while driving are around 50% more likely to get into a collision within 90 days than drivers who do not, according to Lytx.

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