If you’re driving right now, it’s far more likely you are reading this on your phone than you would have been a year ago.
Despite a harrowing surge in traffic fatalities, American drivers appear to be getting worse at avoiding Instagram, e-mail and other mobile-phone distractions while driving. More people are using their phones at the wheel, and for longer periods of time, according to a study published Tuesday from Zendrive, a San Francisco-based startup that tracks phone use for auto insurers and ride-hailing fleets.
“As you have more young drivers on the road, and as people increasingly become addicted to their smartphones, it will continue being a major health issue — almost an epidemic — in this country,” said Zendrive founder Jonathan Matus.
From December through February, Zendrive technology monitored 4.5 million drivers who traveled 7.1 billion miles, comparing the results with the year-earlier period. Roughly two out of three of those people used a mobile phone at least once. Among those who picked up their phones, they used them for an average of almost four minutes — a 5 percent increase from last year.