City of Evanston Moves Forward on Distracted Driving Ordinance

The New Year is off to a great start for vulnerable road users concerned about drivers whose growing use of mobile phones for communication, email and text messaging put themselves and others at risk. In fact, 80% of all crashes are related to driver inattention and this risk is only growing as the technology of mobile devices expands.

On Tuesday, January 5, 2010 the Human Services Committee of Evanston passed Ordinance 3-O-10 which proposes to expand the Evanston City Code to ban the use of cell phones while driving. The ordinance will now move to Evanston’s City Council for final consideration. Active Trans assisted in this effort by presenting data and regional context during the Committee session to advocate for the passing of the ordinance.

Kudos to the Evanston community and Alderman Jane Grover for being at the forefront of this growing movement to curb distracted driving and the expanding use of mobile phones while driving. Hopefully this ordinance will be put officially into the city’s code and serve as an example for other Chicagoland communities!