NEW YORKERS IGNORE PHONE BAN:

New York drivers hung up their cell phones for a while when the state banned them three years ago but are back to using hand-held models at nearly the same rate they were before the ban, a study shows. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety attributed the behavior mostly to a lack of publicity, a possible warning to the other states and cities considering similar bans. “If you look at the experiences with other laws in highway safety like seat belt and drunk driving laws, what seems to make a difference in the long-term is publicized enforcement,” said the institute’s Anne McCartt. The institute found the rate of New York drivers chatting on cell phones declined from 2.3 percent before the law went into effect to 1.1 percent in the first few months after the law was passed. By March 2003, a year after the law took full effect, the rate had risen to 2.1 percent. McCartt said there was a flurry of advertisements during the implementation of the New York ban, but publicity has since dwindled. She also said that while cell phone citations made up 2 percent of all traffic violations in 2002, there was no targeted enforcement such as seat belt checkpoints to ticket drivers who ignore the law. In 2001, New York became the first state to prohibit drivers from talking on hand-held devices while operating a motor vehicle. Since then, New Jersey and Washington, D.C., have passed cell phone bans.