Majority of Americans Say Penalty for Texting While Driving Should Be Loss of Driver’s License

Majority of Americans Say Penalty for Texting While Driving Should Be Loss of Driver’s License

Atlanta, Ga. – January 6, 2011 – The new year ushered in new laws in some states banning texting while driving.

A Poll Position national scientific telephone survey found that the majority of Americans (50%) said people who are caught texting while driving should lose their driver’s license for a period of time, 38% said you should not lose your license for a period of time and 12% did not have an opinion.

Age groups differed by a large margin on the question. Young Americans in the 18-29 age group were not in favor of license loss with 52% against that kind of punishment, 39% were in favor and 10% offered no opinion.

In the 65 and over age group, 67% said you should lose your license for a period of time for texting while driving, 17% said you should not, 16% did not have an opinion.

Men and women also differed with 53% of women versus 47% of men said you should lose your license for texting while driving. Among women, 32% said you should not lose your license, 15% had no opinion. Among men, 44% said you should not lose your license for texting while driving and 9% did not have an opinion.

See a breakdown of survey participants by age, race, gender, and political affiliation in crosstabs for this poll at http://media.pollposition.com.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/Poll-Position-Crosstabs-Texting-and-driving.pdf.

Poll Position’s scientific telephone survey of 1,094 registered voters nationwide was conducted January 03, 2012 and has a margin of error of ±3%. Poll results are weighted to be a representative sampling of all American adults.

What do you think? Do you think that people who are caught texting while driving should lose their license for a period of time? Vote in the online companion poll and comment at http://pollposition.com/2012/01/05/lose-license-for-texting-while-driving/.

The online companion poll in which you can vote provides unscientific results, meaning it’s a tally of participating Poll Position users, not a nationally representative sampling.

Poll Position is committed to transparency and upholding the highest professional standards in its polling, explaining why we provide you with the crosstabs of our scientific polls. Crosstabs provide a breakdown of survey participants by age, race, gender, and political affiliation.

Learn more about Poll Position’s polling methodology at http://pollposition.com/2011/09/26/our-polling-methodology/.