Believe It Or Not, Quebec Has The Least Distracted Drivers In Canada — Alberta The Most

Almost half of us cruise down the road while glued to our smartphones, a new survey has found.

According to a report by Ratesdotca, 43% of Canadians admit to using their phones behind the wheel while 83% engage in distracted driving behaviour of one kind or another. 67% of respondents admitted to eating or drinking while driving. A dangerous minority (5%) admitted to watching videos.

"Distracted driving isn't just unsafe; it's costly, too. Not only is there the fine you may receive from police — there's also the toll this infraction can take on your auto insurance rate," states the report.

And while nobody would say Quebecers are the world's best drivers — just take a ride down rue Sherbrooke to confirm — it turns out we're the least distracted.

"Quebec saw the lowest percentage of people admitting to at least one activity on both the full list of distracted driving behaviours (73%) and the digital interactions list (36%)," states the report. "The province also ranked among the lowest in six out of nine distracted behaviours, particularly when it comes to technology-related actions like taking a video (3%), texting (9%), and checking messages while stopped at a traffic light (17%)."

Ratesdotca attributed this to "a recent road safety campaign initiated by the Sûreté du Québec and the distracted driving penalties already in place," but maybe it's also because the province is widely considered to have the worst roads in the country and we're too busy swerving around potholes to be checking our phones.

Conversely, in Alberta, it's straight-line driving over flat terrain for hours on end. So there's little wonder Albertans received the dubious distinction of being labelled the most inattentive drivers in the country with 90% of respondents admitting they drive distracted.

This article's cover image was used for illustrative purposes only.