SAN FRANCISCO, Jan. 18, 2018 /PRNewswire/ — Zendrive, the world’s largest and fastest-growing mobile driver analytics platform, today announced the results of its Bay Area Commute Safety Snapshot, which measured phone use and aggressive driving across the San Francisco Bay Area. Based on nearly 22 million driving miles analyzed, the Snapshot found that driving during the lunch hour is more dangerous than either the morning or evening rush hour periods, and that the Golden Gate Bridge is the safest among the Bay Area’s five major bridges.

The first in an upcoming series of Zendrive Snapshots measuring driving behavior in regions around the country, the Bay Area Snapshot measured 1,250,000 trips by 100,000 drivers in November 2017. The Snapshot focused on 62 routes going to and from San Francisco, including I-280, which it determined was more dangerous than U.S. 101.

“Commuters use their smartphones all day, and on the road, doing what they believe makes them more efficient multi-taskers,” said Jonathan Matus, CEO of Zendrive. “But that has resulted in some of the riskiest driving behavior. Crashes and car-related fatalities are at an all-time high, in large part because of distracted driving. Our safety snapshot finds that using your phone while driving can have hazardous results. We hope to shed light on how widespread risky driving has become, and to help break hard-working commuters of these driving habits.”

Among the study’s other key findings:

• For morning commutes (6 a.m. to 11 a.m.), the Golden Gate bridge is the safest bridge; the San Mateo Bridge overall is the most dangerous.
• Lunch-hour driving (11 a.m.-2 p.m.) is riskier than rush hour driving for either the morning or evening commute. More than 50 percent of the routes are riskier during lunch hour.

“Smartphone technology is enabling so much growth, but distracted driving is a serious problem,” says First Round Capital Partner Bill Trenchard. “I see drivers looking down at their phones all the time during my weekly commute. That’s why I’m so excited about Zendrive and the data they’ve collected, which will help modify this behavior and make our streets safer for everyone.”

Zendrive’s distracted driver behavior study released in April 2017 found that Americans use their phones 88 percent of the time they get behind the wheel. From 2015 to 2016, there was a 14 percent rise in traffic deaths – the biggest increase in 50 years – with distracted driving being a major contributor, according to experts.

Zendrive uses the sensors in smartphones to measure and analyze driver behavior in real-time. With more than 50 billion miles analyzed (and counting), Zendrive’s ability to predict collisions is up to six times more accurate than the auto insurance industry’s leaders, according to leading actuarial firm Milliman.

For this study, Zendrive aggregated and anonymized 100,000 individual Bay Area drivers, commuting to and from San Francisco, throughout the day during the month of November 2017. The study was based on the following driving behaviors: phone use (handheld, hands-free; texting/emailing; and physically engaging with a phone while the vehicle is moving), rapid acceleration, speeding, and hard braking.

To view how each major Bay Area highway and commute route ranked according to driving behavior, Zendrive has created this easy-to-embed interactive map at https://www.zendrive.com/commute/

Other findings revealed by Zendrive:

• Bay Area bridge with the riskiest commute: San Mateo Bridge
• Worst commute time: 11 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Best commute time: 6-7 a.m.
• Worst route: I-280, all directions (with nearly 3x as much speeding as U.S. 101)
• Best route: Oakland to San Francisco, I-580W (U.S. 101 is safest overall, with four of the five safest routes)

About Zendrive
Founded in 2013, Zendrive is the world’s largest and fastest-growing mobile Driver Analytics platform. By using artificial intelligence to analyze more than 50 billion miles of driving behavior data, Zendrive offers powerful insights to deliver unparalleled visibility into safety and risk exposure for insurers, fleets, everyday drivers, and even city planners. The company is headquartered in San Francisco and is venture funded by a group of investors led by Sherpa Capital, First Round Capital, BMW i Ventures, NYCA Partners and Fontinalis. For more information about Zendrive, visit www.zendrive.com, and follow @zendrive on Twitter.

For more information, please contact:
Mark de la Viña
Consort Partners for Zendrive
press@zendrive.com
415-282-4795

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SOURCE Zendrive