Public Opinion Concerning  Open Container Laws 
NHTSA’s most recent biennial National Survey of Drinking and Driving, conducted in 1999 by The Gallup Organization (Royal, 2000) included two questions concerning Open Container laws. The first question asked, “To the best of your knowledge, does your state have any law that makes it illegal to have an open container of alcohol inside a car while someone is driving?” The percentage of respondents who believed that their states had such laws ranged from a high of 95 percent to a low of 56 percent. Overall, 86 percent of the people surveyed believed their states to have Open Container laws, including a majority of those surveyed in states that did not have Open Container Laws at the time (i.e., 82% in CT, 76% in MS, 73% in LA, and 56% in WY).