Don’t use your cell phone while driving, and tell everyone you know not to do it, either. Pester your state/federal representatives to support the ban. If you think “I’m able to talk on the phone and drive safely at the same time,” well, you are kidding yourself.
But a large body of research now shows that a hands-free phone poses no less danger than a hand-held one — that the problem is not your hands but your brain.
“It’s not that your hands aren’t on the wheel,” said David Strayer, director of the Applied Cognition Laboratory at the University of Utah and a leading researcher on cellphone safety. “It’s that your mind is not on the road.”
Now Dr. Strayer’s research has gained a potent ally. On Monday, the National Safety Council, the nonprofit advocacy group that has pushed for seat belt laws and drunken driving awareness, called for an all-out ban on using cellphones while driving.
Laboratory experiments using simulators, real-world road studies and accident statistics all tell the same story: drivers talking on a cellphone are four times as likely to have an accident as drivers who are not. That’s the same level of risk posed by a driver who is legally drunk.
I agree completely with this. Study after study has shown that driving while talking on the cell phone is a detriment to people’s ability to drive safely.
However, it’s going to be a big up-hill battle with this, cause people have become SO attached to this way of life and behaviour. There will be vehemous opposition from many people and groups to passing legislation to stop cell phone use while driving. My sense is that they have waited way too long to get in the game on this and people now feel that it’s their personal right to talk as much as they want on the phone in the car. My guess is that this thread will be very long, hotly debated and be surprisingly, 50/50 for/against.
I am currently reading an outstanding book called “Traffic - Why we drive the way we do”, and it makes very strong case for banning cell phone use in a car while driving.
Anecdotally, I have had a very good record while riding my bike with minimal incidents while riding. In the last two years, the only two close calls that I have had (while I was following directly the rules of the road) where with drivers yacking on their cell phones who did not see me at all. Had I not taken evasive action, it could have been quite bad. Both incidents appeared to shake the drivers up a bit, because I was literally right in their field of view( or should have been) and they did not see me at all!
I say ban their use. I have got into the habit of turning my cell phone off while driving. That’s what voice-mail is for.
I guess I dont care either way. BUT, i think there is a flaw in the logic. If it is not the cell phone itself, hands free or not, its the conversation. Therefore, for safety’s sake, the ban must be on conversation. So drivers should not be allows to talk at all, even to other passengers while driving?
Besides, out of all the things that distract divers, there are a bunch others that seem more dangerous, like eating, putting on make up, reading, etc. I have seen all of this.
Its the distraction that is the problem. Perhaps there should be a more basic rule, like, “the driver must be paying atttention to driving, if ANYTHING distracts them and makes them dangerous, it is against the law.” But I figure that would fall under reckless or such. I dont know. That way we are punishing the bad drivers equally.
More laws are not going to make people less stupid.
Did you read the article? There is a fundamental difference between talking on a cell phone and other activities such as conversing with a passenger or listening to the radio (emphasis added):
The studies show that cellphone conversations are highly distracting compared with other speaking and listening activities in the car.
One might think that listening to talk radio or an audio book would degrade driving skill; it does not. (A quiz after the driving test confirmed that the drivers were really paying attention to the programs.)
Likewise, it is easy to equate talking to a friend on a cellphone with talking to a friend in the passenger seat. But a December report in The Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied debunked that notion. Utah researchers put 96 drivers in a simulator, instructing them to drive several miles down the road and pull off at a rest stop. Sometimes the drivers were talking on a hands-free cell phone, and sometimes they were chatting with a friend in the next seat.
Nearly every driver with a passenger found the rest stop, in part because the passenger often acted as an extra set of eyes, alerting the driver to the approaching exit. But among those talking on the cellphone, half missed the exit.
Your response is indicative of part of the problem: people just don’t understand how seriously cell phone talking hinders brain activity crucial to safe driving.
I guess I dont care either way. BUT, i think there is a flaw in the logic. If it is not the cell phone itself, hands free or not, its the conversation. Therefore, for safety’s sake, the ban must be on conversation. So drivers should not be allows to talk at all, even to other passengers while driving?
WRONG!!!
Studies have also shown that the big problem with cell phones … specifically as opposed to conversations with other occupants of the vehicle … is that the people at the other end of the cell phone line do not have “situational awareness.” They don’t know if you’re in heavy traffic, about to pass through a dangerous intersection, whatever. Other occupants in a car with you are much more situationally aware and know when to leave the driver alone to focus.
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**I’m sorry but I oppose state enfored restriction of choice in almost all cases. Safety is no excuse. **
I wonder how your view of this would change if you’d been run over by a teenage driver who was talking on a cell phone … as I’ve been. I wonder how your view would change if you’d spent the months in painful rehab that I have. I participate here on a triathlon forum only as a time trialist and relay pariticpant because I can’t run anymore and I’m very lucky to be able to walk … because we allow our least experienced drivers to drive with the distraction of cell phones and one of them decided to hang an unsignaled left hand turn at speed and took me out head-on. I lost 9 months of my life (worse, actually … went through 9 months of hell) because someones stupid phone conversation couldn’t wait for a more appropriate time. This nonsense must be stopped.
I am sorry for your experience with getting run over. Really. I have been too (a couple of times). I have spent my time in rehab, missing race seasons, vacations with my family, lying on the couch in pain when I could be a productive member of the world. I will never be the same. A lady who hit me was looking for a store and did not know where she was going. Should we ban people driving to places that they do know know exactly? It would absolutely be safer!
I am not against the ban. I think it will make the streets safer. My point is there will always be idiots driving. It will never be safe.
Besides, out of all the things that distract divers, there are a bunch others that seem more dangerous, like eating, putting on make up, reading, etc. I have seen all of this.
OK … lets go to this quote. I sat at an intersection recently near the Gwinett County Airport outside of Atlanta and, as I waited for the light to change, I started counting the cars where the drivers were talking on cell phones. I stopped when I’d counted 50 cars and 34 of the drivers were using cell phones (and that’s not counting the drivers who may have been using hands-free devices where I couldn’t tell). I saw one lady combing her hair. I didn’t see a single person eating or reading.
We do not have an epidemic of Big Mac-eating drivers. We do not have an epidemic of make-up-applying drivers. WE HAVE AN EPDIDEMIC OF CELL-PHONE-DISTRACTED DRIVERS!!!
Good point. It is very pervasive. It’s got out of hand. It needs to be reigned in.
I have done a similar poll either driving or standing on the side of the road. The thought that first comes to mind is, what on earth are all these people talking about and who are they talking to. There must be a lot of very big VIP’s, well connected and extraordinarily busy people out there, dealing with mission critical issues on a minute to minute basis - much more than I thought.
I work in a very customer focussed job. I am very well connected, and I am very busy - but that does not preclude me from focussing completely on driving when driving the car. I turn my cell phone off, when I am in the car now. I’ll deal with the calls when I get out of the car.
what on earth are all these people talking about and who are they talking to.
From what I’ve overheard in restaurants or the grocery store, they’re like episodes of Seinfeld. They’re about NOTHING. Mostly, they’re status reports.
“I’m about to pull into the dry cleaner right now … there’s some old bald guy in the car next to me giving me the evil eye … I guess he doesn’t like people talking on the phone when they drive. Ooops. I guess I better go. I think I might have just hit something.”
what on earth are all these people talking about and who are they talking to.
From what I’ve overheard in restaurants or the grocery store, they’re like episodes of Seinfeld. They’re about NOTHING. Mostly, they’re status reports.
What boggles my mind is seeing people driving while talking on the cell phone at 5:00 AM.
Steve…sure sure you dont use your phone. Now, how are you going to handle the battle of sneezing while driving? You know how many accidents are caused by sneezing at the wheel…
Like there was an uphill battle with the use of Seat Belts when it became a law…taking away choice, blah blah blah.
Sometimes a decision is made due to a need and though there is opposition, it still winds up being a good idea in the end. With a seat belt, those who choose not to follow are really only endangering themselves. With a cell phone, the idiot that almost sideswiped me because he was yammering away (or the guy that did him my boyfriend/cop becuase he was texting) endangers the other “innocent” drivers on the road who are paying attention. Thus, the talkers are actually more in line with the drunks.
That being said, I’m not a huge fan of the ban, but I think there should be personal accountability. Sometimes, though it might not be a good idea to us personally, it might be a good idea for society.
First, I agree with the earlier poster about the book Traffic, it is fascinating and a fun read.
Now onto more serious commentary. First, there is a reason we have laws in society. And, second driving is a privalege not a right. It is nowhere to be found in the constitution and the purpose of a civilized society is all about passing laws to promote the general good. If you take the “libertarian’s” logic fully to its conclusion get rid of speed limits, stop lights, stop signs, etc. and have true ‘democratic’ driving. Oh yeah, that would be anarchy. The same can be said in many other arenas.
I am all for zero phone use in cars as the case is compelling. Add to that people who thumb their Blackberries. A great way to get this started is to refuse to talk to people who call me from their cars, which we do. It can wait.