Cell Phone Use while Driving

[sba55]

I already drive slower than most of the traffic, use my blinkers,stop more slowly so I don't have to replace the brakes as often, and stop short of the white line to stay clear of pedestrians unseen anyway... And I'd say 50% of the cars I see don't use their blinkers cell phones or not.
I do use the phone in the car, but I'm straight down highways for 65% of my drive everyday, and also have a few 20 mph zones (not schools) in addition to that. Like the previous poster said, drive, navigate, talk, and most all is well. Texting = BAD idea.

Ryan

I drive faster - sometimes much faster, especially when it's a curvy road - than most traffic since I'm not interested in spending any more time than necessary in the car. I also don't use my signals much - only when it makes sense to use them. And I'm not any more distracted and certainly not any slower when I'm talking on the phone. I've also written my shares of emails, texts, etc. while driving. But, none of that matters. Some people can drive well even when they're multitasking, and many others can't drive no matter what they're doing.

In 10 years of driving and more than 160,000 miles, I haven't had a single accident or come close to having one. That's because I do pay attention to the things that matter - I always have at least 6 car lengths to the next car on the highway, I never tailgate (incidentally, the #1 cause of accidents on the highway), if someone tailgates me I take the added time I will need to allow for to come to a stop into consideration and keep more distance to the car in front, I know what ABS is and how to use it, I know what understeer and oversteer and snap oversteer are and how to handle them, and I _can_ successfully navigate a road at 55 mph that 99% of drivers feel uncomfortable with at 35 mph.

I don't care if I'm a better driver. I do know, however, that 99% of the drivers out there don't know any of the above and most of them have had accidents.

-Felix

 

[OffCenter]

If that's all you saw, you were lucky.

My favorite was the guy with the cell phone, the legal pad, the newspaper draped over the wheel, and the beverage. He was doing about 85, too.

Twice, I have had cars come UP the OFF ramp, directly against traffic.

99% of people think they are above average drivers.

No, that wasn't all I saw by a long shot! I could write a book on the things I saw during that short stint as a truck driver.
I had two different people put on their directional signals and change lanes right into the side of my truck! (both of 'em bounced right off the those big drive wheels)
I had two that tried to cut me off to beat me to an exit ramp....and lost! Pulling a tanker loaded with gasoline, I wouldn't swerve or make any sudden moves for anyone. Both of them ended up off the road 'cause they couldn't stop fast enough.
I had three that hit me and then ran.
My police officer brother says the number of people out there with no licenses or no insurance is staggering. That's probably why they ran.
I saw plenty of 'em with books or newspapers on the steering wheel going down the road.
And then there were the...uh....sexual activities.

 

[NC Pilot]

There have been many studies that show that hands free isn't much better than handsets. The problem is not the physical holding of the phone... it is the phone call stealing the brains cycles.

So, what about having a conversation in the car with someone sitting next to you? Doesn't that consume the same number of brain cells.

 

[fgcason]

So, what about having a conversation in the car with someone sitting next to you? Doesn't that consume the same number of brain cells.

I'm of the opinion that it takes more brain power to talk with someone when you can't see them than when you can.
We conducted an communication experiment in the theatre one day while discussing lighting designs. It was based on a person using the same low voice volume level standing onstage and talking to a small audience in the house. The end results were that if you light their face, you can hear them easily. If you hide their face in shadow and light only their body, you can't hear them without concentrating. The darker their face, the more difficult it is to hear them. When you put the speaker in the dark and the audience in the light, the audience tends to (a) notice only the people around them and loses the conversation entirely, or (b) if the audience is deliberately trying to listen to the speaker, they lose nearly all situational awareness around them.

Observe people's behavior while on cellphones sometime. They can't see the person they're talking to and lose situational awareness. At a strip mall years ago I watched a guy having an intense conversation with his phone walk across a busy street without noticing the cars that stopped for him then he walk straight into a two foot wide concrete building support. He looked very confused about where the concrete support came from. He never saw the thing until he hit it.

Hang up and drive.

 

[Bob Noel]

I'm of the opinion that it takes more brain power to talk with someone when you can't see them than when you can.

Hopefully, when (the generic) you are driving you aren't looking
at the person your are talking to - so in that respect talking on
the phone and talking to the person next to you provides the
same level of distraction/effort.

Our ability to hear and understand speech improves when we
can see the person talking. We pick up subtle clues about the
words from looking at the person's mouth.

 

[gprellwitz]

I'm of the opinion that it takes more brain power to talk with someone when you can't see them than when you can.
We conducted an communication experiment in the theatre one day while discussing lighting designs. It was based on a person using the same low voice volume level standing onstage and talking to a small audience in the house. The end results were that if you light their face, you can hear them easily. If you hide their face in shadow and light only their body, you can't hear them without concentrating. The darker their face, the more difficult it is to hear them. When you put the speaker in the dark and the audience in the light, the audience tends to (a) notice only the people around them and loses the conversation entirely, or (b) if the audience is deliberately trying to listen to the speaker, they lose nearly all situational awareness around them.

Okay, but if you're using visual cues from the speaker while driving, then you're looking at the speaker, not at the road and traffic. With a hands-free device, your eyes, at least, can still be looking outside the car.

Observe people's behavior while on cellphones sometime. They can't see the person they're talking to and lose situational awareness. At a strip mall years ago I watched a guy having an intense conversation with his phone walk across a busy street without noticing the cars that stopped for him then he walk straight into a two foot wide concrete building support. He looked very confused about where the concrete support came from. He never saw the thing until he hit it.

Hang up and drive.

Yeah, but just as possible with two people talking animatedly to one another while walking, looking at one another rather than where they're going, as they walk right into a fire hydrant or something.

Either the driver is going to be looking outside the car, in which case the loss of SA with a passenger conversation would be comparable to on a cell phone, or is looking at the other person in the passenger seat or the rearview mirror, in which case it's probably actually worse.

 

[gismo]

I think there is some truth to the theory that talking on the phone is more distracting than talking to a live person sitting in the car and with a passenger in the car, there's at least some chance that they will notice a developing traffic situation and warn the driver, something that's gotta be pretty rare with cellphone conversations. That said, I do know that carrying on a serious conversation with a passenger while driving (or flying for that matter) can definitely distract the driver enough to increase the risk of an accident significantly and chances are either one (cell or local conversation) generates more statistical risk than the difference between the two.

IMO, what's needed in either case is the ability to resist the distraction and maintain a high level of concentration on the driving task. Heck, IME some drivers pay less attention to the traffic around them when they are alone sans cellphone or any other distraction than I try to do when I'm talking on the phone. FWIW I think that talking and driving has some close parallels to instrument flying where you must make keeping the plane right side at the proper altitude etc the #1 priority even though there are many other slightly less important tasks needing attention.

 

[cessna182b]

I think there is some truth to the theory that talking on the phone is more distracting than talking to a live person sitting in the car and with a passenger in the car, there's at least some chance that they will notice a developing traffic situation and warn the driver, something that's gotta be pretty rare with cellphone conversations. That said, I do know that carrying on a serious conversation with a passenger while driving (or flying for that matter) can definitely distract the driver enough to increase the risk of an accident significantly and chances are either one (cell or local conversation) generates more statistical risk than the difference between the two.

IMO, what's needed in either case is the ability to resist the distraction and maintain a high level of concentration on the driving task. Heck, IME some drivers pay less attention to the traffic around them when they are alone sans cellphone or any other distraction than I try to do when I'm talking on the phone. FWIW I think that talking and driving has some close parallels to instrument flying where you must make keeping the plane right side at the proper altitude etc the #1 priority even though there are many other slightly less important tasks needing attention.

I'd agree that talking on the phone is more distracting than "live". And it is true that a lot of people find it necessary to look at whomever they are conversing with. I've followed many a driver whose head was on a constant swivel as they drove. Some, of course, find it necessary to make hand gestures as well. Some people are able to divide their attention better than others. I'd like to think that as pilots we are better able to do so because we must - and therefore we practice at it every time we fly.

My own approach to using a cell phone while driving (still legal where I live) is to always pull off the road if I want to make a call. I will answer incoming calls if the traffic situation permits - and I keep calls short and to the point (either that or stop the car so I can give the call my undivided attention).

As an aside, I saw a humorous bit of prophesy on a church sign today:

Line 1: "Honk if you love Jesus"

Line 2: "Text if you want to meet him right now!"

Dave

 

[rottydaddy]

So, what about having a conversation in the car with someone sitting next to you? Doesn't that consume the same number of brain cells.

For whatever reason, I find it takes less concentration to have a conversation with someone in the vehicle... I still have my eyes on the road, so it's not the visual-cue thing... maybe it's because I can usually hear them more clearly, or something. There isn't a huge difference, though, and it depends on the conversation, definitely.

The more serious hazard with mobile use while driving is dialing, and of course, texting (reading as well as typing). And now that many mobiles are like little touch-screen computers... ugh. I see a lot of finger-scrolling these days, with the i-thingie up in front of the driver's face. Not good.
And there's all the other portable gadgets... I often use a TomTom during my work travels, and I have to be very careful about entering data while moving. It's much more challenging than simply having a conversation, although I'm getting better at dividing my attention properly.

But of course, many people just shouldn't do anything while driving, and most of the poeple within that group probably shouldn't be driving at all.

Seriously, though- we've all probably seen the "over-concentrated" driver: the ones who come to a screeching halt at every merge, even if there isn't so much as a yield sign... or the people who can't go over 30 mph in light rain. These people can be as dangerous as the nitwits who sail along at 80mph while doing their makeup or reading a newspaper.

 

[Gmaper]

Seriously, though- we've all probably seen the "over-concentrated" driver: the ones who come to a screeching halt at every merge, even if there isn't so much as a yield sign... or the people who can't go over 30 mph in light rain. These people can be as dangerous as the nitwits who sail along at 80mph while doing their makeup or reading a newspaper.

Very true but if I get tangled up with either I'd prefer the 30 mph choice. :wink2: