DukeBoy27

Yes, the study was not even done in US, stats lie, I suck etc. etc...

But please put this in consideration the next time you pick up the phone on the freeway, and talk to family members and friends who do talk. The cell phone industry is so powerful in the US I doubt any lawmaker dares to raise the issue on a national, even state, level... and the only way to stop the insanity will be word of mouth. Mnay of us here are responsible, sensible, driver... so please pass the word on.

CNN Article

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/07/12/cells.drivers/index.html

de (-eeez_nutz)

Eating. Applying makeup. Fumbling with CDs. Yelling at the kids. Double-taking the hot blonde coming out of the coffee shop. Getting a bj from the significant other.

Mica

Add shifting gears to that list.

DukeBoy27

Eating should definitely be a no-no on the road as well. But from a biological perspective, talking on the cell is extremely dangerous since it is the most common activity that takes up nearly all of your attention. Studies have equated talking on the cell to driving while falling asleep, or that the response time of an average 25 yr. old talking on the cell drops beyond the response time of a 80 yr. old, etc. etc.

Applying makeup is equally stupid, but then again, women are better at multi-tasking, haha. Changing the CD is not something that requires constant attention, and listening to music actually improves driving skills in some studies (although heavily disputed). Yelling at kids may be necessary. Your cell phone, on the other hand, will not demand your attention if you shut it off - you can't shut kids off (unfortunately).

Checking out hot chicks... well, I am guilty of that 200%, so I will leave that alone.

Getting a BJ may be more distracting that talking on the cell, but c'mon, like how often does that happen?

There is a good reason why cell phone usage has been singled out in many recent studies... it is the only activity that is wide-spread and requires almost complete attention. I have friends who would argue that it does not take up that much attention... my response to that is - if it is not taking up your attention, it is not important, so hang up the phone.

Now, I am not saying NO cell phone usage whatsoever. If you have to dial to your boss telling him/her that you are late, or get an international call from your mom (I get that once in a while, from MY mom, of course, you wise-***), that is fine. This is also why I think this activity would be very hard to monitor. So rather than relying on traffic enforcement (which is hopeless as it is), it is really up to each individual to correct this habit and encourage others to do so as well.

starting ...

there are laws in effect in some places

michael-stanton

...between talking to your passenger and talking to someone on the phone, provided it's hands-free (which the article seems to be talking about). Or listening to the radio (news, reports etc.), for that matter.

I am convinced that which matters most is the subject of the conversation - a simple "I'll be late" or the like are certainly less distracting than, say, instructing a colleague on how to fix the computer outage at your company.

Besides: (from the article)

The CTIA contends that following these guidelines can minimize risk:

- Do not take notes while driving.

Umm... if you use a hands-free kit while driving for the purpose of being able to take NOTES, I guess you've missed an important point. For those who've missed it: the point of a hands-free kit is being able to keep your hands ON THE WHEEL while talking on the phone.

Which leads me to the next point: anything you hold in your hand while driving will definitely slow down your reactions. A simple example: if you're holding a can of coke in your hand, you'll be reluctant to pull the wheel around and thus spill the contents of the can over the seat. So you'll hesitate for a moment. Same goes for dropping a burger, cell phone or burning cigarette - which is why I think just banning cell phones while driving is not going far enough.

The ban should be extended to anything you hold in your hand for an extended period of time while driving. I'm not talking about pushing a CD into the drive, but about things like:
- eating and drinking
- smoking
- shaving (sic! seen that before)
- applying make-up
- and you-name-it.

On the other hand, if hands-free phone calls are considered too dangerous for the driver, the same would go for listening to the radio (which means: ban car radios) or talking to the passenger (which means what? ban passengers? require everyone to tape their mouths shut if more than one person is in the car?) - and these are just the CONTROLLABLE mental distractions for the driver. There would still be no way to stop people from driving when they're angry, worried, in love, tired, under pressure or otherwise being kept from focusing on driving.

DukeBoy27

Don't think any state/region has that kind of laws yet.

starting ...

I may be wrong about NJ

DukeBoy27

I recommend an experiment for you. Talk to someone in your room and play a video game vs. talking on the phone and play a video game. Assuming level/interest of conversation and all else being equal, I would hypothesize that you will score less in the video game while talking on the phone.

The reason is quite simple really. Cell phones do not tranmit voice as well as, say, air. While the brain automatically compensate for the difference and you still understand both form of conversation, there is additional attention required over cell phone for you to understand the words over static and other sound distortions.

Take this sentence

i lv AW, it my fav Cvr f0rum 0N 7he nEtt

You can still understand the sentence even when it does not make any sense literally. But it will surely take more attention from you to read it versus-

I love AudiWorld, it is my favorite car forum on the internet.

Subject of course, does matter. A conversation in astrophysics would probably take up more attention than say, what's for dinner. But there is already a great lack in attention due to talking on the cell, so the subject being discuss really foes not make that much more of a difference. In addition, if it is just to say "hi" and generally things of non-significance, why talk at all? It is only a decade or so ago when vitually no one was using a cell phone, there was no need for it back then, and there is really no need for it now.

Hands-free kit does not really help reduce the amount of attention required. Most people can operate a car perfectly with one hand. The danger is still the act of speaking on the phone, hands-free or not.

Again, I am also an advocate of not doing anything when you are driving other then, well, driving. I also think eating, putting on makeup etc. etc. is very dangerous. However, the reason why cell phone usage is often the target of investigation is that it takes up far too much attention... and competes directly with one's ability to drive.

Also an important issue is that of choice. We can't choose our mood, since mood is often cause by things out of our control. We also do not have a choice to our passengers sometime. But we can choose to talk on the phone or not, we can choose not to pick it up when it rings, we can even choose to shut it off when we are driving. Make the right choice, and that is difference.