If you are smart enough to press the keys, you should be smart enough to know that texting while driving is just plain stupid.
Agreed - but I think there's a common attitude that "everyone else" is bad at driving while texting, but "I'm special and can do it". Sometimes we need a study like this to really hammer the point home that this impacts EVERYONE...and there aren't many people that are more skilled at driving than professional truck drivers.
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Indeed. I have a hands-free Bluetooth system in my new GMC Acadia, which I was excited about because it meant not reaching for my phone when it rang while I was driving. I make and receive very few calls when I'm driving, but I'm quite interested in the studies that talk about distracted driving. Here's a similar article on NYT:
I find that when I'm talking on the phone while driving - hands free or not - I have what I call a "distracted conversation". Meaning I'm so focused on the road that I don't say a lot during the call and frequently ask people to repeat things. I *feel* like I'm heavily focused on the road, and the conversation is lower on my priority list, but maybe I'm just fooling myself and I'm just as distracted as anyone else?
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Thats fine -- but I certainly hope it doesn't lead to people thinking its OK to talk on the phone instead of texting because it's "less dangerous"
But isn't that what the article shows? That it's significantly less dangerous? That doesn't mean it's not increasing your chances of an accident, but on a scale of most to least dangerous distractions, texting is really high, and talking is much lower. I think cell phone use should be minimized as much as possible when driving - heaven knows I've had to move
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Originally Posted by burtcom
As for education -- I think we should have to repeat a driving test, written and behind-the-wheel, everytime we go for a renewal.
I've thought about that myself, but I wonder if the cost to society would be too high? By that I mean that there are a lot of bad drivers on the road (let's say 25% of all drivers) and if they lost their ability to drive, what would happen to jobs, families, the housing market, etc? It would have a massive impact on society as a whole...I wonder if it would be worth it?
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I think a better solution is to adopt what Europe already has: mandatory classes in order to get your license in the first place. These classes are serious and *expensive* (thousands of dollars).
I think mandatory classes are a great idea (I took some serious classes before I went for my test), but if they cost thousands of dollars, this becomes a rich vs. poor thing where only the rich can afford to drive - and I wouldn't support that.
I think part of the problem, in Canada at least, is the very lax test instructors and the ability for people be tested wherever they wish - it's common knowledge here that if you want to pass your driver's test easily, you get tested in one of the small towns outside Calgary. It's hard to screw up a driver's test in a town of 10,000 people with no lights and one stop sign. You should be REQUIRED to be tested in a complex, fast-moving city environment.
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The amazing thing is that we even need to have this conversation, and that we needed to spend $6 million to prove what any moron ought to be able to figure out with a moment's thought.
To be fair, the $6 million study was not necessarily to prove that it was more dangerous - it was to prove that it was more dangerous and to measure exactly how much more dangerous it is.
As for mandatory classes, we have that is Massachusetts for first time teenaged drivers. Not only is there mandatory driver's ed classroom instruction and in-car instruction, parents are also required to take a mandatory class in order for their children to get their license (or perhaps it is to get the permit - I can't recall which.)
Taking both hands off the wheel while driving isn't a good idea?
I don't know which is more stupid; the fact that people actually do this or that someone had to do research and then write an article to tell people that it wasn't a good idea.
I find that when I'm talking on the phone while driving - hands free or not - I have what I call a "distracted conversation". Meaning I'm so focused on the road that I don't say a lot during the call and frequently ask people to repeat things. I *feel* like I'm heavily focused on the road, and the conversation is lower on my priority list, but maybe I'm just fooling myself and I'm just as distracted as anyone else?
Well none of us can conduct the conversation and drive and not have it impair our ability to react to unexpected events. You'll either be largely neglecting the conversation or you'll be largely neglecting the driving. Most people do the latter. And that's another conversation altogether, where there shouldn't even be a debate about texting.
I completely disagree with burtcom that talking hands-free is as dangerous as texting. The studies do not bear that out nor does it make sense. That is not to say that talking hands-free is not dangerous (it tests out as being about as dangerous as driving while borderline intoxicated), but as least your hands are on the wheel and your eyes are on the road. Your mind is distracted, but that cannot be as bad as having hands off the wheel, eyes in your lap and mind distracted all at once. I must admit that I didn't even know texting while driving was an issue until I saw the NYT article last weekend that Jason posted the link to.
On doogald's comment, I'm not actually criticizing the people doing the study. I'm criticizing our society for being one in which enough people do this stupid thing so as to have made it an issue worth studying. I think the hands-free cell question is much more worth studying because it raises a lot of interesting questions about cognition like why discussions with a passenger don't show the same impairment and whether there is a difference based on the type of hands-free system used (in-ear vs audio sound system etc.).
There are studies about talking and driving already that show that it impairs you, and analysis of the data shows that hands-free does not appear to be any safer than handling the set.
1997 American study [2] and a 2005 Australian study [3] both estimated the risk of a collision when using a cellular telephone was four times higher than the risk when a cellular telephone was not being used. 699 and 456 drivers, respectively, who owned phones, were involved in crashes, and volunteered for the studies were examined. By collecting volunteers' cell phone records, scientists were able to determine who placed telephone calls shortly before the time of crash, and through case-crossover analysis (a technique often used in medical studies of heart-attacks and air pollution) of cell phone habits, calculated the increase in risk. Both studies found that hands-free devices were not considerably safer.
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Simulations are particularly useful for comparing cell phone use while driving with the known-dangerous drunk driving. A 2003 study by University of Utah Psychology department measured response time, following distance, and driving speed of a control group, subjects at the legal BAC limit of 0.08%, and subjects involved in cell phone conversations. Data from the report are listed to the right.
From the report:
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Drivers in the cell-phone condition exhibited a sluggish behavior (i.e., slower reactions) which they attempted to compensate for by increasing their following distance. Drivers in the alcohol condition exhibited a more aggressive driving style, in which they followed closer, necessitating braking with greater force.
After controlling for driving difficulty and time on task, the study concluded that cell phone drivers exhibited greater impairment than intoxicated drivers.
Texting is far, far more risky than talking on the phone, but both are still risky behaviors.
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