Electric-Mayhem
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- May 16, 2005
- Messages
- 967
- Location
- Denver, CO
- Car(s)
- Subaru WRX Wagon, Toyota Pickup Rock Crawler
First off, I'll say that reporting this in a newspaper is really stupid, and I certainly don't think there should be laws against this (I tend to have a rather non regulist attitude about stuff though).
That said though, there have been psychological tests done (sorry, no refrences on this, but I do remember talking about it in Gen Psych classes) about cell phones and driving, and its pretty interesting how much they make a difference in attention paid. The compared it to many things like having passengers, setting the radio, etc and found that for some reason, talking to someone on the phone takes much more attention off the road then most other "multi-tasking" things you do while driving.
So its not so much that you don't have both hands on the wheel, and more that your brain typically focuses more on the talking part and less on the driving part. Its like the driving becomes the secondary task over talking on the phone. My own personal experience mirrors this as well, as I have many more close calls when talking on my cell then doing anything else (this coming from a guy who watches movies on long road trips). I do try to minimize time spent talking and generally tend to answer only to say I'll call them back. Legality aside, you really are putting yourself at higher risk of getting in an accident with this, so from a personal moral standpoint, its pretty clear that you should minimize it. Obviously its your personal choice and I'm never one to force anything on anyone, but it never hurts to give a viewpoint and let people make their own decisions based upon it.
Oh, and for some reason, they found hands free devices to be much less distracting then holding the handset. Something about it being more like talking to a passenger or the like. So if you really do need to talk on the phone extensively while driving, I recommend a blue tooth headset or earbud or something.
Additionally, Mythbusters did an episode on the premise that people say that talking on a cell phone is about as bad as drunk driving, and did a test on it. As I recall, it was pretty close to the same comparing driving just over the legal blood/alcohol limit and talking on a cell phone. Food for thought I suppose.
JH
That said though, there have been psychological tests done (sorry, no refrences on this, but I do remember talking about it in Gen Psych classes) about cell phones and driving, and its pretty interesting how much they make a difference in attention paid. The compared it to many things like having passengers, setting the radio, etc and found that for some reason, talking to someone on the phone takes much more attention off the road then most other "multi-tasking" things you do while driving.
So its not so much that you don't have both hands on the wheel, and more that your brain typically focuses more on the talking part and less on the driving part. Its like the driving becomes the secondary task over talking on the phone. My own personal experience mirrors this as well, as I have many more close calls when talking on my cell then doing anything else (this coming from a guy who watches movies on long road trips). I do try to minimize time spent talking and generally tend to answer only to say I'll call them back. Legality aside, you really are putting yourself at higher risk of getting in an accident with this, so from a personal moral standpoint, its pretty clear that you should minimize it. Obviously its your personal choice and I'm never one to force anything on anyone, but it never hurts to give a viewpoint and let people make their own decisions based upon it.
Oh, and for some reason, they found hands free devices to be much less distracting then holding the handset. Something about it being more like talking to a passenger or the like. So if you really do need to talk on the phone extensively while driving, I recommend a blue tooth headset or earbud or something.
Additionally, Mythbusters did an episode on the premise that people say that talking on a cell phone is about as bad as drunk driving, and did a test on it. As I recall, it was pretty close to the same comparing driving just over the legal blood/alcohol limit and talking on a cell phone. Food for thought I suppose.
JH
