By now, I think there isn't a person on the planet who hasn't heard one of the following, if not all of the following:
But yet people of all sorts still drive impaired. Why is that? It's because people overestimate their ability to drive, and thus overestimate how much ability is left after their attention is divided.
There are many ways a person can become an impaired driver. There's the obvious drunk driving. There's tired driving. There's talking-driving (no matter where your conversation partner is). There's kids-in-the-back-seat-fighting driving. There's adjusting your music driving (I know people who have been killed this way).There's hot-girl-on-the-side-of-the-road driving. There's just plain angry driving. And so on. When I learned to drive, nobody needed to tell me not to try to make pancakes while driving; we were told to give the road your attention and both hands on the wheel.
It's up to you to know, without fooling yourself, what your level of ability is. You folks who suck at driving are going to ruin it for the rest of us really talented people.
It's interesting me that there are bans on cell phones, but little interest in measuring the amount of impairment from some other things (exceptions for drunk and sleepy driving).
For drunk driving, we often view alcohol as a vice, so it get more than its share of attention. Not undeservedly in the case of impaired drivers, which are a serious problem. But sleepy driving is less stigmatizing, even though you can be just as dangerous.
In the case of cell phone driving, it's significant that you can often see a person with one hand to their ear. This is the telltale sign of a cell phone driver. And when this person cuts you off, it galls you even more than if they had just been some clueless Sunday driver.
It's interesting when a behavior can be embodied in a device or physical object. Or recognizable gesture, like the hand to the ear. It's like a place where language and technology cross each other.
Something happened to me today, reminding me that things are not always what they seem.
I was cut off by a man on his cell phone today, on Riverside Ave. while I was lugging kayaks. I was sensitive to being cut off, because I had the trailer on.
He proceeded to slow down far below the 30 MPH speed limit, so I got a good look at him with his hand to his ear. He was an older gentleman, and you don't usually see that type driving with cell phones, so I was surprised.
And then I noticed him take his hand away from his ear, and look at his phone. And then return it to his ear. And then look at it again.
And then I realized he wasn't holding a cell phone. He was digging in his ear. Every time he looked at his hand, he slowed down again. I tried to slow down so that I didn't have to watch this guy aggressively pick his ear, but his speed was too low at times. He went at it for around two miles.
It was pretty gross. I think I would have preferred if he'd been on a cell phone. I don't know if that's a moral or what, but there you go.
Posted by James at June 7, 2008 5:16 PMLOL!
I too am one of those people who despises cell-chatting drivers. I've seen a bumper sticker that I really want to put on my car. It says, "Hang up and drive."
Actually, I get cranky with people who are walking around chatting on their cellphones in public. If someone is worth your time to talk to, stop moving about and give them your undivided attention (and don't subject the rest of us to the dramas or mundanities you and your conversation partner are sharing.)
I hear you on the other forms of driver distraction. However, the cell phone thing is one that is much easier to identify.
Oh, and don't you just love it when people get in their cars in a parking lot and dial someone and START a conversation as they start a trip? It's bad enough for people to answer a call, that they might think could be important, while driving. It's another bit of idiotic hubris altogether to intentionally start driving a car while starting a phone conversation.
Of course, once I see these people I have my own driver distraction going (as you mentioned) driving angry. I usually just try to pass these idiots and get way far away from them. Sadly, I usually out distance one just to find another.
Posted by: Kitten Herder at June 8, 2008 12:36 AMWhat I always want to know is, what the fuck is so important that these folks have to be talking about while driving?
I have a theory that the overwhelming percentage of cell phone usage isn't even the emergency/convenience stuff ("I'm running 10 minutes late, cover for me" or "Honey, I'm going by the store is there anything we need") - its people who use the phone as a security blanket and cannot stand the idea of being alone with their own thoughts. So they just call whoever and gossip about whatever even when driving.
Posted by: David Grenier at June 8, 2008 6:28 AMI generally only talk on the cell phone while driving if it's for convenience or planning -- time sensitive stuff.
I have, in the past, called someone and talked to them (hands free) just as a way to recover the time during a commute. So what David suggests is probably true for some, or some variation. Or it's people who think they are recovering time.
Now I try to limit my cell phone driving (even hands free) but still do it.
Posted by: James at June 8, 2008 7:19 AMMmm...ear wax...
Posted by: Patti M. at June 8, 2008 7:31 AMTime to make the candles!
Posted by: James at June 8, 2008 7:56 AMEw.
At least he didn't eat it. I've seen that. When you take public transportation daily for as long as I have, you amass a catalog of images, some of which you wish you could expunge from your memory bank.
Posted by: Patti M. at June 8, 2008 8:16 AMFree "Drive now, talk later" bumper sticker, info here: http://www.cartalk.com/content/features/Drive-Now/bumper-sticker.html
Yes, there's all sorts of distractions on the road. But the particular type of distractions afforded by a cell phone are particularly hazardous, because the person is no longer in the here/now environment or processing visual input the same as if they were talking to someone in the front seat - you use different parts of your brain when you're talking on *any* type of phone than when you're talking in person. I've seen cellphone drivers go past school busses, stop for green lights and start for red lights, blow through stop signs, look right through someone with the right of way making a turn in front of them, and (most common) attaching their car front to the back of the car in front of them and tailgating for miles. So sorry, I don't care if you're using a hands-free phone and are the Best Driver in the Whole Entire World - pull over or wait.
mj
Posted by: mjfrombuffalo at June 8, 2008 1:46 PMYes, Driving with the cell phone to your ear is dangerous, but not because of the conversation.
Actual statistics available on NHTSA site and well known since 2000 clearly shows that the leading cause for cell phone related accidents is as follows:
1-42% Incoming call (No conversation yet)
2-23% Dialing a number (No conversation yet)
3-%remain is multiple reasons including using hand held phone for conversation.
Hand held phone or Ear piece still have the same effect in terms of cognitive distraction, but an ear piece still leave the hands free to deal with emergencies. Also, when holding the phone, driver have the tendency to lean and support the arm holding the phone and to loose peripheral vision as the vision is blocked by hand or posture
The best solution is not outlawing the use of that technology, but to introduce a medium technology to help mitigate the proven causes of the accidents.
We invented and have patents granted and pending in EU, USA and Japan for a system and method that does just that.
Our device is configured for drivers skills, e.g. teen aged driver vs. middle aged driver and the configuration is installed on the cell phone itself.
Once the cell phone is plugged in to the car, the device will not let the phone ring if the turn signal is on or if the driver is accelerating or decelerating or turning, thus taking care of 42% of accidents causes.
The device will allow the driver to toggle through the phone book and hear the name. The toggle happens from a sensor located at the 9:03 or 10:02 on the steering wheel. So the driver can call up people without looking at the phone opr taking hands off the steering wheel. This takes care of the other 23%.
Having Hands on the steering wheel to dial and having incoming calls delayed to allow drivers to concentrate on critical driving situation and the fact that the phone is no longer in the driver ear and hands, the rest of the problems are solved.
We are looking for support to educate legislatures and drivers about our technology so we can help reduce accidents and death.
Please check www.actplace.net for details.
Thank you
Mouhamad A. Naboulsi, President
A very interesting idea, kind of like the breathalyzer-enabled ignition switch.
Mouhamad, I agree with you. We will never be able outlaw phoning while driving. There was just an article in the paper today about this. See "Study: Teen drivers ignore cell phone restrictions"
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j1CG6LiSB891BurTPNGCb_hkBkegD916HUN00
So, knowing people will continue to put my life in jeopardy because they feel their needs are far more important than my safety, I say hurrah for any technology that lessens the possibility of a distracted chatty idiot killing me while I'm on the road.
Mouhamad, I wish you, and by extention, the rest of us, good luck with your product!
Posted by: Patti M. at June 9, 2008 9:45 AMI am really not looking forward to the hands-free cell phone law, which takes effect in California in a scant few weeks. I like my cell phone, and I like driving while talking on the cell phone. Let the hatin' commence!
Posted by: pam at June 9, 2008 10:02 AMLiking is different than needing. Do you need to talk on your phone while driving? Does anyone need to talk on a phone while driving?
Actually, the bigger question is this: does anyone actually need a cell phone? Before you react, take a moment and think about the question. I purport this is a manufactured need and also, for many people, a status symbol, though why I can not imagine.
The way people display their "need" for cell phones is stunning. When I see someone on the phone at the grocery store ask the person on the other end questions about what to buy, I am thunderstruck. What happened to making a list?
Then, of course, there's my favorite story of the lady with the 7 A.M. hysterectomy cell call on the commuter train. What was the need there?
Posted by: Patti M. at June 10, 2008 7:11 AMWe could ask the same things about driving.
Technologies change the way we live; want turns into need as we restructure our lives.
It's easier for many people to give up a cell phone than it is to stop driving. But that's not necessarily true inside a city. "Want" and "need" can be situational and somewhat subjective.
However, I think we should also agree to give up picking our ears and scrutinizing our fingers. It's both dangerous and kinda gross.
Posted by: James at June 10, 2008 7:36 AMWhat James said. We don't need vacuum cleaners, but it takes a long time to beat a rug. Being able to spontaneously visit the store and call somebody up and ask what they need frees you from planning a trip to the grocery store, which takes time. It feels like we're always so busy and running around. When there are four people in a house and two of them are children, there are a lot more activities to schedule, even if they don't do that much "after school" because schools schedule a lot of things. Just this week both K and M have field trips and M has a concert, they both have Girl Scouts and there is a doctor's appointment and piano lesson, I have a team meeting at K's school. So there's a high level of busy-ness with a family that makes a cell phone extremely helpful.
That said, I don't need to hear your grocery list. Do it privately. And you don't need to talk while you're driving. Pull over. If I don't have a child to hand the cell phone to so she can make the call, I do it when I can pull over.
Posted by: Maggie at June 10, 2008 9:22 AMAlso, it's a lot harder to find a pay phone these days.
Posted by: Julie at June 10, 2008 10:31 AM...in fact, I got my first cell phone because I hadn't been able to get to a safe phone when I needed one. Fortunately, I was at the post office, so there was a pay phone. The bad part was that there was a large fire ant mound in front of it, and so I had to get bitten and stung while using it.
The tow truck people wanted to call me back, and I wasn't sure the phone would even accept an incoming call, but I had to stick around near the ant hill just in case. It was nearly 100 degrees out, and it was lunch time, with the sun directly overhead.
Cell phones are also cheaper than land lines in many markets now, especially for long distance. I'm paying less for my cell phone and getting more for my money.
Posted by: Julie at June 10, 2008 10:40 AM