Driving While Distracted More Dangerous Than Supposed

Science News reports on recent research indicating that any kind of multitasking while driving is dangerous. Not just the obvious distraction of juggling a cell phone, but even talking to a passenger or listening to a book on tape. The researchers used a driving simulator inside an MRI machine to measure brain activations. "Attending to what someone says galvanizes language-related brain areas while simultaneously reducing activity in spatial regions that coordinate driving behavior. This finding suggests that people who combine relatively automatic tasks, such as speech comprehension and car driving, exceed a biological limit on the amount of systematic brain activity they can accommodate at one time, the researchers propose. As a result, the less-ingrained skill — in this case, driving, which is learned long after a person grasps a native language — takes a neural hit."

Comments

Some risks are manageable.

[Paleolibertarian]

Even so there are levels of risk that are acceptable. Life is risky but we take the risk of taking a shower knowing that we may slip and fall and become injured or die as a result. We drive because going somewhere is worth the risk of having an accident. We listen to books on tape or the radio because the risk of being to distracted is better than being bored. We talk on the cell phone because the communication is worth the risk. These risks are manageable but a life without risk is not worth living. Get over it already. OH, and we eat food at the risk of getting food poisoning because it is better than dying of starvation. However if you don't want to risk it perhaps the world is better off without another idiot.

Re:I have to disagree

[somersault]

I thought that too, but I think he's made a good point. Perhaps his driving while listen to audio books is less attentive than it would be without for short journeys but on long monotonous journeys, your attention can just as easily wander, or you can get sleepy and your attention will be even worse than if your mind is being stimulated by more than just the driving. Personally, the only accidents (not serious ones, just bumper scuffles, two of which were shortly after I learned to drive, and one of which was about 5 minutes after I woke up.. :s ) I've had were when passengers were present. I do tend to rush more if I have passengers too, because I feel a responsibility to get people to their destination quickly, when I'm driving around town by myself I tend to chill out and just enjoy my music.

I do lots of observation while driving - frequent mirror checks at all 'hazards' (you should be checking your rearview mirror every 10 seconds anyway - that sounds like a lot but it isn't once you do it automatically, and it keeps you aware of what's going on around you in case you need to break suddenly or something like that). The checks are all pretty much built in now, I remember a few times that I've just stopped mid sentence while speaking to someone because I'm approaching a 'hazard' and need to concentrate more on my driving: I learned the police 'Roadcraft' System of Car Control on an advanced driving course a few months ago, and I highly recommend any such courses (mine included defensive driving, skid control and a more rigourous driving test than the standard UK driving test) to people to improve their driving and make even those times when you're driving on 'autopilot' safer.. though it's never really a good thing to let yourself drift into that kind of state while controlling over a ton of metal moving at speed!

Re:I have to disagree

[olyar]

Another way to look at this is to ask what was done in the study? Did they look at long trips, or just take short samples?

I was curious, so I went and read the article...

During one-minute virtual trips, participants listening to sentences drove onto the shoulder of the pavement or into the wrong lane 13 times on average, compared with 9 times on average for undisturbed drivers.

One minute trips!

Also take note of the fact that the participants were laying down and driving with a mouse. So pretty much this is nothing at all like driving.

After conducting a lame study like that, they concluded with some idle speculation:

Listening to talk radio or to spoken directions from a navigation system while driving probably have similar effects to what we found,â Just says. âoeMultitasking puts high demands on the brain.â

Yeah - um. Probably.

This was at Carnegie Mellon, and it's reported in what looks to be a respectable science magazine. Worse yet, this is the kind of stuff that drives public policy.

What a joke. Sorry to rant - you can look at my history and see it's not my usual MO. But sheesh. Come on.