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Why Cell Phone Bans Don't Work
sciencehabit writes "You can take the driver away from the cell phone, but you can't take the risky behavior away from the driver. That's the conclusion of a new study, which finds that people who talk on their phones while driving may already be unsafe drivers who are nearly as prone to crash with or without the device. The findings may explain why laws banning cell phone use in motor vehicles have had little impact on accident rates."
This is the second major study calling into question the idea that talking on the phone while driving is vastly more dangerous, as dangerous as drunk driving.
In the other study, A Wayne State study by Richard Young, Ph.D, found that procedural errors in the seminal research vastly over estimated the risk.
The actual risk of talking while driving was 1/4 of what the earlier studies found, putting it right in line with just simply driving.
Indeed, according to Wayne State, "Five other recent real-world studies concur with his conclusion that the crash risk from cellular conversations is not greater than that of driving with no conversation.". "Tasks that take a driver's eyes off the road or hands off the steering wheel are what increase crash risk," said Young. "Texting, emailing, manual dialing and so forth -- not conversation -- are what increase the risk of crashes while driving."
While texting poses serious risks, simply talking on the phone appears to pose no more risk than simply driving. The present study found that:
"Cell phone bans have reduced cell phone use by drivers, but the perplexing thing is that they haven't reduced crashes,"
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In spite of this, in a fit of political correctness, the author feels compelled in the last paragraph of the story to print a quote from someone who has done no specific research on phoning while driving, but he still fees competent to weigh in suggesting bans be followed by stiffer enforcement.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
I mean, when I can check Slashdot while driving, what could go wr
Indeed. If there were days of "shock enforcement" where 100% of available traffic officers specifically sought out to enforce cell phone driving laws instead of other non-immediately-deadly traffic infractions, people would respond QUICKLY.
Why do people continue to talk on their cell phones when it's against the law? Because they think they can get away with it. How do you change that? Ticket SO MANY PEOPLE that they talk and whine and bitch about it... that way the risk is genuine.
Do this once a month for three months without announcing the plan to anyone an watch things change QUICKLY.
PS -- Use unmarked cars and cameras, too.
In spite of this, in a fit of political correctness, the author feels compelled in the last paragraph of the story to print a quote from someone who has done no specific research on phoning while driving, but he still fees competent to weigh in suggesting bans be followed by stiffer enforcement.
The person being quoted is D. L. Strayer, who a quick google scholar search reveals has done a proverbial shitload of distracted driving research, much of it focused on phone use.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Absolutely. Actually, I'm pretty well convinced that a big part of the problem is the thing that many drivers don't do: focus their attention on driving, which, as you say, is inherently dangerous.
I was a training ride leader for the Boston->New York AIDS Ride back in the mid-1990s, and I wrote this as part of a safety introduction for novice cyclists:
Change 'riding' to 'driving' and I think it still works pretty well.
Drive at 30-50% over the speed limit, and it's not boring any more.
I don't necessarily advocate this in town, as the density of traffic makes it "interesting" enough to hold your attention by itself, but I wouldn't be surprised if the low speed limits we have on rural roads and highways in North America cause as many accidents through boredom as they prevent from the lower speed.
It's rare in Canada to find any out of town road with a speed limit above 80 km/h, with the exception of freeway/motorway kind of roads, which are 100 km/h.
Keep in mind, in keeping with the "huge masses of available land" tradition in North America, these are wide, straight, and frequently have completely uninterrupted views of the surroundings for miles in all directions.
When I drove in England a few years back, I always enjoyed seeing the "End of all restrictions" signs when leaving town on a narrow little twisty B road. It meant I could open the car up and have fun. These are, of course, sometimes only one lane roads, with plenty of twists and turns - it's England, after all - and frequently a stone wall on one side or the other, if not both. This kind of road would flat out horrify a typical North American driver, and it would give a Canadian or American traffic planner a coronary, but it keeps drivers engaged, alert, and careful, regardless of the speed they may be travelling at.
After all, if you stop paying attention to the road for even a second, you're either through the stone wall, or off the road in some field.
"City hall" in German is "Rathaus" Kinda explains a few things......