Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Smartphones Are Killing Americans, But Nobody's Counting (bloomberg.com)

Posted by msmash on from the time-to-look-back dept.

An anonymous reader shares a Bloomberg report: Over the past two years, after decades of declining deaths on the road, U.S. traffic fatalities surged by 14.4 percent. In 2016 alone, more than 100 people died every day in or near vehicles in America, the first time the country has passed that grim toll in a decade. Regulators, meanwhile, still have no good idea why crash-related deaths are spiking: People are driving longer distances but not tremendously so; total miles were up just 2.2 percent last year. Collectively, we seemed to be speeding and drinking a little more, but not much more than usual. Together, experts say these upticks don't explain the surge in road deaths. There are however three big clues, and they don't rest along the highway. One, as you may have guessed, is the substantial increase in smartphone use by U.S. drivers as they drive. From 2014 to 2016, the share of Americans who owned an iPhone, Android phone, or something comparable rose from 75 percent to 81 percent. The second is the changing way in which Americans use their phones while they drive. These days, we're pretty much done talking. Texting, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are the order of the day -- all activities that require far more attention than simply holding a gadget to your ear or responding to a disembodied voice. By 2015, almost 70 percent of Americans were using their phones to share photos and follow news events via social media. In just two additional years, that figure has jumped to 80 percent.

8 of 415 comments (clear)

  1. But we just passed a law to fix this.... by bobbied · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We just made using a phone while driving illegal in Texas... Didn't passing a law fix this?

    Wha? You mean people don't obey laws?

    --
    "File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
    1. Re:But we just passed a law to fix this.... by wardrich86 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The law arguably makes it worse. We all know laws really don't stop people... but now instead of holding the phone up and seeing the road in their peripheral, they're trying to be sneaky by holding the phone down on their lap... so they're looking at the floor. I'm very much against distracted driving, but this law is just bad news all-around... I'm not sure how to approach the problem, though.

    2. Re:But we just passed a law to fix this.... by dgatwood · · Score: 5, Insightful

      This. Distracted driving laws make driving significantly less safe. They're exactly backwards, and those of us with common sense have been saying this since the first distracted driving laws were first proposed. But states keep passing them anyway, and they keep proving us right by producing statistically significant increases in accident rates despite the appearance of a reduction in use (Trempel et al). And it isn't just the anti-handheld talking laws. Anti-texting laws had the same effect.

      You want a cell phone law that will reduce accidents? Make it legal to use a cell phone, but only if you hold it in a way that you can use your peripheral vision to see the road. Make it illegal to use it in your lap and legal to hold it up in front of your face for brief interactions. Encourage app developers to add low-distraction modes for their mobile apps so that you can interact with the basic controls at a glance.

      Of course, the problem is compounded by car companies that keep switching to non-tactile touchscreen interfaces on their high-end cars, thus guaranteeing that drivers get used to taking their eyes off the road for extended periods of time. And make it illegal for new cars to be sold with touchscreens on the front of the dashboard while you're at it. Require the screens to pop up from the top of the dashboard instead.

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    3. Re: But we just passed a law to fix this.... by Hognoxious · · Score: 5, Funny

      An article about people who drive like assholes - and think it's their god-given right - and you pop up.

      Whodathunkit?

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
    4. Re: But we just passed a law to fix this.... by Altrag · · Score: 5, Insightful

      .. And yet America is almost universally considered one of the rudest countries in the world.

      Certainly some of that is just culture (everybody has a somewhat differing opinion of what is "polite." That is, what we consider rude might be perfectly fine if you were speaking to another American.)

      But even with that consideration, Americans tend to be more standoffish than most of the rest of the world, just in terms of general speaking patterns.

      The gun debate is a prime example. Americans want to protect their person and their property, while the rest of us shake our head because we realize that its really a tragedy of the commons in disguise. Every individual is choosing to arm themselves for their own (vaguely) good reasons, but at the end of the day you just end up with a society that, as a whole, just has a hell of a lot of killing tools, most of which will never actually be used for their theoretical defensive purposes and exist in the world purely as a risk factor.

  2. Yet again, by TechyImmigrant · · Score: 5, Interesting

    we can have the conversation about how road deaths have consistently not tracked cell phone use over many years and there is pretty much no solid statistical evidence that phones increase accidents. They certainly contribute to some accidents, but that's very different to them contributing to higher accident rates. It's entirely possible that map applications reduce accidents by causing people to drive less and to know where they are going to turn before they get there.

    Why, when road deaths increase are people quick to blame cell phones? If road deaths go both up and down while cell phone use goes in one direction, that's evidence that they are not directly linked. What about other likely culprits like shorter yellow times at traffic lights? Increased use of speed and intersection cameras causing people to suddenly brake? An increase in politically infuriating radio shows?

    People have simplistic minds and no clue about statistical inference.

    --
    I should use this sig to advertise my book ISBN-13 : 978-1501515132.
  3. Infotainment too by Moof123 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    We've also had a steady rise in the complexity and abundance of infotainment systems that needlessly complicate the few tasks you legitimately need to attend to while driving.

    Tactile knobs have been replaced with menus and buttons to adjust the temperature. I can't use feel and peripheral vision like on my old car to adjust heat, vents, or volume. Worse yet, the buttons that remain are a smooth surface that I can't even make out without looking at them. Form over function.

    AAA has shed some light on this as of late, but until car makers reverse course, it is just going to get worse and worse.

  4. Re:Only one solution by Wrath0fb0b · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Wow, /. really went from "I own this device, I should control what code runs on it" to "the State can (benevolently) require phone manufacturers to lock users out against their will".

    Also, this poster has never had a 45 minute bus commute or taken a 5 hour inter-city bus.

    [ Or thought about Airplane Mode, which is required by law to disable GPS. ]