"Another study coming out of the University of Utah Applied Cognition Lab has concluded that driving while talking on the phone is a really bad idea, even if using hand-free kit."
www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/02/hands_free_danger/
The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology (pdf),
www.psych.utah.edu/AppliedCognitionLab/JEP_A_2008....f
Edited by rtj70 on 02/12/2008 at 13:00
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Additional material to the well-known fact - don't 'phone and drive.
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I think the problem with talking on a mobile and driving is that the other person can't see any potential hazards and so doesn't know when to stop speaking and distracting you.
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Any more dangerous than talking to a passenger, listening to Radio 4 or shouting at kids in the back seat who are distracting the driver ?
Yet another pointless study from Universities with little else to do.
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Any more dangerous than talking to a passenger
Yup. The title of the paper contains the clue!
listening to Radio 4 or shouting at kids in the back seat who are distracting the driver ?
See much other similar research.
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So it's best that we travel single occupancy in silence. Then we will all be safe.
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So it's best that we travel single occupancy in silence. Then we will all be safe.
If you say so. However, I don't think many people would agree that that would be worthwhile. The point is that using the 'phone is more dangerous. The URL to the PDF is there to see.
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Any more dangerous than talking to a passenger, listening to Radio 4 or shouting at kids in the back seat who are distracting the driver ?
In reply to Mr X:
SNIP 8< - sarcastic reply removed. Please refrain from personal attacks on other BR members. - DD
Edited by Dynamic Dave on 02/12/2008 at 18:24
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For the first time I find myself agreeing with Mr X.
If you can't shut out all extraneous stimuli when extra concentration is needed at the wheel - when for example you arrive at a busy, complex, fast-flowing roundabout with several lanes of traffic crossing each other, Marbnle Arch or Hyde Park Corner in rush hour say - and forget about everything but piloting the car until things become simpler again, then you shouldn't really be driving in the first place. It's a matter of priorities, and hardly intellectually challenging.
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It's a matter of priorities, and hardly intellectually challenging.
Summed up neatly in the British concept of "driving with due care and attention".
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Succintctly put jbif.
Lud, I think you're missing the rather subtle psychology involved in conversation here. Unless you tell the caller to be quiet while you're negotiating Marble Arch, you have to engage & divide your attention - in addition to the 101 different things that are happening real-time in the traffic. Phones are quite a unique means of communication & require something more than two people talking face-to-face - just try holding a conversation on the phone while talking to or relaying messages to a person next to you - it's virtually impossible without stops/starts, mishearings, repetition etc.
It's something that people who do phone & drive fail to understand it seems.
Edited by woodbines on 02/12/2008 at 16:17
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Passenger talking or phone, you just shut it out completely, let them rabbit. When the traffic situation clears you can ask them to say it again. If they think that's rude, too damn bad.
I don't have a hands-free and I don't answer the phone or make calls while driving, except sometimes in traffic jams or at a light. It really isn't difficult or challenging to keep the job of piloting at the top of your awareness and let everything else just wait. A passenger can be useful for answering the phone.
Edited by Lud on 02/12/2008 at 16:24
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As I have mentioned before, I would welcome the total banning of telephone use in moving vehicles. Not from any particular sense of it being safer but purely for selfish reasons. I seem to spend my life on the phone and have little choice but to continue to use it ( handsfree natch ) in the car while my competitors are prepared to.
I would be delighted if I felt able to turn it off.
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If you can't shut out all extraneous stimuli when extra concentration is needed at the wheel ... ... then you shouldn't really be driving in the first place. It's a matter of priorities and hardly intellectually challenging.
Quite. Although the intellectually challenged aren't prohibited from holding driving licences.
Of course driving and using a hands-free mobile phone is a bad idea. Just like driving and opening a packet of sandwiches and eating them. And driving and reaching into the glove box for different CD and changing it with the one in the player. And driving and using a handheld mobile phone. And driving and programming a new destination into the satnav. And driving and opening a new pack of cigarettes and lighting one of them.
Why are they all bad ideas? Because if you do any of them without first considering whether you can afford to divert the necessary amount of attention away from driving right now, it's called driving without due care and attention and it's dangerous (and illegal). Solution? Simple - don't do any of them without first considering whether you can afford to divert the necessary amount of attention away from driving right now.
That solution works for all but one of the actions above. For one of them nanny has decreed that, simple though the solution is, the action needs to be banned even if carried out with due care and attention.
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Yup. It's like everyone being kept in after school because little hyperactive Johnny Stobbs wouldn't damn well shut up when any fool could see from the purpling of teacher's broken-veined alcoholic cheeks that the situation was getting dangerous.
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Quite. Although the intellectually challenged aren't prohibited from holding driving licences
As the last para in my first link in the OP says:
"Driving while talking on the phone is clearly dangerous, and one mitigates the risk by using hands-free equipment and keeping calls to a minimum. Meanwhile, the far more dangerous pursuit of driving while being an idiot unfortunately remains legal to this day." ! ;-)
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I've mentioned this before but I know 2 people who told me they drove into the back of a stationary car whilst conversing with their kids in the back seat. I don't personally know anyone who has admitted to crashing whilst using the phone but I won't deny there are times it can be dangerous.
If someone were to crash into me because they weren't concentrating I wouldn't really care what had distracted them. I would probably care that they were a selfish self centred idiot who considers that their driving lifestyle, whether that be telephoning, talking to their brats, applying makeup or sniffing cocaine is more important than my safety.
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Completely agree with Mr X and Lud.
If you want to call someone, do so when it's safe, if someone is calling you and it's not safe to answer - don't. (Another useful money sapping study from the University of the Blinking Obvious ?) Instant communication is one of the marvels of the current age, and i personally wouldn't want to revert back to the 1960's, but what is the problem with saying " hang on - roundabout" or, "call you back in a minute" ?
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"Hold on a minute, a set of driving circumstances is about to unravel that no-one could forsee, so just excuse me while I put the phone down and deal with it."
For those without a working crystal ball, not using the phone while driving might be the best idea.
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Could not something unfold in the few seconds you are glancing at your sat nav screen or taking in the vocal instructions. ?
All so, we regular see on those ' Police-Crash-Stop Thief- Crazy Criminal -Car Squad " type programs, Police drivers traveling at very high speeds in pursuit, talking away on their hands free radio sets and listening to the control room replies . Are we saying they are better than us mere mortals who can't be entrusted to use a hands free set while not in pursuit ?
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...Could not something unfold in the few seconds you are glancing at your sat nav screen or taking in the vocal instructions. ?...
Mr X,
Yes it could, it's just about minimising the risk.
Common sense tells me my driving is less safe while distracted by a mobile, so I don't use one.
Don't have a sat nav, one of the reasons being that I know I'd want to tinker with it while driving.
I'm no saint - I do things like change the CD which is also distracting.
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It is all relative.
There's a BIG difference between picking up the phone, having SWMBO saying "Please remember to bring some bread and milk home.. ok... bye" and holding a very important business or private discussion.
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Police drivers traveling at very high speeds in pursuit talking away on their hands free radio sets and listening to the control room replies . Are we saying they are better than us mere mortals who can't be entrusted to use a hands free set while not in pursuit ?
Well I should hope so.
Isn't the running commentary an advanced driving technique, at least when you're being assessed?
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Isn't the running commentary an advanced driving technique at least when you're being assessed?
It is. And it's surprisingly hard to do systematically.
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"surprisingly hard to do" - agreed, I remember starting off quite well on my test then just mumbling as there was not a lot to say - "weather is good, roads are dry, no pedestrians, bend ahea" gets repetitve after a bit. btw it isn't compulsory on IAM, just strongly recommended.
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Are we saying they are better than us mere mortals who can't be entrusted to use a hands free set while not in pursuit ?
Of course. But they aren't immortal superhumans. They've just had some training that we haven't. If traffic police went through all their training and didn't turn out to be better than me I'd be rather concerned what my tax was being spent for. Wouldn't you?
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Equally their conversation is related to the task in hand and so they're not trying to think about two separate trains of thought. The people in the control room are also trained and the conversation isn't full duplex.
There's a simple test you can do if you don't think using a mobile phone affects your driving.
First play a game of Tetris (or similar) on your own without distraction.
Next play it with someone next to you who can see what you're doing and chat idly while playing.
Lastly, get someone to phone you while you play it.
When chatting to the person next to you, you'll naturally go quiet during tricky bits. The brain works differently on the phone and you won't be able to concentrate on the game, nor plan your next moves.
My phone stays in the glove box or in my bag when driving. I can hear it ring and I make a note that I need to stop at some point and see if there's a message.
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I can hear it ring and I make a note that I need to stop at some point and see if there's a message.
I'd like to think you take that note on a large parchment scroll with gold embossed rollers and you write with a quill pen dipped in an inkwell on the dashboard before blotting it dry with a piece of Italian linen.
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