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Buzz Out Loud Lounge: Driving while distracted
Driving while distracted
by Hellcat - 8/6/09 4:42 PMI agree that texting while driving is dangerous but if the Govt were to make a law that said you can't talk on the phone at all while driving they might as well make a law that says you can't listen to music, or talk to anyone thats in your car. I've always used a headset while talking on the phone...even when I'm just in my house. The thought of holding the phone to my hear in 2009 is just lame to me.
Anyways, when using a headset I have full range of motion of my neck so I can turn my head while changing lanes. Talking on the phone with a headset I believe is less dangerous than talking to someone next to you or in the back seat while driving because you tend to look at the person you're talking to, or while they're talking to you. People also tend to use hand gestures and point while talking to someone. If you're talking to someone in the back seat (like your kids who are hitting each other) you're paying even less attention. Now listening to music, how many people you see driving a car, listening to music, dancing around, banging their head, playing the air drums or air guitar, and singing. Do you think that less distracting than talking on the phone with a headset? Besides the two things mentioned men shaving while driving and women putting on make-up while driving are also pretty bad. If anything driving while talking on the phone with a headset (or some kind of hands free device) is safer than probably anything else you can be doing in the car while driving.
Keep up the good work.
Sincerely,
Robert from Valencia, CA
The difference is
by Nicholas Buenk - 8/7/09 3:42 AM In reply to: Driving while distracted by HellcatWith music or radio, you tune out of it when you need to, the driving distracts you from them.
With a phone conversation, it distracts you from the driving because you have another person on the end that you need to keep track of so you know what to say next.
Bingo...
by paintguru - 8/7/09 3:19 PM In reply to: The difference is by Nicholas BuenkStudies have been done on this....there is no question phone conversations are more distracting than listening to the radio or talking to someone in the car.
Talking vs listening to the radio whilst driving
by curtisboyle - 8/9/09 5:54 PM In reply to: Bingo... by paintguruI view this as similar to watching TV vs. using the Internet... TV is more of a passive (like radio) experience; although, it is engaging your sense of sight as well as hearing), while talking on the phone is a completely interactive experience, similiar to surfing the internet.
If you are like me, you are far more engaged using the Internet vs. watching TV, and I find the same in driving, except between a phone and listening to the Radio. Far more of your concentration is being used when you are on the phone; you are trying to keep track of the conversation, formulating opinions and replies as the conversation progresses, and also trying to keep track of your physical surroundings, traffic, signals, etc. from driving. With radio, you are simply listening to it, and not engaging your brain as much. Not to say that radio can't be distracting as well (particularly if you are playing music loud enough to drown out all external noise... like sirens, etc.), or if you get really emotionally involved in a talk show 
).
I think a reason that talking to someone beside you in a car is less distracting than a phone call is that you can follow the conversation easier with occasional glances to the other person, giving visual cues and context to the conversation (facial expressions, brief reading of lips to reinforce the words you are hearing), while on a phone call you tend to have to concentrate more with those cues gone, to hear the words properly, especially over the ambient noise of traffic, your vehicle, etc. I don't know of any studies to support this, but I think it makes some sense.
True for me too
by DangMI - 8/10/09 5:33 AM In reply to: or you could just pay more attention to the road... by robstakIt's a matter of discipline--know the right priorities and stick to them. Any time something happens that needs my response, I just do it--if I have time to say "Hold On" then fine, if not, we'll catch up after things settle down and I say I haven't heard anything you've said after (whatever).
Everyone is arguing their side as if everything there is ideal and everything on the other side always goes horribly wrong. If you are against cell phone while driving, then everyone you are talking to is completely alert to all that is going on around you and knows when to leave you alone, while if you support the phones, then you are the one who is always on your game, properly alert and totally safe. Be real.
People's skills and comomn sense vary tremendously. I wish everyone would just suport letting the cops truly enforce the existing laws. The message that needs to be sent is not "Being on the phone is extra risky". The message that should be "You need to be alert and in control at all times or you'll get slapped harder". If you're on the phone and get in an accident, then you were distracted and that needs to be part of the charges. If the same thing happens when you're putting on makeup or looking at the paper or arguing with your spouse, same. I've been involved with 2 cases where parents got in accidents because they were swatting at their kids in the back seat. For sure that's careless driving--do you feel the need to specify it in a law before it can be enforced?!
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