Do you use your phone while you drive?

@rocketdoctor I don’t think it impairs my driving at All because I generally I am in traffic and have to pay close attention to the road, I not only look at the cars ahead of me but I am looking at the cars ahead of them as far as I can see.

And if we ask the other drivers on the road with you…will they have the same opinion. I know several people like you who THINK they are driving fine while on the phone…but if you observe them while on the phone…it surely wasn’t my opinion.

Out on the open road I might use one now and then because the outlying highways are often very lightly traveled but when I do it’s a minute or so and off. In town, I stop on a shoulder or parking lot when placing or receiving a call.
Then again, I loathe phone conversations anyway even while at home.

Out on the open road I might use one now and then because the outlying highways are often very lightly traveled but when I do it’s a minute or so and off. In town

Probably more reasonable in OK…then here in NH or MA. There aren’t any places you can drive that’s wide open and straight and no one else around for miles.

Here in SD we have hundreds of miles of straight, wide open, lightly traveled highways. I still won’t allow myself or others who may be driving my car to use a cell. Just when you become complacent on those roads is about the time a deer will jump out, or a farm tractor will pull in front of you, etc. That extra half second or second of reaction time can be the difference between life & death. Pull over & take/make the call.

I tried driving while talking on the cell once or twice, and did NOT like the feeling of divided attention that came with conversing with a disconnected person who is not in the situation with me. And I do think it’s the conversation, not that it takes up a hand. I’d hesitate in my conversation as I notice a car looking like it will pull out in front of me, and on the phone I get “yes … you were saying? You there…you there?” A passenger in the car does not do that.

So I swore that off forever.

Never. My wife was out walking and was hit by a distracted driver who was reaching for her cell phone. Two broken legs, over $300,000 in medical bills, and now she walks with a cane. The driver’s insurance paid $10,000 and ours paid $35,000 so our HMO really took a hit.

I followed a truck the other day, and I was ready to turn her in for DUI. ( I would have had to use my phone while driving :wink: )
20mph then 40mph back to 20 repeatedly in a 45 zone.
over to the right berm, not off the road but a tire over the white line, again and again.
As oncomming traffic would approach she’d weavw aaay over to the right.
then as she’d approach parked cars she’d weave waaaay over to the left, into the oncomming lane.

— yep , you guessed it -----
SHE WAS ON THE PHONE !

Wait, I guess that IS DUI !!!
Driving
Under the
Influence
…does not state under the influence of WHAT.
under the influence of distraction !

Careless driving citation applies here too.

Invitation to businesses: Make me feel more welcome to pull in and use my phone! I am in an appointment-driven mobile business and need to use my phone and text regularly throughout the day. If I pull into a parking lot, what do I see? “Customers only!”, or “No loitering!”. I propose a competition to make distracted drivers feel invited, at least in a spot or two.
Thanks- Kathy Lamb, equine veterinarian

There are vast areas in the midwest, particularly in the upper midwest, where you can drive for many miles before seeing another car. Areas where you can see the road disapear into its vanishing point on the horizon, and see a car coming from many miles away. In North Dakota I could look toward a town 20 miles away and even see if it was raining there.

There are also areas such as NH where the roads are winding and rolling and every bend is blocked by trees, hills, houses, or whatnot. The crown of the road constantly changes as well. Things continually change every foot of the road.

Then there are areas like Boston where every other driver is out to kill you.

And then there are neighborhoods full of children where a moment’s distraction can result in an innocent child dying and a family destroyed.

It’s unrealistic to believe that the same driving practices necessary in Boston or in the populated neighborhood are necessary in North Dakota. It’s unrealistic to judge others by our own driving environment. Let’s stop judging one another.

Oy. Still with the phones.

The most distracted driver I saw today was not on the phone. He was trying to read something on the passenger’s seat. Recently it was someone actually flipping through a catalog or magazine or something - up on the steering wheel while tooling down an interstate. Then there are kids and dogs and fast food and radios and CD players and bill boards and hot looking drivers and pedestrians and… And even aside from the directly distracted that there are those people who just literally don’t pay any attention at all.

We can all continue to talk about phones if we want. But its sort of like thinking that the titanic was sunk by the tip of the ice berg. Distracted driving is not an invention of the portable information age.

You wouldn’t want your anesthetist or surgeon yammering or texting on their phone while doing your open heart surgery, and you wouldn’t want your pilot doing it while your plane is ready for takeoff. Why would you do it while driving an SUV in someone’s direction at 60 mph? It can be just as dangerous for you, and can kill you just as dead.

Couple of good bumper stickers; “Just put down the phone and no one will get hurt” and “Honk if you love Jesus. Text me if you want to meet Jesus soon.”

You wouldn’t want your anesthetist or surgeon yammering or texting on their phone while doing your open heart surgery, and you wouldn’t want your pilot doing it while your plane is ready for takeoff.

Uh, pretty sure the cockpit crew will acknowledge being cleared for takeoff via 2-way radio communication with tower just before takeoff. Granted, in a FAR-121 airplane, that’ll be the non-flying crewmember, but any plane that has a flight crew of one, that’ll be the pilot.

(Or are radio communications–CB, aircraft radio, etc–okay, and cell phones not? If so, why?)

It has been proven that a person cannot talk on the phone and concentrate on driving at the same time. Talking on the phone and driving should be banned and criminal charges be brought for anyone caught doing so. How many people have to be killed before this stupid practice is forbidden.
Just awhile ago a bicyclist was killed by a driver using their phone in my area, if the same driver was intoxicated, it would have been an offense, but being impaired by talking on the phone is okay?

In an airplane…they see FAR FAR FAR less traffic when flying that will need immediate attention.

I do not talk on a cell phone while I drive, mainly because I have seen people killed by distracted drivers. I couldn’t live with myself if I killed someone due to a careless distraction I could have easily prevented.

I can’t even remember to charge my cell phone…so no, I don’t use it while driving…I’m not really sure WHERE the danged thing is to tell the truth.

The last time I was driving distracted, the distraction was my very own day dream. I don’t know where my phone was. But if it had rung, it would have snapped me out of it.

I use my phone while driving. Once a call is initiated or answered, I don’t feel it’s any less safe than having a conversation with a passenger. It’s kind of a toss up in a sense because a passenger can look for hazards, but a person is also inclined to turn their head and make eye contact with a passenger once in a while, thus taking their eyes off the road, while if I’m on my phone, I’m always looking straight ahead. It’s probably a lot safer than looking at your satnav, seeking a radio station, searching for something in the center console, etc.

I will also text while driving, but only while waiting at lights, not while in motion, and I still frequently glance up.

Obviously a younger, more inexperienced driver has not learned to multitask as well as a more seasoned driver, and doesn’t possess the unconscious habits and perhaps ‘muscle memory’ for driving as much as someone older, though perhaps their reflexes are a little better.

got bluetooth in my car it answers the phone for me and hangs up too . i don’t call out on it but i will take a call coming in i do try to keep it short

Folks, this thread is 2-1/2 years old!
Who’s reviving these old threads anyway?