No, I do not use cell phones while driving. I have the phone close by in case I need it in an emergency. When I am a passenger in my son’s car, however, I have to take his phone from him so he won’t TEXT while driving!
Sure, this was yesterday’s “Hot Topic”, but I wasn’t around at the time, so here’s my input:
Yes. And I’m a safer driver for it. For all those that think I’m nutz, let me shed some light:
My 45 minute drive, back and forth to work, 5 days a week, is shared on a highway with several hundred other people. The majority of that drive (heading home, at least), is …B…O…R…I…N…G… to say the least. After an 8, 9 or 10 hour day, staying awake is rough, so don’t forget the previous sentence…boring.
During this drive, I will chat with my best friend about his day, and tell him about mine. It’s often more fun than going out for a drink/dinner/fishing/whatever you like.
If you’d prefer me nodding off (far more dangerous), then so be it. I’ll end up killing myself and/or someone else. For now, talking on the phone works for me. I’m more attentive, ready to respond as required for whatever road conditions I may encounter, and an overall safer driver.
I will make 2 caveats to this post: 1) I’m always hands-free. The phone uses voice recognition, so I can "Call " or "Dial ". 2) I never text. I’ve tried, and responding a simple “K” (the universal “OK, I’ll do < whatever > response”) is a complicated thing. I’m constantly amazed when I see (mostly) women, cruising along at 75 or 80, with their CHILDREN sitting in the car-seats, texting to beat the band…well, all I can say is… wow.
You may call it senseless, I call it reality.
You can tell who is on the phone by the way they drive. It’s usually erratic, never at a steady speed, sort of with pauses which have no relation to traffic conditions, and few signals. Yes, I’m one of the people who will pass them, hit the horn & say “hang up & drive!”. But they usually aren’t paying attention, just look surprised, with the car pausing in the middle of traffic. Only hands-free are legal in NYC, but it doesn’t seem to stop people driving & holding the phone up to the ear. Despite the traffic crawl, I don’t initiate calls while driving, and pull over if needed. I use the speakerphone if I have to, and end the call quickly. I have no idea how people can txt & drive!
I lost my excellent chiropractor to a cell-talking woman. He was stopped & waiting to make a left turn, he saw her coming up behind his stopped car, but not slowing down. He could see her looking @ a phone, not even noticing his car until she rear-ended it. He survived, but needed serious surgery on his shoulder. The long recovery tipped the balance in his decision to retire. Thanks lady! Grrrrr…
Not to be overly argumentative, but if she was looking at her phone she wasn’t just talking on it. There’s a world of difference between texting/surfing the net/dialing manually and using voice-activated controls while not taking your eyes off the road.
Won’t this thread ever die? Aside from the fact that it never should have been made to begin with?
You can tell who is on the phone by the way they drive. It’s usually erratic, never at a steady speed, sort of with pauses which have no relation to traffic conditions, and few signals.
This is so obviously selective observation. I see this very behavior EVERY SINGLE DAY on the roadways. Some of those people are on the phone, yes. Most of them are not. The mobile phone is a red herring. The roots of the danger are elsewhere. (I think my last “distracted driving” episode was about 20-someting and blonde. Or maybe it was a cheeseburger…? I don’t know…oh so many distractions).
Only hands-free are legal in NYC
More of the heights of irrationality. Where the hands are is of very slight significance in comparison to where the head is.
I’m all for less idiotic behavior on the roadways. But the more we all want to pretend that our biggest problem lies exclusively in mobile communications the more we try to melt the tip of the ice berg.
You want the thread to die so you posted on it? Silly 
K, my turn: I do not and cannot talk on the phone while driving. Even when it was legal, I probably made two phone calls total. I found it terrifying to take my eyes off the road to dial and found that my driving was much poorer on the phone. I am one of those people who can’t handle it apparently.
I cannot use a phone because I drive a stick shift with no power steering and shitty alignment. I sometimes don’t even have enough hands just to drive. And besides wrestling with the wheel, operating the stick and doing an irish jig on the pedals :), I have to watch out for and react to all those idiots who are on the phone running me off the road n stuff.
Not to be overly argumentative, but if she was looking at her phone she wasn’t just talking on it. There’s a world of difference between texting/surfing the net/dialing manually and using voice-activated controls while not taking your eyes off the road.
That’s part of the problem with using the phone while driving. The actual talking part isn’t that dangerous…but answering the phone…or calling someone is FAR MORE DANGEROUS.
That’s what hands free speakerphones are for. I hit a button on my steering wheel to answer or call people. If I happen to be in a vehicle that doesn’t have integrated speaker phone (and just about all of them are available with that these days) then my phone can also be voice-controlled.
While hands free does help…I’m still convinced that talking on the phone while driving is still very distracting. I drive by them or drive behind them every day. I don’t have a problem at all pointing out drivers talking on their cell phones.
Talking on the phone is dangerous enough, even if you don’t have to reach for it or look at it. The problem is cognitive, and whether you are holding a phone or not, the distraction of holding a conversation makes you about as dangerous as a drunk driver, maybe slightly more.
http://www.aaafoundation.org/resources/index.cfm?button=cellphone
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/transportation/july-dec09/driving_07-28.html
http://www.isp.state.il.us/media/pressdetails.cfm?ID=452
http://www.psych.utah.edu/lab/appliedcognition/
http://unews.utah.edu/old/p/062206-1.html
http://www.foodconsumer.org/777/8/Driving_While_on_Cell_Phone_Worse_Than_Driving_While_Drunk.shtml
http://www.consumeraffairs.com/news04/2006/06/cell_phones_distaction.html
Thanks for your work on this issue!! I don’t use the cell phone when driving, and part of this is due to the show where you played back the recorded message of a politician getting into a traffic accident while he was talking with you. That just seemed so ridiculous and too embarrassing to want to imitate! I’ve also seen too many close calls when I’m a passenger in someone else’s car. Still, driving is getting safer all the time, which is hard to believe.
I’ve also found modern radio/navigation/mid-dashboard controls have the potential to be as distracting as a cell phone, so I won’t use them until I have adequately practiced the controls while the car is parked. I’ve heard some manufacturers want to put computer interfaces on the dash too, so you can use your computer while you are driving. They may as well put wide-screen TV’s in the instrument panel. And while we are at it … today’s cars, with their C-pillars and bulky profiles and poor exterior visibility and interactive touch-screens, almost make you feel completely isolated from the outside world, as if you were in your secure little (or huge) cocoon. This isn’t realistic. Safe driving is about feeling very much in contact with the immediate outside world, not being isolated from it.
I just returned from India, which is an incredible place for driving (made Boston driving seem extremely boring and totally predictable), and noticed many taxi drivers had photos of their families hanging from the rear-view mirrors. Maybe this would be a good idea to encourage – it would help keep the survival instinct up.
I don’t use the phone while driving - I do find it extremely distracting. If I have a concern about how might call that would need me to answer, I’ll check the phone mail; if that person did call, I’d find a place to pull over to, or in to, to take the call.
I don’t give out the cell phone to just anybody. Then, the callers are friends and family. I also encourage people to plan things for the day if I need to be involved in something, rather than participate in the planning-on-the-fly that has taken hold since cellphones became ubiquitous, where there is a flurry of calls back and forth the evening of the event.
Yes, occasionally I have answer a phone while driving, if I feel it’s safe, and here my average conversation
Hello, who is this? Where are you? I’ll be there in x minuets, bye.
If it’s the wife wanting me to pick something up it goes
Hello, sure, text me the list, bye.
The whole conversation lasts less then 30 seconds, if they want to talk, I tell them I’m driving and I’ll call them back. I have and will again just hung up on people “a lost call” if they don’t take the hint.
I don’t and won’t answer the phone in traffic, of course I live in ND and I can drive a long time and never see another car. So if there a no cell phone ban, it won’t bother me not to answer the phone, people know they can text me and I’ll check in when I can.
I’ve tried rwee’s approach, of only taking short calls, letting folks know it’s short because I’m driving, and I’m afraid it doesn’t work. That one little call to say “pick up something at the store on the way home, darling” turns into yet another little call as one more item gets added. People used to cell phone conversation at-will see right through the ‘dropped call’ trick and resent it. Why even go there?
This is what phone mail, and texts are for. And going back to ordinary planning. The wife knows when you leave work, right? She can get her honey-do list in before then. This is exactly the kind of last-minutety non-planning that has crept in to how we interact with each other, because many people regard cell phones as liberating them from thinking ahead.
See, I think cell phones should be wonderful and liberating. But what has happened is - - instead of what I would have thought would happen, that people aren’t so anxious to know that you’ll be home for dinner, because in an emergency you can easily call, instead has turned into this situation where they expect all these little “I’ll be home in 20 minutes”. My opinion is that cell phones are a boon to extroverted folks who just love to talk and don’t mind interruption. And the rest of us get dragged along into this style of communication that suits them.
Just as back during the advent of telephone conversation, we needed to evolve some rules to prevent folks from calling at 11:30 pm as a thought strikes them and they’re awake and wanting to talk, we need to evolve rules regarding cell phones so that cell phones work for everyone, and don’t endanger people.
I’ll pull over to talk, any phone call I need to make I will pull over to do so. My mom told me take a minute, save a life, and that was before cellphones. Probably I would not mind cellphones and driving if I had not seen so many STUPID DRIVERS ON A CELLPHONE! I wonder what in hades is so important a person cannot pull over if in desperation they have to talk on the phone.
Since I can’t hold both my beer and my phone at the same time while driving, I just leave the phone home.
My major problem with cell phones (even though I use mine a lot), is that you’re on someone else’s schedule as soon as you answer. Doesn’t matter what you’re up to, nor how important your task is, when you answer the phone, you stop what you’re doing, and pay attention to their problem. It doesn’t matter how much of a problem it is, whether it be a buy list from the better half, or a family member in need of a tow, or your best friend wanting to chat.
Like I said earlier, I use mine A LOT. but if I don’t want to or can’t answer, I simply won’t. that’s what voice mail is for. I’ve had plenty of lectures from the wife along the lines of “Why do you have a phone if you don’t answer?”, and I simply respond that either I was away from the phone, or I felt my life was more important than the call. Normally, the “life” comment will shut down any argument.
@cigroller…Now you can have both…Although not too sure how it will taste.
http://www.zazzle.com/funny_beer_phone_iphone_case_speckcase-176125693984022775
Totally agree with chaissos. A lot of the appeal of cell phones, for these items where a message left on my land line at home would suffice (which is about 99% of the calls!), is that the caller has got you. If people had discretion, that would be fine (for that needed tow).
But people don’t. They gotta have an answer right away about something because it ever so marginally might make their day easier; they’re bored and looking for some conversation; whatever.
By the way, there is no requirement, not even in etiquette, to answer a phone just because it is ringing.