I have a manual transmission, which makes hand-held use very impractical; even then I never installed the Bluetooth set that a friend gave a couple of years ago because I believe in full attention being given to the road.
I do my best to stay off of my phone while I’m driving. I use it for GPS navigation, and maybe the occasional text when I’m at a red light (but even that is rare). I will SOMETIMES make a call while driving but I don’t do it very often. I’d say overall it’s way less than 1% of the time I’m on the road that I am also on my phone, but definitely greater than 0%
In the past year, I’ve probably called co-workers about six time to say “I’m on my way,” if I was running later than my usual 5-10 minutes early, and answered maybe four calls from hubby or kids while driving. I voted 1-10%, because it’s more than zero, but I’m just not a good enough driver to do both. And I’m a pretty okay driver.
Time for a citizens’ arrest maybe? This is so reckless and dangerous. Every single day while commuting? ughhh I hate people uuuugh
I think it’s illegal to drive and talk on the phone in Chicago (if it’s not, it should be). I’m not far from Chicago and I don’t plan to get into the habit; I figure it’s like smoking, eventually they’ll outlaw it everywhere.
I have placed a few calls while driving, very VERY rarely. Only if I can’t pull over and it’s important to make a call. I will never answer the phone while I’m driving. I guess I might if I knew to expect an emergency (like my sister’s nearly 9 months into her pregnancy, or whatever). But I would still have placed or taken those calls even if it was illegal, so… only for emergencies. But they’re so rare (like 3 times in the 7 years I’ve been driving) that I said never.
Second option for me too…no lengthy conversations, most often I ignore the phone when it rings while I’m driving but short calls for a specific purpose as others have said upthread, yep I do that.
I was (at home) and on the phone with a friend who was driving, and she is one of those people who has the phone plastered to her head every waking minute. I heard a BANG and she then said “shit, someone just hit me!” And, someone had, and the assumption might be that she was at fault but she wasn’t. Accident investigators came out and put all the blame squarely on the guy who pulled out of a driveway without looking.
Could my friend have avoided the accident were she paying better attention? She says not but who knows.
FWIW, it’s fully legal here (although texting is not.)
According to almost all of the studies done, you would be wrong. The act of having a conversation with someone who is not present in the car is the distraction, not holding the phone or glancing at it (but I agree that dialling it is also a distraction). Texting, of course, is distracted driving because you are looking at your Blackberry and typing on it instead of driving.
I drive a convertible. I rarely make or take phone calls while driving, unless it’s a planned event. That 45mph wind going by is picked up by the mic!
-D/a
See? Everyone should drive a convertible!
That wouldn’t work for about six months out of the year in Michigan! 
How do you know that? She may be an excellent driver with or without the cell phone. Or she may still an above-average driver on the cell phone. I understand that talking on the phone is overly distracting for some people, but not for everyone.
As long as it remains legal here, I like the idea of using my time wisely. I have a short drive on back roads to and from work, and am on the phone for the entire time.
Fuck your citizen’s arrest. She’s on one straight freeway for 90% of her trip. Not like she’s bopping around the Trader Joe’s parking lot trying to get the best space like most people driving with cell phones up to their ears.
I’m usually listening to an audio book while driving, but if I’m not I don’t mind chatting on the phone. I’ll answer the phone while driving most of the time, too. I think I’m a better than average driver (I’ve never been in an accident in the 23 years since I’ve been driving, and I’ve only gotten 2 speeding tickets, both when I was 18 years old) and while I may be slightly distracted while on the phone I think I’m still a good driver while talking. Also if there is a tricky traffic situation or weather problem I’ll get off the phone and concentrate on the road.
So you’re saying it’s fine that she’s distracted at high speeds and/or in highly congested traffic rather than in a parking lot? 
I know it’s supposed to be dangerous, but I see more people than not, at least in Chicago, talking while driving. Just wait at any bus stop and count, you’ll easily come up with more than 50% of the cars passing you by, with people talking and driving.
There should be a lot more accidents if statistics are to be believed.
Maybe that’s the solution; have a distracted driving test like this one be part of driver testing, and you get a restricted license if you can’t pass the test with, say, a 95%.
Here are some statistics for you:
I wasn’t being serious about arresting her. It was hyperbole. 
But talking on a cell phone on a freeway, constantly, is dangerous and indefensible. I’d be much *less *likely to care if she was toodling around on the phone in a parking lot, because parking lot accidents are so rarely fatal. Inattention is far more likely to kill at highway speeds.
I feel strongly that someone who drives better while distracted than an average person drives while not distracted still has a moral obligation not to be distracted. Because if their driving is truly that much better than average, they could avoid an accident that they wouldn’t have been able to avoid while distracted (or that an average or below-average driver wouldn’t have been able to avoid, period). You see what I’m saying? Distracted driving is still undesirable because it always makes anybody drive worse, no matter how high one’s base driving skill is.
Moreover, there’s no way to “rate” one’s base driving skill as better or worse than average, anyway. Because *everybody *overestimates their own driving prowess. And the driving test is pass/fail, which only asks for the bare minimum level of competency. There’s no way to know whether you would have scored an A+ or a D-, because a pass/fail test treats both those grades exactly the same. It is also totally possible for a terrible driver to have a clean accident record, because they drive on barely-populated roads most of the time and/or have gotten really, really lucky that the drivers around them were able to compensate for their terribleness. So accident record isn’t a reliable judge of driving skill, either.
To sum, your sister-in-law’s distracted driving is dangerous and indefensible, because it is wholly fucking impossible for her to be a better driver while distracted than she would be if she put down the fucking phone. She’s bored on her commute? OH, how terrible! Cry me a fucking river. Sing along with the radio like the rest of us, and stop driving distracted, god dammit.
I voted 1-10% but only because I will sometimes shoot off a reply text while stopped at a light or similar,
I said 1-10% because I don’t like talking on the phone but I will answer a call and provide an ETA for me to call back and actually have the conversation. I always use a hands free device to do so.
I did use Siri to read and respond to a couple text messages while driving last week though 
Cellphone use is illegal in most of the cities and states that I drive. Going by how many people I see daily driving with their cellphones to their ears, the law doesn’t seem to have any impact on behavior. If anything, I wouldn’t be surprised if studies eventually show that making cellphone use illegal causes more accidents than if there was no law at all. Now drivers, in addition to focusing on their conversations and their driving, also have to look out for cops.