# CellPhone Drivers..... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 10, 2005, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008 "2005-09-10T18:51:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![magellan01](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@magellan01](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/magellan01)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/21 "2005-09-11T07:34:23Z")
San Francisco, rush-hour traffic. This woman has her left signal on, then just veers right in front of me—to her right! I move over and as I pass her I see that she is on the phone and putting make-up on! How stupid can one person get? Well, stupider than that. As I pass her and look over I see what is about an eighteen-month-old kid in a car seat. Unbelievable. Cell phones + cars = bad. Cell phones + cars + some stupid bitch putting on make-up with a kid in the back = criminal behavior + something really bad just itching to happen. ---
**Author:** ![zagloba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/977dab/32.png) [@zagloba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zagloba)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/22 "2005-09-11T07:59:20Z")
> [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > In my Camry, if my right hand is on the wheel at or near the two o’clock position, I can easily reach the turn signal lever with my fingers. On the incredibly rare occasions when I must use the cell while driving, I tend to use the speaker and hold the phone in my left hand near my chest, thus not obscuring my left-side/blind spot vision. > > Just sayin’ is all. The fingers of your _right_ hand? All the left hand drive cars I’ve seen have the turn signal lever on the left side of the steering column. You have long fingers! ---
**Author:** ![soulmurk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b782af/32.png) [@soulmurk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/soulmurk)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/23 "2005-09-11T08:09:17Z")
> [@featherlou](#): > > I can’t divide my attention like that, and I’m pretty sure no one else here can either… [sub]i can. can read and sing along to a song too. but that’s just me.[/sub] I read an article sometime ago, [this](http://www.hon.ch/News/HSN/511476.html) isn’t it but it’s similar and all I could find, stating that: > [@](#): > > In a test to measure attention to the road, 20 students drove through a simulated city scene where they saw 15 billboards while talking on a cell phone and 15 billboards while not talking on a cell phone. Participants later recognized only about half as many of the signs they encountered when on the cell phone than when they were not. > > Other students took the same simulated city drive while researchers tracked their eye movements, and the students looked at the billboards for the same length of time whether on a cell phone or not. Cell phone use made it harder for participants to remember later which billboards they had seen, the researchers say. While I’m unsure of the objectivity and accuracy of the study, it seems to demonstrate what common sense tells us; being distracted negatively affects one’s ability to operate a vehicle. I’d be interested in seeing a study done not just focusing on phones though, but also passengers or searching for radio stations or digging around for the lost pacifier lodged somewhere under the passenger’s seat, etc. I think the poster above that says it isn’t the phone itself but the moron using it has a good point. Some people are better at doing more than one thing at a time, minor distractions aside (speaking for my phone calls anyway, they tend to be short and simple. I imagine there’s a difference in impairment between a quick reminder to pick up some milk and a gab session about who Johnny is sleeping with). Unfortunately, to be fair, the rules have to be set for the lowest common denominator. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 8:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/24 "2005-09-11T08:13:45Z")
> [@Mr. Roboto](#): > > If you Drive with your Right hand and talk with your left hand, How are you supposed to signal? …momentarily with your right hand? ---
**Author:** ![parthenokinesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/cc9497/32.png) [@parthenokinesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parthenokinesis)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/25 "2005-09-11T10:04:29Z")
> [@soulmurk](#): > > In a test to measure attention to the road, 20 students drove through a simulated city scene where they saw 15 billboards while talking on a cell phone and 15 billboards while not talking on a cell phone. Participants later recognized only about half as many of the signs they encountered when on the cell phone than when they were not. > > Other students took the same simulated city drive while researchers tracked their eye movements, and the students looked at the billboards for the same length of time whether on a cell phone or not. Cell phone use made it harder for participants to remember later which billboards they had seen, the researchers say. So we shouldn’t talk on cell phones while driving because is distracts us from the _advertising_?!! WTF? I think we all would be much better off if they banned billboards, so they don’t distract us from our cellphone conversations. Whatever this study thinks it proves, it’s not that cellphones cause unsafe driving. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 10:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/26 "2005-09-11T10:42:27Z")
> [@parthenokinesis](#): > > So we shouldn’t talk on cell phones while driving because is distracts us from the _advertising_?!! It is clear from the [original press-release](http://www.utah.edu/unews/releases/03/jan/cellphone.html) that it’s simulated traffic signals that were being missed. ---
**Author:** ![parthenokinesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/cc9497/32.png) [@parthenokinesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parthenokinesis)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/27 "2005-09-11T11:07:51Z")
> [@Dead Badger](#): > > It is clear from the [original press-release](http://www.utah.edu/unews/releases/03/jan/cellphone.html) that it’s simulated traffic signals that were being missed. > [@linked study you provided](#): > > Experiment 2 indicated cell phone conversation inhibits attention to the driving environment rather than simply slowing a motorist’s reaction time. > > Twenty students in this experiment drove in a simulated city scene that included **billboards**. Each student drove six 1.2-mile sections of suburban streets, making an average of two left turns and two right turns. Each motorist saw 15 **billboards** while using a cell phone and 15 while not using the phone. Then each student left the simulator and sat in front of a computer that displayed, one at a time, 45 **billboards** , including 15 the student did not see in the simulator. Students were asked to say “old” if they had seen the **billboard** previously during the simulated drives and “new” if they had not. Participants were less accurate in remembering which **billboards** they had seen while driving the simulator using a cell phone. Bolding mine. Nary a mention of traffic signal, except in the summary paragraph at the beginning of the article. It appears those who made the study decided if you can’t remember the billboards, you wouldn’t react to traffic signals either. I find this very shoddy science. The first experiment, which was drivers reacting to brake lights, had a failure rate of 7.5% during congested traffic. To my mind that could easily be the segment of the population that can’t walk and chew gum at the same time. YMMV, but this study doesn’t suggest it varies due to cell phone usage. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/28 "2005-09-11T11:31:05Z")
If you look at the image in the article, it’s pretty plain that the signs are not advertising hoarding types, nor are they off the side of the road. They are simplified signs intended as a testable measure of visual attention, and the subjects were aware that they were supposed to be paying attention to them. You are reading too much into the word “billboard”, IMO. I would agree that the brake light experiment needs to be repeated with more participants if “total number of crashes” is to be used as a reasonable indicator, however in dismissing 7.5% as low, you omit the fact that that’s 7.5% of cell-phone drivers who had a rear-end accident in the simulation _over the space of just 40 miles_. That’s a pretty large percentage. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/29 "2005-09-11T12:07:11Z")
Having read the [actual article](http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A//matrix.aklab.psych.ubc.ca/uploads/Elina_Cellphones_JEPA.pdf&ei=DhokQ4ubJcOAQpyz8L8M) (warning, PDF), it appears that the subjects were in fact subjected to a surprise memory test, but it’s unclear exactly what form the billboards took. The article says they were digitally captured real-world examples, but doesn’t show a picture. Additionally, the brake test you dismissed is considerably more complex than you indicate, with tasks allocated amongst the participants so as to eliminate the “muppet” effect you claim is responsible for the results. There are more measures of performance than simple crash occurrence rates, and these consistently show significantly impaired performance when conducting a cell-phone conversation. Oh, and the three crashes in the high-density traffic cell-phone brake test scenario took place in a mere 10 miles per subject, not 40 as I mistakenly said earlier. ---
**Author:** ![parthenokinesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/cc9497/32.png) [@parthenokinesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parthenokinesis)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/30 "2005-09-11T12:26:03Z")
> [@Dead Badger](#): > > If you look at the image in the article, it’s pretty plain that the signs are not advertising hoarding types, nor are they off the side of the road. They are simplified signs intended as a testable measure of visual attention, and the subjects were aware that they were supposed to be paying attention to them. You are reading too much into the word “billboard”, IMO. Well, the fact that the subjects were supposed to pay attention to the “billboards” is not anywhere stated in the linked article, do you have a further cite, or is that an assumption? Also, the photo is too blurry to read the sign, even in the high resolution link, nor is it stated that it is one of the aforementioned billboards. Also the definition of billboard > [@Webster's New World Dictionary](#): > > a signboard, usually outdoors, for advertising posters. is pretty goshdarned specific. So either we are talking about roadside advertising, or the reasearchers have misstated the parameters of their study, neither of which adds to the credibility of their findings. Also the study used undergraduates, which is going to put most, if not all of them in the 18-22 age range, overall an age group which has limited driving experience, and is one of the demographics most likely to have accidents anyway. Also a group that has grown up on video games, and will most likely relate driving a simulator to that, rather than actual driving. This whole study may have more value if interpereted as to how cell phone conversations affect your score on GTA. ---
**Author:** ![parthenokinesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/cc9497/32.png) [@parthenokinesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parthenokinesis)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 12:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/31 "2005-09-11T12:29:55Z")
Aack, :smack: must remember, preview before post. Lemme read the artice. I’ll be back. ---
**Author:** ![parthenokinesis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/cc9497/32.png) [@parthenokinesis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/parthenokinesis)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/32 "2005-09-11T12:58:48Z")
I’m a bit tired here, so I really couldn’t follow a lot of the dense science speak right now. My guess on the age range was a bit low. Average age 23.6, still relatively young drivers, but not a bunch of kids with 50 hours behind the wheel. Experiment 1 probably merits further study. I know this is hardly an argument, but if I had to have a 20 minute cellphone conversation with some stranger, I’d probably deliberately crash the car just so I could get off the phone. But, I realize that’s just me. Experiment seems even less conclusive, these people seems a little less able to remember if they’d seen “billboards” which they had no reason to pay attention to, but the driving directions were given in road sign format, and there wasn’t any mention of failure to follow those directions. That seems to imply the cellphone conversation only affects non imparitive visual memory, and may keep one from being distracted by pictures of buxom Hooters girls. I dunno, I’ll try reading more after I sleep. Anyway, thanks for the links, interesting stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Dead\_Badger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/848f3c/32.png) [@Dead\_Badger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dead_Badger)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/33 "2005-09-11T13:45:42Z")
I’ll agree that the billboards one isn’t the most convincing of the experiments, but for me, the brake test in particular has some rather undeniable results. The age range of the participants seems somewhat irrelevant, as this is controlled out of the experiment. And small sample though it might be, a 7.5% accident rate over just 10 miles in dense traffic is pretty startling, no matter what age group is driving. I’ll get back to watching cricket inexplicably not being played then. G’night. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 1:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/34 "2005-09-11T13:55:15Z")
I tried to drive my cell phone but it’s manual, and I can only drive automatic phones. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/35 "2005-09-11T14:59:43Z")
I have listened to books on tape while driving, and IMHO, they are even more distracting than cell phones or conversations. I have missed an exit on more than one occasion due to being distracted by a book. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/36 "2005-09-11T16:46:09Z")
I have a bumper sticker on one of my cars that reads “Hang Up and Drive the Car” It gets me either a thumbs up or the bird! 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/37 "2005-09-11T17:01:59Z")
> [@parthenokinesis](#): > > So we shouldn’t talk on cell phones while driving because is distracts us from the _advertising_?!! WTF? I think we all would be much better off if they banned billboards, so they don’t distract us from our cellphone conversations. Whatever this study thinks it proves, it’s not that cellphones cause unsafe driving. This post and the argument following it is specious. The point is not that talking on a cellphone makes you pay less attention to advertising; the point is that talking on a cellphone makes you pay less attention to your surroundings, and when you’re driving, that’s a bad thing. **Gus’n’Spot** , I agree with you - there are indeed people in the world who can drive safely and talk on a cellphone at the same time. Most of the people out there right now driving and talking on cellphones think they are doing it safely, and most of them are wrong. Most people also think they are good drivers, and we know for a fact that 50% of all drivers are below average. ---
**Author:** ![Smeghead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f1d935/32.png) [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/38 "2005-09-11T17:06:50Z")
Yeah, and what’s the deal with airplane peanuts? I mean, am I right, people?! ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/39 "2005-09-11T17:46:58Z")
Why don’t they make the WHOLE PLANE out of that black-box stuff? ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2005, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008/40 "2005-09-11T17:48:32Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > Why don’t they make the WHOLE PLANE out of that black-box stuff? Oh, right: [http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4\_001.html](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a4_001.html) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cellphone-drivers/321008.md?page=3)