Why (in your opinion) are people still talking on cellphones while driving?

[Thudlow_Boink]

I just saw, yet again today, a driver pulling out of a parking lot while holding a cell phone to her ear. Which makes me suspect that many people who talk on cell phones while driving actually start the call before they start the driving.

If this is in fact typical, it suggests to me that one or both of the following things may be taking place:

People believe that it’s the looking at or fiddling with the phone to make the call, rather than the actual talking or even holding the phone, that’s the particularly dangerous part

or

People sometimes have trouble ending a call they’ve started earlier, and are hesitant to say, “I have to hang up now so I can drive.”

[Peremensoe]

I voted both of the first options here, but with the caveat that I don’t make or answer calls in difficult or compromised driving situations–traffic, weather, not knowing where I’m going, etc. I’m also scrupulous about obeying speed limits in built-up areas (I mean really only going 25 MPH through town), and preserving following distances in all cases. I certainly agree that phone conversations (including hands-free devices) tend to make all drivers worse.

[Cat_Whisperer]

@Blaster_Master

I’m not justifying the usual things about how important I think I am, in fact, as I said, I rarely talk on the phone while driving except when it’s directly pertinent (eg “Hey, I’m running late, I’ll be there in 10 minutes” or “What was your address again?”).

Believing that the way that your brain works is necessarily the way that other people’s brains work is just silly. I am special only in that my brain operates more efficiently when it’s more fully engaged and, as I understand, this is not typical. <snip>

I’d be really curious to have you do a distracted driving test like this one. (There is a great one set in England that I’m having no luck finding.)

As for being safer when you’re driving a familiar route, I’m not sure about that - that’s when you’re more likely to go on “auto-pilot,” and that’s almost as bad as being distracted.

[Novelty_Bobble]

@Blaster_Master

I actually feel safer listening to music or talking on my cell, as rare as that is, than I do driving in a quiet car; I will not modify this behavior because someone else needs quiet when they drive.

And here is the point. You* feel* you are safer but yours is not an unbiased opinion is it?
I don’t doubt that you function better with an external stimulus. That in itself is not unusual and I share that trait. I myself fiddle and doodle and listen to music.
But the studies done on this suggest that listening to music and talking on the phone are entirely different animals.
The phone call is far more distracting, even a conversation with a person in the car puts different demands on the brain and is less of a distraction than a call with a disembodied voice. (either hand-held or hands-free).

What is more likely, that you are a rare creature who’s brain works very differently to the norm? or someone who is deluding themselves into thinking that it can’t happen to them?

Lets hope that you never find out you are the latter.

[Cat_Whisperer]

Okay, my husband sent me the link for the British distracted driving test - it’s a really good one. One thing I notice for myself doing any of these tests is not only are my reactions slower and my attention divided, but I’m freaking stressed - I feel like yelling “LEAVE ME ALONE! I’M TRYING TO DO SOMETHING HERE!” I’m not even sure if I mean the cellphone stuff or the driving - all I know is trying to do both at once is one too many things for me.

[Muffin]

@Barkis_is_Willin

You’ll glance at your radio to adjust volume. You’ll probably glance at the steering wheel if the volume controls are there. You’ll glance at the cruise control buttons. You’ll hopefully glance at your speedometer frequently while driving.

And if you are a sixteen year old, who received his license two weeks earlier, and are driving his father’s brand new Delta 88, and have the last name Jinx (honest to God, I’m not making this up), then you’ll glance at the smoking hot blonde in the green Triumph as she passes you, and you will rear end me while I am stopped waiting for a car to turn left, compacting my car from the bumper to the back of my seat, and pushing your motor into your passenger compartment, so that I have to extract you from your car.

If it were not for a couple of public policy issues, neither smoking hot blondes nor teenage males should be permitted to drive.

[Muffin]

@Cat_Whisperer

I’d be really curious to have you do a distracted driving test like this one.

Forget the phone – I couldn’t make the lane changes fast enough even without looking at the phone. I don’t know if that means I passed or failed the test.

[Baal_Houtham]

Two weeks ago I was on a busy thoroughfare and the person (young) in the next lane was holding her phone in her right hand, and talking as her car was moving forward.

I can’t really say she was talking while she drove, because her left hand was moving around in the air, presumably punctuating her remarks. Does it count as driving if you’re not using either hand, and don’t seem to be using your legs either?

I’m sure many people have seen worse things, but it’s now my default mental image when I think about cars and cell phones.

[Muffin]

@Cat_Whisperer

Okay, my husband sent me the link for the British distracted driving test - it’s a really good one.

I flunked because I blocked out the voice – I realized that it was there, but it just didn’t register with me while I was watching the road and the pedestrians. I also flunked because I could not keep track of the pedestrians. I tried the test with the sound off, and did no better. About the only thing I did correctly was spot the surprise, but that’s just because I saw a youtube video in which there was a similar surprise.

I think the previous test that you linked to proved that I am terribly bad at hand-eye speed test video games requiring me to find certain keys on the keyboard, whereas this test proved that I do not multi-task well when driving. It matches how I perceive myself, for when I drive, my hand-free phone conversations are more like a buzz in my ear that only captures my attention occasionally – lots of “could you repeat that” on my end of the conversation, due to my missing what the person had said. A useful test that folks should try to help determine if talking on a cell distracts them. Thanks for the link.

[Little_Nemo]

I don’t own a cellphone and it’s illegal to use one while driving in my state so I have no dog in this fight.

But I’d speculate that the OP missed one big reason why people talk on a cellphone while driving - somebody called them. Obviously they should tell the caller “It’s a bad time. I’ll call you back.” but the more likely response is for people to have a conversation like they would if they got the call somewhere else.

Anyone know the statistics for the outgoing/incoming ratio while driving vs the outgoing/incoming ratio in general?

[BigT]

One I’m aware of is that it started when they were at a traffic light, and they haven’t completed the call before the light turns green as they thought they would.

This is especially common with texting.

[SeaDragonTattoo]

I voted “other” in the poll because I don’t drive and talk on the phone. I think it’s dangerous and people who do it are foolish.

[Peremensoe]

@Little_Nemo

I’d speculate that the OP missed one big reason why people talk on a cellphone while driving - somebody called them. Obviously they should tell the caller “It’s a bad time. I’ll call you back.” but the more likely response is for people to have a conversation like they would if they got the call somewhere else.

Why answer at all if you can’t talk?

People are too enslaved to their phones anyway, driving or not. I can be at home or at work and if I’m busy, and it seems likely that what I’m doing is more important than the call, I let it go. It’s my phone, I can do that.

[Hilarity_N.Suze]

Well, I am exempt from being distracted from driving while I’m on the phone in the car. I wasn’t at first–the first few times I tried it I thought, “I can’t do this; this is worse than trying to drive drunk!” (Which, BTW, I am also pretty good at, proven through a clinical test.)

But I learned how to do it.

Think about it, in all jurisdictions, the COPS are allowed to get on the radio, talk on their cell phones, check their pagers, while driving around. They probably weren’t born knowing how to do it, but THEY LEARNED.

Unless you believe the cops in your area are a hell of a lot smarter than you are, you can learn, too.

(Although probably, in most areas, the cops are a hell of a lot smarter than most of the drivers.)

If the cops aren’t enough, some jurisdictions that generally prohibit talking while driving exempt other professions, such as taxi drivers and real estate agents.

Everybody else risks a ticket.

This is leaning toward the sort of unfairness that ends in tyranny. Stop it now.

That said, there are times I won’t answer the phone. If I’m at a busy intersection waiting to make a left and it looks like I’ll have to thread the needle between clumps of traffic; if I’m driving on icy roads or in low visibility. Hell, there have been times I turned off the radio because I needed to concentrate.

Now I’m a good driver, but not the best. If I can learn this, most people who are able to pass the driving test should be able to learn it, too.

And I have no problem with a harsher sentence for a traffic violation if a cell phone was being used at the time of the violation. I do object to a ticket when the only violation is driver observed talking on cell phone.

[SeaDragonTattoo]

For a year, about 9 years ago, I worked at a coffee shop that was on the corner of a stoplighted intersection. We had large plate-glass windows that looked out onto two streets. (So, good view) I witnessed 3 accidents during that time, all in broad daylight. One sent both parties to the hospital, one sent a motorcyclist to the morgue, and the third accident everyone walked away. All three involved at least one of the parties on their cell at the time of the accident.

Call it anecdotal, but that’s too much of a coincidence for me.

People who think they’re smarter or more capable than the people in the studies are foolish. Just because nothing bad has happened to them personally *so far *doesn’t mean it won’t.

[Hilarity_N.Suze]

@SeaDragonTattoo

For a year, about 9 years ago, I worked at a coffee shop that was on the corner of a stoplighted intersection. We had large plate-glass windows that looked out onto two streets. (So, good view) I witnessed 3 accidents during that time, all in broad daylight. One sent both parties to the hospital, one sent a motorcyclist to the morgue, and the third accident everyone walked away. All three involved at least one of the parties on their cell at the time of the accident.

Call it anecdotal, but that’s too much of a coincidence for me.

People who think they’re smarter or more capable than the people in the studies are foolish. Just because nothing bad has happened to them personally *so far *doesn’t mean it won’t.

I WAS in a study. (Driving while impaired, not driving while phoning.) I drove better “impaired” than most of the other subjects did when sober. And I pretty much knew that I would. In that same way, I know I can drive while talking, or figure out when I need to drop the phone and drive (which I have done).

[Muffin]

@Hilarity_N.Suze

Well, I am exempt from being distracted from driving while I’m on the phone in the car. I wasn’t at first–the first few times I tried it I thought, “I can’t do this; this is worse than trying to drive drunk!” (Which, BTW, I am also pretty good at, proven through a clinical test.)

But I learned how to do it.

Think about it, in all jurisdictions, the COPS are allowed to get on the radio, talk on their cell phones, check their pagers, while driving around. They probably weren’t born knowing how to do it, but THEY LEARNED.

Unless you believe the cops in your area are a hell of a lot smarter than you are, you can learn, too.

I very much doubt if they have learned to safely talk and drive at the same time, or that you have either. I expect that they are exempted simply because the government has decided that they have a need that justifies the risk, whereas the general public does not have such a need that justifies the risk.

[Hilarity_N.Suze]

@Muffin

I very much doubt if they have learned to safely talk and drive at the same time, or that you have either. I expect that they are exempted simply because the government has decided that they have a need that justifies the risk, whereas the general public does not have such a need that justifies the risk.

No, they have. I was a taxi driver for a very short time. I was completely bumfuzzled by all the things you have to do simultaneously while driving (find where you’re going, talk to your passenger, jump bells, make notes on your trip sheet). Everybody said I’d get used to it.

What did me in was my completely lousy sense of direction, but in about a week, I was a lot better with everything else than the first day. I’m sure I could have gotten as proficient as anyone. But the direction thing…no.

[Muffin]

By that logic, everyone who uses a cell phone to text or talk while driving should also learn, but that is not the case.

[Cat_Whisperer]

@Hilarity_N.Suze

<snip>
Now I’m a good driver, but not the best. If I can learn this, most people who are able to pass the driving test should be able to learn it, too. <snip>

I think the problem there lies in expecting people to accurately self-judge. And while we’re on the subject, our driving tests should be a hell of a lot harder to pass, too - 39,000 fatal car collisions per year in the US is a screaming outrage.