Use of Cellphones while Driving

[DavidS]

(Re: Scott's invitation for comments on a new law introduced into some states of the US)
As far as I know, the compulsory use of hands-free kits while driving has been in force in several countries for some years now.
About the "distraction" comment - if you're just talking, it is no worse than holding a conversation with a passenger (which bus drivers are NOT allowed to do in some countries).
Of course you shouldn't dial, unless it's to a number you have programmed for one-touch dialling.

<small>[ 09-21-2005, 02:57 PM: Message edited by: DavidS ]</small>

[OperaTenor]

First, I talk on a cell phone from time to time while driving.

But....

As a motorcyclist, at least 75% of the people who cut me off or pull in front of me are on their cell phones, seemingly oblivious to the world around them, overly engrossed in their conversation. I have no proof, but I wouldn't be surprised if the kid who hit me in 2003 was yakking away when he made that lazy left turn and hit me.

Until people in general can take the act of driving seriously, I feel drinking, eating and talking on the phone should be against the law, with penalties akin to those for reckless driving. Those are all things I occasionally do while driving, and would gladly give them up.

JMO.

[DavidS]

OT - You are quite right about taking driving seriously.
I have seen hands-free kits on motorbikes too.
If I am at a traffic light and I see in my mirror that the guy behind me is on the phone (not using a hands-free kit), when the light changes I STAY WHERE I AM until he rings off.
Oh and another thing - in the UK many years ago someone was fined for using an electric shaver while driving! I only do that while waiting at the lights.

[OperaTenor]

I once rode by a woman traveling in the #1 lane on a four-lane freeway(the furthest left lane, i.e., the fast lane) who was using her rear-view mirror to curl her eyelashes at 70mph!

[Shapley]

OT,

How do you curl your eyelashes with a rear-view mirror? I thought they had a little gizmo for that.

<small>[ 09-21-2005, 05:09 PM: Message edited by: Shapley ]</small>

[BigJon@Work]

Originally posted by DavidS:
About the "distraction" comment - if you're just talking, it is no worse than holding a conversation with a passenger (which bus drivers are NOT allowed to do in some countries).

Actually it is worse. You use up a portion of the visual processing part of your brain when you are on the phone that you do not use when you are talking to somoeone in person. Weird, I know, but that's what the brain scans show.

[OperaTenor]

Oh Shap, you're so literal!................................sometimes.............

Looking at herself in the rearview mirror while curling her lashes with an eyelash curler, while driving her car at 70 mph.

Better?



Hi Jon,

It makes sense to me. I know when I'm talking on the phone I tend to mentally visualize more than when I'm face to face with someone.

<small>[ 09-21-2005, 06:00 PM: Message edited by: OperaTenor ]</small>

[piqaboo]

My, that lady's car had a good suspension! If I tried that, I'd end up poking out an eye!

[DavidS]

Originally posted by OperaTenor:

Looking at herself in the rearview mirror while curling her lashes with an eyelash curler, while driving her car at 70 mph.
It makes sense to me. I know when I'm talking on the phone I tend to mentally visualize more than when I'm face to face with someone.

1. Are you sure she wasn't using the mirror behind the sun-visor?
2. Some of the things people do when waiting at the lights are unbelievable:
(a) Seinfeld: "That wasn't a pick, it was a scratch!"
(b) And a lady colleague of mine using tweezers...
3. Now I wasn't talking about the kind of phone with a realtime video pic of the other party...

[BigJon@Work]

Originally posted by DavidS:
3. Now I wasn't talking about the kind of phone with a realtime video pic of the other party...

You might be missing my point. Listening and talking into the phone uses up visual cortex. It's not intuitive, but apparently our brain uses some of what it has learned in processing visual cues to process the remote conversation cues.

When we comunucated on the radio to our racecar drivers, we only talked to them on the straights. They could talk in the corners, but it took away too much of the brain power and caused them to make driving mistakes.

[DavidS]

BigJon,
I hear you, and cannot argue with scientific findings (I was quipping about the videophone).
I find the distinction between chatting with someone sitting next to or behind you, compared with talking hands-free to someone at the other end of a communications link - interesting.
What about listening to radio broadcasts?

[OperaTenor]

Hi David,

I was so stunned I slowed down to observe her just long enough to get an indelible impression. She was using the interior rear view mirror. Her nose was less than 2 inches from the mirror while she had the curler clamped on her eye. At 70 mph.

[BigJon@Work]

The first hands-free phones were built into the sun visor on Lincolns. On sunny morning on a CA freeway where the minumum speed was around 80 mph, I saw an elderly lady talking into hers. She had the shade tilted down and was sticking her nose up to the ceiling to talk into it, completely blocking her view of the road ahead.

Unclear on the concept? You bet!

<small>[ 09-21-2005, 10:31 PM: Message edited by: BigJon@Work ]</small>

[DavidS]

Just to go back to Seinfeld - remember the way he caricatured cars in Florida (driven by SC's)?
At first you think the car has been left in "drive" and run away without a driver, then you see a pair of hands on the wheel. If you are patient, you may now and then see a head come up like a periscope to peer over the wheel & check if the way is sill clear...

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

I suppose y'all are gonna tell me not to knit on the freeway, now.

Some people have no imagination.

[DavidS]

Hard to believe, but I seem to recall as a child hearing my father comment on the number of people he saw driving with a baby or young child in their laps. Apparently a law was brought in just then banning the practice.

[Selma in Sandy Eggo]

<ahem> Recollection is accurate, David. I used to drive the car all the time, sitting on my Daddy's lap. Not on the freeway, of course: they hadn't been invented yet. I did drive all the way home from Needles to San Bernardino, a time or two.

I still really like to drive.

[Trumpetmaster]

I've watched people reading the newspaper while driving.

[OperaTenor]

If you haven't seen this, you've missed out. I think this is one of the best shorts I've ever seen, right up there with Bambi Meets Godzilla.

405 the Movie

Great CG effects!

[Serenity]

Can you show a link for Bambi meets Godzilla?