"The Texas A&M Transportation Institute studied people driving a closed course under three conditions: while texting by hand, while texting by voice (using Siri for iPhone and Vlingo for Android), and without texting at all."
The results surprised me—and troubled me. Turns out it makes absolutely no difference whether you text hands-free or by voice. “Response times were significantly delayed no matter which texting method was used,” the study says. In each case, drivers who were texting took about twice as long to react as they did otherwise. Incredibly, they also spent less time watching the road, even when they were texting by voice."
It doesn't make intuitive sense. It seems as though texting by voice should be safer than looking at your phone. And to be sure, this was only a single study, involving only 43 subjects."
We already knew that hands-free phone conversations are just as dangerous as hands-on, and now we know the same thing about texting by voice. You shouldn't text at all while driving. Your teenagers shouldn't. I shouldn't."
Scientific American , MyFoxNY.com
30 comments:
It's a sign of progress that nobody talks about walking and chewing gum anymore.
Many people can do many things at once. Some not so much. A 43 person study in which they all demonstrated a capacity to not be able to handle even voice texting only implies that maybe they shouldn't be driving at all.
This problem will not be solved until enforcement of no-texting laws are carried out. Anyone found to be texting while driving should be arrested, car towed, taken to jail over night, and bonded out just like drunk drivers. Drunk driving was barely an issue until enforcement became serious. Text-idiots will not take it seriously either until the pain is worse then the pleasure of foolish behavior.
Yeah, I'm unfair. Tough. live in the driving texting and yakkity yak capital of the world. I'd add smashing the phone to bits on the pavement immediately as well.
So, I guess we will soon be arrested for talking to other people in the car with us, listening to the radio, singing outloud either with or without the radio.
Perhaps we should have our hands velcroed to the steering wheel in the classic 10 o'clock 2 o'clock position and wear a brace that keeps us "eyes forward!!!" Seat belts on. Helmets in place. Air bags already deployed so we don't bump our fragile selves into anything remotely sharp, pointy or hard.
Oh. Hell....Just stay home and order all your groceries and booze from Amazon Prime. Play Grand Theft Auto V instead. Avoid the whole thing. Living....geeze....so hard and dangerous.
Oh, well, driving your car will be a thing of the past a decade from now.
Automated smart roads will do the work for you.
Will those automated smart roads be programmed by the wonderful people that brought us healthcare.gov?
DBQ, I do not doubt that there may be laws coming that might begin to curtail things like eating in your car, drinking non-alcoholic beverages in your car, talking, using your infotainment system, etc. etc. It won't be overt, but it will happen. Especially in this nanny state world we live in.
Come on Meth, don't be like that. Think of the children!
DBQ - Why leave the house, indeed.
There should be a law!
Stay home, collect welfare check and vote for your favorite celebrity~Democrat through your gaming portal.
(1) Another sign of progress: The red light would turn green and the guy in front of you would just stay there and you'd toot your horn and he'd be all like "Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't paying attention. Off I go."
Now it's like "Fuck you, asshole. I'll go when I'm done texting."
(2) I think the recommended hand positions now are 9:00 and 3:00 because of air bags and the risk of arm fractures. Pretty sure about that.
(3) The old advice about using the other hand for a special treat every now and then remains unchanged. Pretty sure about that, too.
DBQ ... Over extend the issue much? That "study" of voice texting surprisingly included the necessity to read a text before responding by voice. No, you cannot read a text simultaneously with driving a vehicle and not degrade your driving.
This is not about multi-tasking, such as voice communications between passengers and driver or via radio or hands free cellular device, which does NOT distract significantly from driving if the driver is not a bobble head yakker...or seated jive dancer and air guitar player to radio music.
My point, the sole point is that if we wish texting while driving to be illegal, then it has to be enforced to such a degree that it becomes a deterrent.
Eric the Fruit Bat said...
I think the recommended hand positions now are 9:00 and 3:00 because of air bags and the risk of arm fractures. Pretty sure about that.
My son took driver ed a year and a half ago. They were taught 8:00 and 4:00 because of the airbag issue.
Can you talk to your passenger(s)?
Our vehicles (with one exception) don't have air bags. And also lack many other options that are considered normal. This lack is a distinct plus for us.
Just another bogus study. I'd love to analyze how they got their "conclusion".
BTW, too many yahoos think they can drive at 60 MPH, while applying make-up, texting or eating.
@ Aridog
I completely agree... using your hands for texting, talking on the phone and even eating while being the driver should all be illegal. Doing things that require you to use your hands for anything other than driving is dangerous and should be fined severely.
However, I see the slippery slope of banning all sorts of other "potentially" distracting activities while driving. Just because SOME people can't walk and chew gum at the same time doesn't mean that everyone should be banned. I seriously do see them making many ordinary activities illegal and even creating activities that are more distracting than just letting it be.
For instance. While it might be safer in the event of an accident to have your child strapped in BACKWARDS in the back seat because they have invented the dangerous conditions of airbags attacking you in the event of a small fender bender..... as a mother, you tend to want to check on your child more often when they are out of sight and when they are fussing or crying in the back seats. SO you take your eyes off of the road more often and are glancing in the back of the car instead of just being able to glance to your right in the passenger seat where your child is located.
Personally, when we had a cd player, I found it incredibly distracting to listen to those books on CD while driving. Just because "I" can't do it well, should everyone be banned.
That "study" of voice texting surprisingly included the necessity to read a text before responding by voice.
I didn't see that at the second link. And why would that be true? Siri also reads your incoming texts out loud. I wonder if the results have something to do with the order in which they did the trials.
Icepick said...
Come on Meth, don't be like that. Think of the children!
I am and you won't be able to interact with them either while driving and they will most likely have to be straight-jacketed in place as well.
I am and you won't be able to interact with them either while driving and they will most likely have to be straight-jacketed in place as well.
Children already have to be locked into a five point harness. A straight jacket would be only slightly more restrictive.
And I had to buy a new seat recently for my growing little monster. ("RRRROOOOAAAARRRRR!!!!!!") They go up to 100 pounds now on requirements. My mother didn't crack 100 pounds on a regular basis (save for pregnancies) until she was in her 40s. And she was 5'2" tall. I keep wondering if she would have been required to use one of those booster seats under current laws, but I'm afraid to look into it. The nation has lost its fucking mind on this and so many other issues.
DBQ , Meth, et al.....we are making this way too complicated. It is NOT about all those other "distractions", it IS about the cellular one...texting or jabberwocking.
I can pass 100 cars on a simple trip across town on surface streets and I guarantee you 85-90 of them will be driven by someone yakking animatedly on a cell phone. I watch my neigbors get in the cars in their driveways, and get on their phones before they even back up to drive off. Yes, I've called several asshole or fuckface to their face. I am nice like that. We have hundreds of little children, pre-school on the sidewalks...someone kills one I might lose my mind (distracted ya know) and kill them. WTF?
The way to stop it is to make getting caught doing it painful. Period.
Where I live the majority of cellular users don't have "Siri" and won't until Obamaphones come from Apple.
It is NOT about all those "other" things...it is ALL about fucking cell phones.
My wife ran a light and had a wreck while listening to a book on cd. She does not so that anymore.
This is not about multi-tasking, such as voice communications between passengers and driver or via radio or hands free cellular device,
Technically it is about multi-tasking, and the things you listed are not multi-tasking. You may be confusing high-speed serial processing with parallel processing. Higher brain functions like driving a car or holding a cognitive conversation cannot be done in parallel. Some people can process these activity serially very fast. The delay in reaction is the delay in switching processing.
Please note, I'm not saying the human brain cannot parallel process, because it can. But processes that occur in the same portion of the brain, such as cognitive decision making, is serial.
Aridog, you are welcome to say I'm wrong, because honestly I have not done my own personal research. The information above comes from a discussion and demonstration I had with the Mercedes Benz racing team that conducted such research to determine the information that could be managed by a driver during a race. The demonstration was pretty convincing to me.
Personally on the driving issue, I wish we had stricter laws on who can and cannot get a license. By who, I mean how skilled and knowledgeable they are in handling a vehicle and knowing traffic laws. In Texas, for example, there is no longer a behind the wheel driving test to get a license.
DBQ, With airbags you should not have your hands @ 10 and 2. They can blow your hand into you face. You should have your hands lower, like 8 and 4.
Some say 9 and 3, but an engineer who does accident reconstruction thinks 8 and 4 is a bit better. Whichever feels more comfortable, just lose the 10 and 2.
Bullshit! I can text, mix a rum and coke, and roll a perfect doobie simultaneously while driving so fast it blows my date's clothes off. It's just a matter of practice. Up your game.
I use 11 and 1, but with my arms crossed. It just feels right. Besides, survival is for pussies.
If legislators weren't afraid of THE SCIENCE, mothers would be banned from driving with young children in their cars.
More dangerous than a .08 BAC -- no joke.
Oh, hands-free TEXTING. I thought it said something else.
Leland, I'll not argue about serial versus parallel mental processing. As switch speed increases you cannot distinguish anyway. A fighter pilot with a HUD is not comparable to a teenage driver with a smart phone. But, tell me where you didn't just affirm my point?
The point is simply, if we want to stop texting while driving killing machines, make the punishment harsh for texting while driving. Period.
PS: I am equally disgusted with the latest child seat requirements. Plus, this thread has convinced me to disable my steering wheel air bag this week for sure.
What did the Mercedes-Benz race drivers say about position of hands on steering wheels?
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