Study: Drivers on Cells Clogging Traffic

[SUBMAN1]

THey are now just figuring this out? What a bunch of idiots!!! How long have they been in the left lane and some idiot on a cell phone is not even doing the speed limit?

-S

Study: Drivers on Cells Clogging Traffic




By SETH BORENSTEIN – 19 hours ago


WASHINGTON (AP) — Drivers talking on cell phones are probably making your commute even longer, concludes a new study.


Motorists yakking away, even with handsfree devices, crawl about 2 mph slower on commuter-clogged roads than people not on the phone, and they just don't keep up with the flow of traffic, said study author David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah.


If you commute by car an hour a day, it could all add around 20 hours a year to your commute, Strayer said.


"The distracted driver tends to drive slower and have delayed reactions," said Strayer, whose study will be presented later this month to the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. "People kind of get stuck behind that person and it makes everyone pay the price of that distracted driver."
Strayer's study, based on three dozen students driving in simulators, found that drivers on cell phones are far more likely to stick behind a slow car in front of them and change lanes about 20 percent less often than drivers not on the phone.


Overall, cell phone drivers took about 3 percent longer to drive the same highly traffic-clogged route (and about 2 percent longer to drive a medium congested route) than people who were not on the phone. About one in 10 drivers is on the phone so it really adds up, said Strayer, whose earlier studies have found slower reaction times from drivers on the phones and compared those reaction times to people legally drunk.


Combine those factors and Strayer figures distracted drivers are adding an extra 5 to 10 percent of time to your commute.


It's simply a matter of brain overload. Your frontal cortex can handle only so many tasks at one time, so you slow down, Strayer said.


Generally the study makes sense, but what happens to students in a simulator may not translate to real world conditions, said Anne McCartt, senior vice president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Further, she said the study itself points out how distracted drivers are slower, but is short on calculations on just how it affects other drivers.


Wireless phone companies encourage people not to talk on the phone in bad traffic, said Joe Farren, a spokesman for the cellular phone industry's trade association. But he said he couldn't comment on the study because he had not had a chance to go over it.

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5j...B-7uAD8TU072G2

[Letum]

"not even doing the speed limit"?
You know the speed limit is the maximum speed, not the minimum? :rotfl:

[Q3ark]

Not only are thay slower, thay are most likely to cause/be involved in an accident. A recent study here in the UK has shown that reaction times are slower and are almost as bad as with drunk drivers when using the phone behind the wheel.

[SUBMAN1]

Originally Posted by Letum

"not even doing the speed limit"?
You know the speed limit is the maximum speed, not the minimum? :rotfl:

Not in the US - you even get a ticket if you drive 15 MPH slower than the posted speed. THe left lane is also a passing lane, not a slow cell phone lane. Holding up 5 or more cars is also ticket conditions.

-S

[STEED]

Plenty of rubberneckers here to put up with without this lot as well.

[Ducimus]

If i ever see a bumper sticker that says, "GET OFF THE PHONE AND DRIVE!", its going on my car - which currently has no bumper stickers at all. If that tells you how i feel about it.

heres a lovely story. Picture a T intersection with a stop light. With the horizontal part of the T being the main street, and the vertical part of the T being a road that comes in and out of a shopping center. I was on the main drag, stopped at a red light. Some woman was pulling out of the shopping center, talking on the cell phone. So engrossed in the conversation she was, she drove very slowly, and then, im guessing at really engrossing part of the conversation, stopped all together.

She was in the middle of the intersection, and my light turned green.

I then drove up , placing my bumper about a foot from her driver side door, and laid into the horn. (which is rather loud i might add, not your little beep, but a HOOONNKKK ).

The look on her face as she looked up was priceless, and the obsenities uttered from my mouth, equally entertaining. :rotfl:

[Weigh-Man]

In the Uk it was made an offence to use your mobile while driving a couple of years back.

Currently you can get fined and points added to your licence (12 points and you get a driving ban)

However it was recently announced that people caught using there mobiles while driving will now be sent to prison

You can still use hands free devices like bluetooth but even thats not encouraged, there have been studies that say having any kind of conversation while driving is akin to drink driving in terms of your response times and situational awareness

[STEED]

Originally Posted by Weigh-Man

In the Uk it was made an offence to use your mobile while driving a couple of years back.

Currently you can get fined and points added to your licence (12 points and you get a driving ban)

However it was recently announced that people caught using there mobiles while driving will now be sent to prison

I see on average 20 a day breaking the law, so why do they? Simple it's a law they can not enforce and people know it.