Cell phone junkies are as bad as drunks!

This is a study from 2006, but since the authorities and politicians
have not acted on it or even talked about it, we must assume TRAFFIC
SAFETY IS NOT IN THEIR LIST OF PRIORITIES. And since CYCLISTS HAVE THE
MOST TO LOSE from a collision with the cell phone junkies and drunks,
we must place them in the "most wanted" list of criminals. Oh, the
authorities and politicians could be their accomplices if this were a
court of justice.

Drivers on Cell Phones Are as Bad as Drunks

Utah Psychologists Warn Against Cell Phone Use While Driving

"A student talks on a hands-free cell phone while operating a high-
tech driving simulator. The simulator was used during a University of
Utah study that found motorists who talk on cell phones while driving
are as impaired as drunken drivers with blood-alcohol levels at the
legal limit of 0.08 percent."

http://unews.utah.edu/p/?r=062206-1

NOTE: Some states are found to be totally innocent since they have
passed cell phone restrictions.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Riding a bike costs peanuts --which is why monkeys love biking"

http://webspawner.com/users/donquijote88

KingOfTheApes said the following on 30/07/2008 15:47:
This is a study from 2006, but since the authorities and politicians
have not acted on it or even talked about it, we must assume TRAFFIC
SAFETY IS NOT IN THEIR LIST OF PRIORITIES.

Speak for your own country, not the UK where both are illegal.

--
Paul Boyd
http://www.paul-boyd.co.uk/

"KingOfTheApes" wrote: "A student talks on a hands-free cell phone while
operating a high-
tech driving simulator. (clip)
NOTE: Some states are found to be totally innocent since they have
passed cell phone restrictions.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The study was based on driving with a hands-free phone. So California
passed a law making it illegal to drive while holding a phone to your ear,
while hands free is still legal. If anything, that will make matters
worse, because you won't be able to look at a driver and know whether he is
drunk-equivalent.

Talking on a phone, hands free or not, is a channel which sucks your
attention away from driving.

On Jul 30, 11:54*am, Paul Boyd wrote:
KingOfTheApes said the following on 30/07/2008 15:47:

This is a study from 2006, but since the authorities and politicians
have not acted on it or even talked about it, we must assume TRAFFIC
SAFETY IS NOT IN THEIR LIST OF PRIORITIES.

Speak for your own country, not the UK where both are illegal.

A little feedback from Europe doesn't hurt America.

Likewise many Europeans many not know that in America is perfectly
legal to drive the way you please.

Call it "cultural exchange."

On Jul 30, 12:14*pm, "Leo Lichtman"
wrote:
"KingOfTheApes" wrote: *"A student talks on a hands-free cell phone while

operating a high- tech driving simulator. (clip)

NOTE: Some states are found to be totally innocent since they have passed cell phone restrictions.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The study was based on driving with a hands-free phone. *So California
passed a law making it illegal to drive while holding a phone to your ear,
while hands free is still legal. * If anything, that will make matters
worse, because you won't be able to look at a driver and know whether he is
drunk-equivalent.

Talking on a phone, hands free or not, is a channel which sucks your
attention away from driving.

Never saw it that way, but an article that I read cites that 300 lives
may be saved in California by placing such restrictions.

Completely banning the phone may take something like another Civil
War.

KingOfTheApes wrote in
:

This is a study from 2006, but since the authorities and politicians
have not acted on it or even talked about it, we must assume TRAFFIC
SAFETY IS NOT IN THEIR LIST OF PRIORITIES.

Of course not. The cell phone industry and the auto industry pay our
congressmen big money to leave the cell-phone-driving issue alone.

On Jul 30, 1:14*pm, "Speeders & Drunk Drivers are MURDERERS"
wrote:
KingOfTheApes wrote :

This is a study from 2006, but since the authorities and politicians
have not acted on it or even talked about it, we must assume TRAFFIC
SAFETY IS NOT IN THEIR LIST OF PRIORITIES.

Of course not. The cell phone industry and the auto industry pay our
congressmen big money to leave the cell-phone-driving issue alone.

Man, you have a way to say things in a crude yet precise way.

"Leo Lichtman" writes:

"KingOfTheApes" wrote: "A student talks on a hands-free cell phone while
operating a high-
tech driving simulator. (clip)
NOTE: Some states are found to be totally innocent since they have
passed cell phone restrictions.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The study was based on driving with a hands-free phone. So California
passed a law making it illegal to drive while holding a phone to your ear,
while hands free is still legal. If anything, that will make matters
worse, because you won't be able to look at a driver and know whether he is
drunk-equivalent.

Talking on a phone, hands free or not, is a channel which sucks your
attention away from driving.

It's a bit more complex than that. Other research,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080531084958.htm,
indicates that a conversation is significantly more distracting for
visual tasks if the sound does not seem to be coming from where one is
looking.

Ideally, the orignal experiment mentioned in
http://www.psych.utah.edu/AppliedCognitionLab/DrivingAssessment2003.pdf
should be repeated with a sound system set up so that the speaker seems
to be in front of the driver.

It may be (and checking in a simulator beats trying this on a highway)
that cellphone users should use hands-free devices that are dashboard
mounted with the speaker in front of the driver.

BTW, the California law could be a lot better - it technically makes
it illegal to make a call while stopped at a red light. If there is
a line of 10 cars in front of you, you'd have enough time to make
a quick phone call to tell someone you are stuck in traffic and will
be late, with the call completed before traffic starts moving again.

--
My real name backwards: nemuaZ lliB

On Jul 30, 5:54 pm, "Bob Myers" wrote:
"Kent Murdick" wrote in message

...

I saw a guy driving while playing the guitar and
steering with his foot.

Wow - I can't even play the guitar with BOTH feet,
let alone play AND steer with one.

Oh, wait...you meant....never mind....

Bob M.

That's nothing. Soccer moms manage to chat on the phone while changing
the pamper of the baby, and keeping an eye on the other kids. And they
drive the infamous SUV that are most deadly!

But they are nice moms, huh?

BTW, the California law could be a lot better - it technically
makes it illegal to make a call while stopped at a red light.
If there is a line of 10 cars in front of you, you'd have
enough time to make a quick phone call to tell someone you
are stuck in traffic and will be late, with the call completed
before traffic starts moving again.

=v= This seems very very impractical to make an exemption for.
What if the call takes longer than expected for any reason
whatsoever? Well, then we can expect motorists to be driving
(or obliviously holding up the line of traffic) "just this
once," "just for a second," etc. etc.
_Jym_