Albuquerque City Councilors have had
in front of them several bills over the last few years which would outright ban
cell phone usage while operating a motor vehicle. In 2008 Albuquerque followed the lead of many
cities in the United States by banning mobile phone usage which did not include
a “hands-free device”. Last year I was
lucky enough to read a report by Dr. Strayer at the University of Utah which
addresses the idea of cognitive load while operating a motor vehicle at the
same time as a mobile device. While some
of his statistics are related below some others from the CDC and
distraction.gov are also listed.
Although we as consumers of information are used to having the “world at
our fingertips” is this information enough to get drivers to put down their
mobile devices for a short period? (Lots
of information here but make sure you don’t miss the last part by Strayer and colleagues!)
http://www.distraction.gov/content/get-the-facts/facts-and-statistics.html
Drivers who use hand-held devices
are 4 times more likely to get into crashes serious enough to injure
themselves. (Monash University)
Text messaging creates a crash risk
23 times worse than driving while not distracted. (VTTI)
Sending or receiving a text takes a
driver's eyes from the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent-at 55
mph-of driving the length of an entire football field, blind. (VTTI)
Headset cell phone use is not
substantially safer than hand-held use. (VTTI)
Driving while using a cell phone
reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37%. (Carnegie Mellon)
http://www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/Distracted_Driving/index.html
25% of drivers in the United States
reported that they “regularly or fairly often” talk on their cell phones while
driving.
In Europe, percentages ranged from
21% in the Netherlands to 3% in the United Kingdom.
75% of U.S. drivers ages 18 to 29
reported that they talked on their cell phone while driving at least once in
the past 30 days, and nearly 40% reported that they talk on their cell phone
“regularly” or “fairly often” while driving.
In Europe, percentages of young
adults who reported talking on their cell while driving at least once in the
past 30 days ranged from 50% in Portugal to 30% in the Netherlands.
9% of drivers in the United States
reported texting or e-mailing “regularly or fairly often” while driving.
In Europe, percentages ranged from
10% in the Netherlands to 1% in the United Kingdom.
52% of U.S. drivers ages 18-29
reported texting or e-mailing while driving at least once in the last 30 days,
and more than a quarter report texting or e-mailing “regularly” or “fairly
often” while driving.
In Europe, percentages of young
adults who reported texting or e-mailing while driving at least once in the
past 30 days ranged from 44% in Portugal to 17% in the United Kingdom.
Cell phone distraction causes 2,600
deaths and 330,000 injuries in the United States every year, according to the
journal's publisher, the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society.
The estimates of annual deaths
reported in this week's article (2,600) may well be low. The number, for U.S.
deaths related to drivers using cell phones, comes from a 2002 study by the
Harvard Center for Risk Analysis (HCRA). Researchers then estimated that the
use of cell phones by drivers caused approximately 2,600 deaths.
http://www.livescience.com/121-drivers-cell-phones-kill-thousands-snarl-traffic.html
Drivers talking on cell phones were
18 percent slower to react to brake lights, the new study found. In a minor
bright note, they also kept a 12 percent greater following distance. But they
also took 17 percent longer to regain the speed they lost when they braked.
Strayer and his colleagues have been
down this road before. In 2001, they found that even hands-free cell phone use
distracted drivers. In 2003 they revealed a reason: Drivers look but don't see,
because they're distracted by the conversation. The scientists also found
previously that chatty motorists are less adept than drunken drivers with blood
alcohol levels exceeding 0.08.
"If you put a 20-year-old
driver behind the wheel with a cell phone, their reaction times are the same as
a 70-year-old driver who is not using a cell phone," said University of
Utah psychology professor David Strayer. "It's like instantly aging a
large number of drivers."
Sources (All sources retrieved on January 25, 2013)
“Distracted Driving” retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/Distracted_Driving/index.html
“Drivers on Cell Phones Kill Thousands, Snarl
Traffic” retrieved from http://www.livescience.com/121-drivers-cell-phones-kill-thousands-snarl-traffic.html
“What is Distracted Driving?” retrieved from http://www.distraction.gov/content/get-the-facts/facts-and-statistics.html
AJ,
ReplyDeleteI like the statistics you have provided on this subject as they show variations among data. I agree that cell phone usage behind the wheel is not the best idea, as I attempt to do it as little as possible, but I would also like to simply state that phone usage may not be the root of the problem. I believe that a major part of the issue in and of itself is that drivers now feel they are less responsible while on the road. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration fatal crashes have decreased in the recent years (http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx). While this number only reflects highway accidents that result in fatalities (a very specific number), I suspect that they could be applied to the idea that respect for automobiles has significantly diminished as accidents are apparently resulting in fewer fatalities. It is my hypothesis that as vehicles become more safe, drivers become more negligent of their actions on the road and are much more likely to take risks such as using cell phones while operating their machinery.
Also as a brief aside (and in pure Mortonian-style), I wish I could find some data on motorists who have had multiple accidents as the result of phone usage, so I could claim that less fatalities result in more repeat offenders. Alas, that would only be bad science.
Kevin
Kevin. Interesting idea. I wonder if there is any statistical data to reinforce the strength of that particular hypothesis. The trouble with something as nonspecific as the "illusion/idea of safety" is that the second you attempt to measure it you change the criteria and opinion of the person being studied. Although I think your idea is interesting it doesn't really address the specific statements made by Dr. Strayer. The idea of cognitive load is that the human brain can only handle so many tasks at the same time. (The formal definition is: The term cognitive load is used in cognitive psychology to illustrate the load related to the executive control of working memory (WM). Theories contend that during complex learning activities the amount of information and interactions that must be processed simultaneously can either under-load, or overload the finite amount of working memory one possesses.) Because this is a testable hypothesis the research which Strayer and colleagues have done (without a priori hypothesis) allows for an interpretation which happens to coincide with the DOT data.
ReplyDeleteI guess the reason why I presented my idea in such a fashion was to allude to the fact that I disagree with Dr. Strayer's research methods as described in his article, Driven to Distraction, (http://www.psych.utah.edu/AppliedCognitionLab/PS-Reprint.pdf) which, I assume, are similar to the methods he has used to come to this conclusion (I would appreciate a copy of that report if you still have it in event my assumption is incorrect) . While his method does simulate a similar situation as driving, I do not think it fully applies to the act of driving. Driving is something most people are at least somewhat proficient with and do with relatively high frequency which is not just a fifteen minute warmup session for something you likely have never seen/done before. If you were to ask me to sit at a computer, maneuver a joystick, press a "brake" button (the perception of the task itself seems more difficult than driving to me depending on the computer's settings), and then try to convince me it is the same thing as driving a car, I would disagree. I feel it provides data valid for that testing situation. Yes, people can be distracted while performing multiple tasks (we know this, a priori), but can you with certainty say that the instance of being interrupted while sitting at a computer preforming a task via joystick is the same thing as driving a vehicle and being interrupted via a text? I would say no, however this does not mean that I condone the use of cellphones and driving at the same time. Like my proposed hypothesis, I believe measurements of variables such as Working Memory are hard to accurately test when not preformed under exact circumstances.
ReplyDeleteKevin,
ReplyDeleteYou are absolutely right. The testing method which he uses is consistent with the testing method which is used in virtually all studies of driving which cannot be safely tested on the road. I believe that is related to the Internal Review Boards desire to keep experiments within a safe "humane" boundary. Although I believe your proposal is interesting I don't think that a test as you'd propose it is possible utilizing our current scientific study methods. Although would we be able to travel back in time to before the Belmont Report was written and acted upon it might be possible. Alas, then there would be no cell phones to test.
I attempted to paste the study parameters to this message; however, the content was too large for it to be accepted. If you'd like to look it up this study as well as Dr. Strayer's other studies on attention (including his book) are all available within the UNM library system. Although most of them are lengthy (this one in particular is not) they make for some interesting empirically accepted reading.