The National TransportationSafety Board (NTSB), a federal agency, announced yesterday that it was calling for a ban on all cell phone use by drivers (read more here).
This is powerful news; it confirms that distraction-related accidents are about cognitive distraction. Deborah Hersman, the chair of the NTSB, says “it’s about not being engaged at the task at hand.”
It’s easy to understand why people shouldn’t text, read, or watch videos while they’re driving; that looking away from the road while driving is unsafe. Many of us have incorporated hands-free devices in our vehicles thinking that will allow us to talk and drive safely. What the NTSB has learned after 10 years of investigations into distraction-related accidents is that there are no hands-free devices that allow us to talk on the phone and drive safely. Simply stated, there are serious risks to driving and talking on the phone. Period.
People aren’t going to want to hear this. Legislators already shy away from bans having to do with any cell phone usage, even texting, while driving. Change is something that’s going to have to come from US.
This will have to be a cultural shift. Much like drinking and driving, the public will have to raise the collective consciousness around cell phoning and driving being dangerous and ultimately, unacceptable.
Trailnet is committed to take a leadership role in making the roads safer for all users. Obviously, cyclists and pedestrians are extremely vulnerable when sharing the road with distracted drivers. But we and our loved ones all travel by car sometimes; we drive, we travel in carpools and on buses; and the NTSB report shines a light on the fact that cell phones have made our roads unsafe for everyone, no matter how we travel on them.
Tell me how you feel about this report. Tell me how wiling you are to turn your cell phone off while you’re driving. Tell me what you think would work in changing peoples’ behavior.
Ann Mack
Executive Director
6 Comments
jasonpbrown said
I'm torn here. I generally agree that cell phone usage is a debilitating development of the modern era in so many ways, but I also wonder how a completely hands-free experience of answering calls is any different from participating in a lively conversation with passengers while driving. There is some difference for sure, in some occasions (i.e. more eyes on the road, more vested interest in no wrecking), but how much of a measurable difference that makes might be less impressive that we think.
I could be way off base, of course. I'm sure someone has had the common sense to perform that study, and I've just missed the results, so if anyone could direct me to that information I'd appreciate it. Maybe everyone but me is sure that it is an apples vs. oranges comparison.
However, If the results are similar in terms of cognitive distraction, and I can't see how they would be radically different, then isn't the NTSB also saying that carpooling is a risk, at least to some degree? Doesn't that raise a new obstacle in ideologically reducing the number of cars on the road, which also makes biking safer?
I'm all for trying, don't get me wrong. I'm happy to put my daughter in charge of the phone while I drive, but I also feel that talking during a drive keeps me more alert than otherwise. There were times when I arrived at work and couldn't recount the experience in detail if my life depended on it (and didn't it?!).
Personally, I think the best thing for changing behavior is experience. The more bikes we get on the road, the better. The more education we give to our fellow bikers, the better. I'd love for Trailnet to create a pamphlet for cyclists to carry that they can hand to hobbyists that are doing it wrong, intolerant drivers, or even just interested people that outlined some of the rules of the road, both legislative as well as common sense. I would carry a stack with me every time I ride, hand them to the unhelmeted, the wrong-wayers, the non-signallers, the sidewalkers, the dashboard-punchers, and every single person that has commented on how they could never do what I do for reason X.
I remember how much safer I felt driving my motorcycle in San Diego compared to St. Louis, and I attributed that entirely to visibility. Motorcycles were on the street year round there, and people were used to seeing them. I think we need to get cycling to that point, before we really start seeing a shift in road ownership mentalities.
Jim Martin said
A distracted driver is the number 1 concern I have when I, or one of my loved ones or friends are out on the road on a bike. There are many areas we all ride where the margin for error is only a few feet and it only takes seconds for a car or truck to drift that much. There have been numerous studies which show that cell phone use and texting behind the wheel significantly degrades driver performance.
Legislating against texting or cell phone use is only a very small step to addressing this problem. Real change comes when the activity is no longer socially acceptable. The state of smoking acceptance today is a result of many factors including a decades long public education effort and constant reminding of the negative impacts of smoking. The effort to get people to stop driving "under the influence" is following a similar path (though not quite as far along yet I think.)
I support banning texting and cell phone usage in moving vehicles, but I would be even more supportive of encouraging the public education process. Beyond that, EVERY single one of us has to lead by example, and not just when its convenient. And when your friend asks you why you didn't answer their call or immediately respond to their text, you explain that even though the probability of an accident is small, its not safe to split your attention when you're behind the wheel. That's how you can contribute to the long process of changing the way our society looks at this practice.
Jeff Cook said
Two points on this. Explain exactly how this is different than having a conversation in the car. Then tell me how it will be enforced because the law against teens texting while driving is a failure. Something like 125 tickets since they enacted it....please. You can not enforce this while sitting on the side of the road staring at a radar gun. Well intended laws can still be bad laws.
jasonpbrown said
That's what I'm on about. Many forms of behavior are detrimental to driving, but legislating against some of them and enforcing any of them could prove a ridiculous imposition on personal freedoms, even if proves possible.
Like Jim said, education and social pressure are the only real way to make headway here. I mean, I would refuse a ticket for texting while driving if I was guilty of such behavior, strictly based on the hippocracy of being pulled over by a person who was banging away on a laptop keyboard while driving.
Kelly Sleeper said
As terrible as it sounds .. some people are able to drive and then as a secondary consideration talk to a passenger or on the phone, while others are incapable of this division of priorities. Some can chew gum and walk at the same time while others will fall down. You can't legislate common sense and I'm tired of people saying because it "could be if stupid does it" all of us will stop.
Not me
Happy New Year
Kelly
Russell Waltz said
Kelly, I don't know - if a tree falls in the woods and nobody hears it, does it make a sound? Likewise, if you are driving and on the phone and don't see anyone, were they really there? It might have been me swerving to the shoulder - please read on. I tend to agree with the thinking of Jason, Jim and Jeff, we need more public awareness concerning distracted driving. Laws sound nice, but how does an officer enforce it? I rarely travel with 4 wheels, most of my time is spent on a bicycle, most of my miles by motorcycle. I have been run off the roadway and onto the shoulder many times. All but twice it was a single occupant motorist on a cell phone. Once was a young man tuning his radio on North Lindbergh, once was two young ladies talking and making wild lane changes on I-270. Fortunately for me, such drivers tend to telegraph their inattentiveness and I was able to prepare an exit strategy. Kelly, it is the one I may miss that has me thinking...?