Do you use your cell phone while driving?
 

I was wondering if everyone uses their cell phone while driving, and if so, do they think they do it safely? There's an initiative in New York to make it illegal, which could certainly affect all of us travelers out there.

Elaine, it's not an initiative in New York, it's the law. Effective December 1, it's against the law to use a hand-held cellphone while driving. Other states will follow soon.

We keep a cell phone in the glove compartment for emergencies only. OK! so we have used it to call in a chinese food order, but we never call as the driver. State laws are many times so ludicrous. Many states penalize drivers for not wearing seat belts (which can only harm the driver) but give no penalty for using a cell phone while driving which could harm all other drivers. Bravo for N.Y.

I am guilty of using my cell phone. I try to be as careful as possible, (only dial at red lights or in stop and go traffic) but it really isn't completly safe and I won't be surprised or disappointed if they make it illegal here in CA to drive while using them. I missed my freeway change today because I was using it...you get distracted and keep right on driving...dumb!

I have a built in "hands free" phone which I assume will soon be a standard feature.<BR><BR>BTW the "law" in NY goes into effect 11/1/01, but no fines until December, and fines are waived during the next two months if the offender presents the court with a receipt for purchase of a hands free phone system.

I have caller id on my phone. If its a number I know-depending on what driving situation I am (traffic, freeway, or stop light, etc.) I will or will not answer. I have voicemail so if I usually let it pick it up. If I do answer it is a quick call, I never have long conversations.

Seen in one of those 'Little Book of Crap' type 'success manuals' here in the UK ( but a US book ) :-<BR>"Talk on your cellphone &amp; drive or drink coffee &amp; drive, but don't do all three". Thanks Einstein.

If I need to use my cell phone, I pull over, unless I am stuck at a standstill in traffic and need to tell my husband. Frankly, there is absolutely no one I need to speak to that desperately that I have to use it while driving. I like to think of my car as a way to get away from the phone. I think there are way too many self-important people out there who think the world will spin off its axis if they don't put down their phone for a little while.

In Spain (where everyone has a cellphone), it's illegal to drive and talk on the cellphone at the same time. You have to stop your car. However there are lots of people that break this law.

Like Gene, we keep a cellphone in the glove box for emergency use.<BR><BR>My observations:<BR><BR>1. Another distraction for a generally inattentive driving population (the US) is just what we need.<BR><BR>2. The notion that one should be constantly available and continually in contact with others is unfathomable to me. I am so glad my socialization occurred before there were such things as pagers and cellphones.

Yes - I do use my cell phone while driving. I do not feel it is any more a distraction than say, eating a Big Mac, talking to a passenger, or turning around to yell at your kids. In fact, I believe AAA did a study and found those activities seven times MORE distracting than using a cellphone. I guess there is no reason for NY to allow fast food drive thrus since eating in the car will be illegal next.

At my boyfriend's and mother's insistence I keep a cell phone in the glove box for emergencies, but resisted getting one for as long as possible. I don't like talking on the phone, don't care to be 24/7 accessible, and my driving is such that I can barely chew gum and drive at the same time, let alone dial numbers and talk on the phone. The few times when I've used the cell phone in the car I pull over and stop to make my call. I have used it when someone else was driving, however.<BR><BR>I live in long island and I can't tell you the number of boneheads I see driving while eating, drinking, smoking, talking on the phone, checking out their hair, etc., anything but watching the road, and they usually have their children in the back as well. I'm amazed each day that I don't see more traffic accidents than I do. And furthermore, I'm sure I'm a dinosaur, but I think people who walk around all the time with a cell phone glued to their ear look silly. I travel to get away from the phone, the fax, email, etc., but these things are great for emergencies and for people who need to in constant touch.

I use my cell phone a lot while driving, but only a certain type of driving. Stop and go is OK. Sparse freeway traffic is OK. Urban areas, crowded freeway, windy streets are a no. No dialing while moving. No answering the phone while the car is moving.<BR><BR>Made my first cellphone related driving error the other day, though. I was on the cell phone on tiny unfamiliar residential streets, going very slowly, looking for a pedestrian I was supposed to pick up. I turned the street he was on, and every driver I came across was giving me a weird look. I was going the wrong way on a one way street. Better pull over and look for my friend on foot.

Dave, you're an idiot!

The New England Journal of Medicine published a study recently which sought to quantitate the risks of driving while using a cell phone.<BR>The conclusion: impairment is equivalent to driving while intoxicated.<BR>Case closed.

I'm sure you realize Cell Phone Use is only a small part of the driver distraction issue. We held a major hearing on this problem this spring. If you're interested in learning more about driver distraction, please access www.nhtsa.dot.gov/hot/, and scroll down to Safety Implications of Driver Distraction When Using In-Vehicle Technologies. Part of our effort to date was a virtual conference on distration held on the internet last July. I hope you'll find this infomation interesting. May I also suggest the lead article in the current New Yorker magazine, which describes how pasenger vehicles are being equipped to offer occupants entertainment and distraction to help compensate for the miseries of sitting in traffic congestion. Drive safely. Ciao

I never use my cell phone while I'm driving. Sunday afternoon I was run off the road by a man using his, I don't think he even noticed. Luckily, my car and I are both fine.

Oops---<BR><BR>Why do you say using a cellphone in stop and go traffic is okay? I would imagine that's one of the worst times to use one, since there's a good chance of rear-ending someone if you're distracted for a moment. I can understand making a quick call if you're stopped for several minutes in traffic, but when traffic gets moving again, do you immediately end your call? What about if traffic only moves a few feet forward and then stops again? Seems pretty silly to hang up just for that, right? What happens if the person in front of you slams on their brakes and you need to swerve to avoid hitting them? Will you really be able to do so with one hand on the wheel and one clutching your cellphone to your ear? I doubt it. I'm sorry if it seems like I'm picking on you, that's not my intention. But I have to laugh at all the self-imposed "rules" you and others have listed here. It's too easy to bend them "just this once". As far as I'm concerned, the only real rule is, not while you're on the road and only when the car's in park.

Actually, I think stop and go traffic is a reasonable time to use a cell-phone. Where I live, stop and go means stop and creep. Under those circumstances, I have to watch one thing and one thing only to avoid causing an accident -- the bumper of the car in front of me. Not hard to do that and talk at the same time. <BR><BR>Now, keeping an eye on red lights, stops signs, cross-traffic, speed, pedestrians and cyclists while using a cell phone -- that's too much. So I don't do it. <BR><BR>I have a perfect 24 year driving record, and I'll keep using my cell phone under conditions I consider appropriate until I'm made to stop.<BR><BR>By the way, studies show that handsfree cell phone use is just as distracting -- it's the conversation that is distracting, not holding the phone. <BR><BR>And as for the idea that using a cell phone impairs me as much as someone legally drunk -- I'm not buying it. The drunk is impaired for the whole trip. The cell phone user is not.

I've used restrooms where people use their cellphones whilst sat on the John ! A guy answered his phone &amp; must have been asked where he was because his first words were 'I'm on the crapper' ! YEUCHH !!!!!

Oops---<BR><BR>I'm glad to hear you have a perfect driving record, but don't you think it may give you a false sense of security? It doesn't even have to be your error, but if you're distracted at the very moment some bad driver screws up, there goes your perfect driving record, and you'll be lucky if that's the only thing lost. I'll agree with you that hands-free cellphones are still a distraction. And I'll agree with Dave and Ess that eating, drinking, fixing makeup, smoking, etc are distractions too, distractions that I've certainly been guilty of in the past. But why add a cellphone to the equation and make things worse? Oops--- you said that using a cellphone while driving isn't like driving drunk because the cellphone user isn't impaired for the entire trip, but what about when they ARE on the phone? Would you agree that they are impaired then?

The new Mercedes come with built in DVD players (with 4 separate screens in some models), and I know several people in LA who have had DVD players put into their cars so they can WATCH MOVIES while on the highway!!!!!

I do use mine while driving, but I am not a big cell phone user anyway and get annoyed by how many I see in distracting places like classrooms and museums. Unlike what you would expect from someone who tends to drive fast up and down the highway in a Mustang, I think I use mine very carefully. Other than the speeding, I am a very attentive and law-abiding driver. I wouldn't like to see a law against using them at all while driving, but at the same time people need to pay a lot more attention to what is going on around them (look in the mirrors, use the turn signals, etc.), and many have a hard enough time doing this without the phone. A radio personality here was talking yesterday about actually seeing someone riding down the highway on a moped trying to light a cigarette. He also had seen a semi driver with a phone in one hand and a sandwich in the other.<BR><BR>Maybe they should just be outlawed on extremely busy highways, and the law should not extend to standing traffic. If I am in a traffic jam, I should be able to call my wife to tell her she needs to pick up my daugther at daycare.

Actually, I use a car while driving. Cell phone just seems too slow, and that safety issue? It has no seatbelts!

Say No,<BR><BR>I appreciate your rationale discussion of this subject, and you should know that I'll abide by whatever law is passed. I really don't feel that strongly about it. But I do question the research, because everything I've read shows that, despite the boom in cell phone driving, traffic accidents and fatalities continue to decline. So I think the jury is still out on whether this is really a problem.<BR><BR>Yes, I probably don't drive as defensively when talking on a cell phone, so someone else could hit me while I'm talking. But I figure it's my risk and my choice to risk a fender bender on the freeway that someone else caused.<BR><BR>And while I'm on the subject of traffic safety overkill, I'll also criticize those red-light running cameras. My husband got one of those tickets for blazing along at 18 mph in a business zone and being .4 second too late at a red light. Had he gunned it, he would have avoided the ticket. Anyway, he went to court on it and won! The picture of the infraction was so unclear that the judge could not honestly tell what color the light was. <BR><BR>All those cameras do for me is alert me to the intersections at which I'd better gun it if the light goes yellow on me.

I am an avid cell phone user for my work and am on the phone a lot while driving. I have to say that I have heard of the dangers of use while driving so I try ot be very careful. I alos agree with the previous poster that careful use is no more dangerous than doing things like eating, putting on make up, reading maps, yelling at children in the backseat et. while driving. I do not use my ellphone beause I am self-important. My job requires me to be on the road 4-6 hrs out of 10 hr day. I call on clients and a lot of times my office is my car. specifically I may be in some city and realize that I will be late for my next appt. and it is important for me to call. Furthermore, I may deide I'm done early with one lient so I should call another and ask if I can swing by there. If I pulled off every time I made a call, I would never get anywhere. Besides many tiems I will be traveling 80-100 miles between appointments and this gives me time to discuss at length issues with my clients. Some days I on't even go to my offie, others I may only be there an hour or two. If my clients can not get hold of me on the road, they would never be able to get hold of me! On another note, what do you people who do not use cell phones while driving do if you don't know where you are going? I would all the person and have the person talk me through the route as I drive it.

Dan, your comment reminds me of our trip to Italy last fall.<BR>I was driving in Florence, amazed by the lack of appropriate lane usage on the 6-8 lane major streets in the city, where Vespas (their generic term for motor scooters) outnumber cars by a 3 to 1 ratio.<BR>I was passed by a beautiful 20-ish young woman in a nice business suit, on a Vespa, cigarette in one hand, cell phone up to the ear in the other hand, peeling along at 40 mph in traffic so dense there was no more than 2-4 yards average between vehicles.<BR>It was like something out of a strange movie the way all these vehicles buzzed along at relatively high speeds, switching lanes constantly without signals and almost no passing room....yet I never saw an accident or evidence that one had occurred.

Beth---<BR><BR>I just have one question: What ever did you do before cellphones were invented?! All that time wasted in the car, in restaurants, museums, grocery stores, etc, when you could have been talking to clients. By the way, I use a map to get where I'm going.

Let's bring this back to travel-related topics. (Yeah, I know, car driving IS travel, yaddah yaddah yaddah)<BR><BR>Has this ever happened to you:<BR>At the dolphin show at Chicago Aquarium, a father of two answers his cell. Starts yelling, because there is so much noise in the public forums. No one speaks up or ushers him away... everybody trying not to make a fuss.<BR><BR>Or the scenic view of Devil's Tower on a brisk morning with spouse and no one else in the park -- except for the other couple holding separate conversations on their separate phones. <BR><BR>Theaters, sporting events, restaurants, restaurants, restaurants!<BR><BR>ARGH!<BR><BR>I have started to become a hardball over people using cell phones in public travel arenas. I like to make "nonsense" talk in the background, so the phone user has to go to a more private place. Or when they hang up, ask if I can borrow their phone so they can hear my babble about what to pick up at the grocery store.<BR><BR>Just trolling along...

"Say No" I hate to be rude (I'm a regular poster usually don't get that way) but . . . since you were, I will answer. First off, I do not use my cell phone constantly on my own time so I probably wouldn't be using it in museums, grocery stores etc. I specifially said I use it for work and during business hours. I am a consultant so yes I do travel for work and call on my clients. this is not only common but a must in the business. As for what I did before cell phones were invented, I am 30 years old and have had a cell or car phone since I was in college and certainly all my working life. It didn't bother me when they weren't around because I was too young then to need one. By the way, if you use a map to get around and don't pull off to the side of the road to look at it, you are even more dangerous than a phone user!

Actually research is beginning to show that the focus on cell phone DISCUSSIONS reduces concentration on the driving task. There are other issues as well. Did you read about the 27-year old model Nicki Taylor's crash in Atlanta three weeks ago ... her boyfriend was driving, and his phone rang ... he looked down in reaching for it and front-ended a power pole. Nicki, although belted, went critical at the scene with a ruptured liver, and for the next two weeks was touch and go in ICU at Grady Memorial. She has survived, thankfully.<BR><BR>Funny letter in the Post a year ago, from a man extolling all the new in-vehicle conveniences. He described how he received e-mail and phone calls, sent messages, used GPS, watched news on his car TV, and so on. He said he was writing the letter from his hosptial bed at GW University in DC ... because while he was using all his new communication toys and getting the jump on business competitors, he'd failed to notice traffic coming to a halt. Traffic fatalities in 2000 actually increased to 41,800 ... distraction, plus rage, are major new culprits. Be glad NY took the lead ... as NY did with the first mandatory safety belt law in the spring of 1984, and with county-option for belts on school buses in the mid-1980's. Distraction from cell phone calls is no joke!! Ciao

No one asked, but here's my observation:<BR>We are a society of WASTE. Do we REALLY need to be using a cellphone while driving a car? Do we REALLY need to receive a fax while driving a car? Do we REALLY need to be using a cellphone as we shop for groceries? Do we REALLY need to get a new computer every other year? Do we REALLY need GPS (Global Positioning System) in our cars? Do we REALLY need to have a VCR and TV in the car so the kids can watch a movie on the way to school? Do we REALLY need hulking, gas-sucking SUVs (and how many drivers of these SUVs ACTUALLY go off-road)? C'mon, people.

You are incorrect in your thinking "Oops...".<BR>Even if traffic accidents and fatalities were declining annually, that does not allow one to conclude that cell phones are not causing more accidients.<BR>Fatalities started going down long before cell phones were commonplace. If cell phones contribute to more fatalities, that may simply SLOW the rate at which the overall decline is ocurring.<BR><BR>That's all theoretical.<BR>The actual FACT is that the insurance industry has carefully documented that cell phones MARKEDLY increase rate of accidents and fatalities.<BR>This is not a controversial or debatable issue.

When I'm in my car all I do is drive. How old-fashioned!

Sorry Beth, I meant my questions more for all cellphone users in general than just you. If that came off as rude, I apologize, I should have made myself a little clearer. As for using a map though, I make sure to study my route before I start driving, so I don't need to read it while I drive. I will grant you that I have seen many a driver trying to read a map while they're on the road, and I agree that it's terribly dangerous.

Mary, traffic deaths in the US are actually increasing, not decreasing. The number was up by 200 plus from 1999 to 2000, to about 41,800. The fatality RATE increased as well. However total injuries were down slightly, but still well above 3 million. More deaths occurred due to more crashes associated with impairment and more motorcyclist deaths (much of this attributable to the repeal of helmet usage laws in states like Texas and Florida). Deaths in crashes with large trucks were up as well. Road rage, impairment, and now distraction, plus the fact that more seniors are driving, represent some of the leading causes of crashes. The role of the SUV is insidious ... its lack of compatability with other passenger vehicles produces override, and thus occupants in non-SUV's are the worse off. Curbing how cell phones are used in vehicles is necessary. Ciao

Mike, <BR><BR>Picture this one. Driving down a 3-4 lane street in Taipei, young taxi driver burning insense on the dash, and instead of slowing to avoid the throng of motor scooters, constantly changing lanes. Sounds like Italy, huh?

JT Kirk,<BR><BR>Actually the only places I use my cell phone are in the grocery store and the video store. Then I load up my groceries in my SUV and drive home. Sorry.

This discussion made me think of something that I saw on the freeway in stop and go traffic a few weeks ago.<BR><BR>A woman using the rear view mirror to shave her armpits!!!<BR><BR>I've seen the application of makeup but this was a first...YUCK.<BR><BR>People think they are invisible in their cars and no one sees them!

Mike: Your description of the vespas is right on. Do you know that the work means "wasps"?? And, where is it that has made it illegal to eat while driving---I think it might be the UK. Is this correct? No, I don't use mine while driving. I find Bay area freeways insane enough but many drivers are whizzing along in the fast lane with cell phone.