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More on Cell Phones

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Basil

Basil

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Yet another study on the dangers of chatting while we drive. I do it on rare occassions, but I usually try to pull off the road if its more than just "Pick up Milk on the way home."

Cell Phones and Driving.

(Don't shoot me, I'm only the messenger).

Basil /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angel.gif
 
I'm with you 115%. If I absolutely must answer a call in the car, I will only do it on speakerphone and unless I'm in stop and go traffic or on the open road I'll pull off somewhere. It drives my wife absolutely crazy.

I read another study recently that showed reaction time while talking on a cell phone is as bad as when driving drunk.
 
Me too...I always pull off unless the traffic is already stopped(which it usually is anyway)...I only have a phone for work(provided by the company) if it where up to me I wouldn't even have one.
 
I've seen the drunk-driving = cellphone-while-driving study.
Judging from what I've seen, I believe it.

The editor of Road&Track magazine just did a piece on this subject.

I have followed literally dozens of cars wandering back and forth between lanes and going 10 mph under the limit.
These days my normal reaction to such driving is: "That person is either drunk or on a cell phone".

I've seen two accidents in the last year by cell-phone "talkers". One involved a guy who rear-ended someone and another where a woman ran right over a large dog while on the phone (she could have easily missed it...she never even applied the brakes until afterwards).

And I do not personally believe that the hands-free units help very much....the person is still distracted.

And I have seen folks text-message and using Blackberries while driving. How can anyone be so indifferent about the safety of themselves and others? Beyond belief to me.

Also, I am amazed how folks "assume" it's OK to use a cell phone while in a public place such as a grocery-store line, book store, subway, etc. The people around them are essentially "trapped" and forced to listen to their yammering. On the rare occasions when I use a mobile phone, I pull over or if I am on foot, I move away from other other people.

Sadly, it seems safety and common courtesy are "out-of-fashion".
 
I'm moving to the woods!
But even that won't work, cause even then, when I try to enjoy a night of stargazing, a third of the sky is obscured by the glare of the lights from the Sprawl-mart plazas downtown.
And they're putting in a new one now. Even bigger! even brighter!
~sarcastically~ Oh boy! I can't wait! 3 times the noise, lights, and traffic, most of which are yakking away on cell phones, drinking starbucks, and fiddling with thier GPS while veering all over the road.
I'm moving to the woods....
I wonder if there are any positions for "career Hermit" in the classifieds
 
I'm inured from it by now. Tho I do seem to become more distracted lately while driving: watching for maroons with cellphones, driving irratically. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/rolleyes.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Sadly, it seems safety and common courtesy are "out-of-fashion".

[/ QUOTE ]

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/iagree.gif and it's very unfortunate.

I've also seen people reading newspapers at 70 so it's much more than just cell phones. The most suprising thing I saw was a women seperating her eyelashes with a razor blade, in a Suburban, at 80 mph between Lansing and Flint Michigan. It wasn't the smoothest interstate highway either.

/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cheers.gif
 
After I nearly broadsided some ditz who casually glided through the red light with the phone glued to her ear (staring directly at me with a surprised look, no less), I wouldn't mind if cell phones are banned while driving.
 
I've had near-misses with people on phones (you know the kind - they have the phone up to their left ear and their left elbow is sticking straight out, preventing them from ever hoping to look left), but also with people reading books, talking to friends, feeding their kids in the backseat, etc.

The only time I've ever actually had an accident was with someone doing none of the above - it was just an accident. Go figure.
 
[ QUOTE ]
Sadly, it seems safety and common courtesy are "out-of-fashion".

[/ QUOTE ]

Amen - and it really ticks me off when people assume that you'll drop everything you're doing to talk on your cellphone just because you have one.

Fortunately in the USA we seem a little more civilized with the phones than some places I've been. I went to a McDonald's in Caracas once, where I think everyone there was talking on cellphones at the same time (I'm really not exaggerating). It's so common-place there that it isn't unusual for someone to just pick up their phone and start talking while you're in the middle of a conversation with them.
 
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Sadly, it seems safety and common courtesy are "out-of-fashion".

[/ QUOTE ]

Amen - and it really ticks me off when people assume that you'll drop everything you're doing to talk on your cellphone just because you have one.

Fortunately in the USA we seem a little more civilized with the phones than some places I've been. I went to a McDonald's in Caracas once, where I think everyone there was talking on cellphones at the same time (I'm really not exaggerating). It's so common-place there that it isn't unusual for someone to just pick up their phone and start talking while you're in the middle of a conversation with them.

[/ QUOTE ]

Our "big boss" at work walked up to congratulate me on a rather large contract win for which I was the proposal lead. AS he started to shake my hand to congratulate me, his cell phone rang. He answered and then just sort of walked off talking on the phone with nary another word to me. I just continued on my way, but I found the whole thing a bit strange.

Basil
 
basil, the first time i attempted to use a cell phone while driving i was doing no more then 6mph, and mannaged to hit a mail box with my vans right side mirror and destroy it, i stopped rang the bell and told the owner what id done and gave her my business card, the next day i went back and gave the owner a catalog of mail boxes for her to pick one out so i could replace the one id smashed there were some very fancy and expensive boxes in that catalog some as much as $400.00, when all was said and done it cost me about $140.00,she couldnt believe id stopped to tell her what id done so she went easy on me when picking out her new unit,taught myself a good lesson, i never drive and use a phone anymore. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nonono.gif
 
My last close one involved a stretch of smooth, flat & narrow road were people go fast.

There is about a 2-3" drop off maybe six inches to the right of the white line.

Here comes a Buick fast!......With it's front right hanging over the edge just a bit.

Funny what you think about in the split second before your presumed end of life.
(Yea.....I was in a 1,300 lb fiberglass car)

I'm already past the part where she drops it off and jerks back.

I'm fixating on that stupid glitter-rainbow-unicorn picture on the front plate. (at eye level)

Anyway, I survive & she goes by as I get a glimpse of her on the phone. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/angel.gif
 
Most conversations (by Females,usually),
go something like this......
"Oh nothing,just having breakfast/shopping/etc"
At work,when I wait on a person like that,I raise my voice,so that they can hear me over the conversation.
Most times,mine's on the desk at home,turned off.

- Doug
 
Here in Japan talking on a cell phone while driving is illegal.
There's also a function on most Japanese cell phones that informs the caller that you are currently driving and thus unable to pick up the phone.
Judging by the number of times I've got that message, people seem to actually use it.


Pesonally I must have the most well charged cell phone in history since it hardly ever leaves its charger on the window sill.
 
I just turned on Discovery Channel and lo and behold, the Myth Busters are doing a test to see how much talking on a cell phone affects drivkng ability. This ought to be interesting.

Basil
 
I know the amount of stupidity that a cell phone creates,
some idiot in a Chevy Suburban tried to follow me onto a
decreasing radius off ramp at 65mph... while my 2.0L Capri
with its just short of full boogie race suspension will
not have a problem with this turn, a 6500lb Suburban ain't
gonna make it, and when he's using my speed as a gauge for
how fast he should be going, winding up in the retention
pond right side up is a good thing...

SteveL
 
Well, on Myth Busters last night they put the question of cell phone distraction to the test. No doubt about it - talking on a cell phone while driving definitely degraded the drivers ability in the test - big time.

Basil
 
Oh don't you just love decreasing radius curves. More fun when you have a good rear view miror. Especialy when the sucker has been tail gateing you for miles.
 
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