I have a real problem with people talking on mobile phones while driving.
However, I have an even greater problem with people who try to justify it as either not dangerous or simply too difficult to stop.
Then I read this!
Twitter’s the new driving menace: study – web – Technology – theage.com.au
Why don’t you have a bluetooth headset?
As I’m driving around Melbourne’s streets during a business day I notice on average one in ten drivers will be on the phone chatting – with the phone held to their ear. The most aggravating part is that I commonly see drivers of expensive cars doing it, and they are also the people who have no excuses not to buy a bluetooth headset.
Even so, if you can afford a phone, you can afford a headset. They’re very easy to use, quick to put on before you start your drive and very effective.
USE BLUETOOTH HEADSETS!
Why are you texting while driving?
On my way home from work I would regularly see girls (sorry, but it is always girls) looking down towards their lap 75% of the time, whilst glancing up at the road for the other 25%. Of course these girls are texting their friends. You can’t tell me that staying alive on the road, or at the very least avoiding a costly and time-consuming minor accident is less important than immediately trading shopping tips or making meeting arrangements with their friends.
IGNORE YOUR SMS MESSAGES UNTIL YOU STOP THE CAR
“But phone conversations don’t distract me”
Oh, you want to try to convince me that it’s not dangerous because it’s no different than having a conversation with your passenger? Rubbish! When conversing with your passenger you do not have to focus to understand the meaning of the conversation. It is something you do naturally and with little to no distraction from your driving duties. However, using equipment is not a natural human behaviour and takes concentration. Even more so, a phone conversation is a very different type of conversation than a person-to-person one. Listening to and understanding a voice on the phone, whilst thinking quickly ahead to ensure you have the right things to say, is a task that takes a lot more of your brain to perform. And it is the same part of your brain that is responsible for operating your vehicle and reading the traffic.
PHONING AND DRIVING IS DANGEROUS!!!
Social Networking makes things worse
With the rapid uptake in social networking, the availability of associated tools for your iPhone or smart mobile and the ever-increasing desire for people to share every little unimportant thing with each other, we see people starting to take their stupidity to new limits.
I understand that in Britain they don’t generally think that phoning while driving should be illegal, but I’m fairly sure more Australians accept the laws as being reasonable. That said, we don’t apply the laws to our own behaviour and still try to justify ourselves. The next big danger is that Facebook and Twitter both provide a fast, SMS-like update service that people are taking to in droves. And when it comes to staying in touch with their friends all reason seems to go out the window.
My solution
I propose that our GPS-savvy tech-heads get working on a tool that should become a mandatory inclusion in all mobile phone devices. This gadget is quite simple. It will use the existing and new geo-locational technology available to most city dwellers to apply a block to selected phone data services whilst the unit is travelling at greater than 15kmh. You can run at up to 25kmh, but you can’t text and run at the same time. You shouldn’t be using your phone in an airplane, and you can use your laptop or make phone calls in a bus, taxi, train or other transport in which you are not driving.
Initially, that is until it is possible to block at a more micro level, the blocks should apply to outgoing SMS messages, and all HTTP traffic. Your GPS will still work if you need to know directions, and Google Maps could also be allowed.
Granted, that might inconvenience those wanting to use all those functions when they’re a passenger, but that’s just tough and this is just a beta idea. Someone more creative than me can figure out how to allow those functions in situations where you are definitely not driving. Perhaps commercial transport vehicles could be fitted with a pass-through device of some kind…
What do you think?
Righto – who out there is going to jump on board and help me make this happen?
What? You don’t agree? Then start writing your reply before you work out that you can’t possibly be right about this.
Texting is a menace while driving. It takes skill, the ability to multi-task and the power to make cars disappear from the road while you’re doing it so you don’t kill someone with your carelessness. If you can Jedi-mind trick your way out of it go ahead. If you MUST read that SMS – pull over or wait till the stop light (and that you’re actually on full stop.)
I think what you can do is that anyone on the drivers’ seat has a sort of electro-magnetic shield that will deactivate any mobile device and will only work for emergency calls. But any item beyond the driver’s area can send and receive messages/calls…
Now good luck in finding that Technology!
@Joepi
Actually, I think you’re onto something there. It wouldn’t be too difficult to include a focused jamming signal that was activated as soon as you put your keys into the ignition. I’m sure the boffins would love to get this rolling, but our government bodies are not competent enough to understand how to apply it, and too gutless to risk community backlash if they did.
Interestingly enough, studies have shown that conversing with a hands free device is just as distracting as using a mobile phone without one. The lack of any visual input from the person you are talking to seems to be the deciding factor.
So bluetooth headsets should be banned too. And not just because they look wanky.
I don’t need studies to know the ins and outs of things. Studies are only for those of us without the power of observation and common sense. They’re also used by politicians who need to get evidence to convince those who can’t think for themselves, i.e. a large percentage of their voting public. Studies are also generally poorly performed, with selective target audiences and results that are presented in a way that suits the needs of the parties requesting them.
Of course a hands free device is more distracting than driving whilst not taking a phone call, however I will guarantee you it is a fair degree safer than taking one hand off the wheel to hold a phone whilst you do your chatting – automatic transmission or not. Some reasons follow:
– Your field of vision is obstructed by your arm whilst holding the phone up to your ear, hence your blind spot becomes much larger
– Your range of motion is also restricted as your arm is raised in that manner
– Indicating, turning, and all activities other than driving in a straight line with the flow of traffic require two hands to be done most safely
– Emergency actions take longer to perform as your brain processes where to place the decision to drop the phone within the priority system it initiates – believe it or not, social instincts can operate against your survival instincts in these times.
– People look at their phone to answer and hang-up calls
– People take further concentration away from their driving by looking around for cops whilst on the phone.
– The use of a headset reduces the urge to use the phone for SMS, as it is holstered or in a handbag and not already in hand.
I’m sure there are more reasons, but I think that’s a good start.
In the absence of a better measure to stop phones being used by people driving vehicles a bluetooth headset is the best available option. Let’s not forget the blindingly obvious fact that using a phone whilst driving is illegal and carries a heavy penalty, whilst using a headset is, at this time, not.
Once the propeller heads get this mobile phone focused-block gadget working and installed into ignition systems of vehicles, you won’t have to worry about being offended by the “wanky” headsets you see people wearing, as they will no longer be needed. Then you will be able to focus your attention on getting rid of other “wanky” things we’re forced to endure like Porsches, businessmen in Armani suits, soccer, Buffy The Vampire Slayer and World of Warcraft.