Should mobile phone be banned in cars?

We all know that mobile phone is a

distraction in cars.

It is annoying and frightening to see people talking ontheir hand held mobile phones while driving, especially,when their behaviour creates a hazardous situation foreveryone on the road.

However, banning mobile phone use in cars is likestuffing a genie in a bottle. There are certain obviouscases were mobile phone use truly should be banned,such as teenage drivers and bus drivers but there are a lotof people who depend on communicating while driving.

Below we show the results of two recent studies:

AAA study

This study showed the rank of distraction and gave the distraction level a

score from 1.0 to 5.0. Here are the results:

No distractions 1.00

Radio on 1.21

Audio book 1.75

Hands-free mobile phone 2.27 (talking only, not looking at the

mobile phone)

Talking to passenger 2.33 (passenger unaware of surroundings)

Hand-held mobile phone 2.45

Speech to text 3.06

Operational span task 5.00 (solving a math problem while trying

to remember a fact)

Virginia Tech & NHTSA study

This study found that the risk of an accident depended on the specific task

associated with mobile phones. Here are the results:

Task Risk Range (with 95% confidence)

Hand held mobile phone use 1.20-2.49

Portable Hands-free mobile phone use 0.49-2.30

Integrated Hands-free mobile phone use 0.25-1.31

Visual and manual subtask 1.91-4.51

Portable Hands-free/Integrated Hands-free or Hand held mobile phone use

Putting things in perspective, accident risk depends on a number of other factors:

• Speed

• Choice of roads

There is a huge variation in accident risk depending on the choice of road. The accident rate on a complex urban arterial road is about 10 times higher than a motorway.

• Age

Drivers under 25 years old are at 3x risk of having an accident. Old age is not a big problem until the driver gets quite old around 70 years old.

• Gender

Men get in more fatal accidents. Women get in slightly more fender benders.

• Alcohol

In California State, a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 is the legal limit but any amount of alcohol is dangerous. A legal drunk driver, about two drinks for most people, is about equal to teenage driver.

Driving (MPH) Risk

1 5%

10 1.62%

20 2.65%

Blood Alcohol Concentration vs Relative Risk

Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) Relative Risk

0.00 1.0

0.05 1.8

0.08 3.2

0.12 7.1

0.21 30.5

More factors

• All drivers think they are better drivers than they really are.

• Some drivers have mental deficits anger issues that make them far more dangerous than the rest of population.

• Citations for moving violations predict how likely you will be to get in an accident.

Here is what we know:Pros vs Cons

• Talking with

• Texting

Hands free mobile Hand held mobile

Better for driving Worst for driving

It is not illegal/It is not easy to enforce

It is easy to enforce/That should be banned

It is not risk-free, Risk Range : 0.25-2.30

Highest risk of accident, Risk Range : 1.20-2.49

It is not as safe as driving without distractions

It is totally unsafe

Speech to text is dangerous Touching to text is dangerousWorse that driving drunk The worst of allThat should be banned (speech to text, score: 3.06 distraction level, where MIN is 1.0 & MAX is 5.0)

That should be banned (visual and manual subtask, Risk Range: 1.91-4.51)

Pros vs Cons

• Trying to find your mobile

When you look at the risk and the carnage onthe roads, it is questionable whether humansshould be driving cars at all.

Hands free mobile Hand held mobile

No problem at all Dangerous, but if the driver uses good judgement, then it is a limited hazardous

Even after guys got a car accident, they

don't stop talking on their mobile phones!

Conclusions

• These studies are ones of many that show that any form of talkingputs a cognitive load on the brain and causes a degree ofdistraction. Also, anything that puts a load on the brain also tendsto narrow our peripheral vision. That is, we literally see less whenwe are distracted.

• Without a doubt, hand held mobile phone use, any task involvestouching the mobile phone, talking to passenger in the front seatand taking your eyes off the road will increase your risk of anaccident.

• These studies show that driver judgement is a big factor but evenwith typical drive judgement, visual and manual task will causemore accidents.

• Until we have self-driving cars, it is reasonable to ban the worstoffenders: hand held mobile and texting.

Talking on mobile is about the same cognitive load as talking to

someone/passenger in the front seat.

Should talking to a passenger be banned? , yet nobody is

suggesting banning passengers from talking to driver.

Listening to Audio-book is less cognitive load as a conversation or

talking but the driver might be listening to the Audio-book close

to100% of the time.

Should Audio-books be banned from cars?

A teenage driver is about the same risk as a legally drunk driver.

Yet, a teenage driver has to actually drive in order to learn how or

know-how.

Should teenage driver and/or drunk driver be banned from cars?

End

Alexander Rojas