Cell Tower Switching Causes Driver Distraction?
from the occam's-cell-tower dept
There have been plenty of studies done showing how using a mobile phone while driving can impair your driving skills drastically. However, what is it about the phone conversation that makes it more distracting than just talking to someone inside the car? Some researchers say they have the answer, blaming the fact that, as you drive, you're constantly switching cell towers -- and that degrades the sound quality, forcing the driver to pay more attention to the phone conversation to hear what the person at the other end is saying. It's an interesting theory, but did they compare it to other, simpler possibilities? What about the simple fact that the other person doesn't know what the driver is doing? With someone else in the car with the driver, they subconsciously respond to what's happening (pausing during merging or some other complex situation, for example). On the phone, however, the person will keep talking, without being able to adjust -- which forces the driver to pay more attention to the call at times when he or she would be better off focusing more on the road.
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driving distraction
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Paying Attention
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Cellphones while walking
If a person can't walk and cell-talk at the same time, what makes them think they can drive and cell-talk at the same time?
I think the walking example gives credence to the theory that the combination of noisy-signal, low-volume, and slight-latency forces us to concentrate more when talking on a cellphone, whether walking or driving. The distractions of driving are just an additional complication.
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Re: Cellphones while walking
good points :)
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Re: Cellphones while walking
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Mike hits it on the nose again
I constantly find myself apologizing to my girlfriend for ignoring/not hearing anything she says when I am in the middle of a driving act that requires a little more attention.
Driving requires a lot more attentiveness than people want to acknowledge or care about. And the people ignoring this fact is exactly why we all have to pay so much attention to others on the road in the first place.
Avoiding the idiot drivers...
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Re: Cellphones while walking
People think a great deal with their hands. We motion with them while talking, probably because a good portion of the brain is devoted to coordinating hand motions to what we are thinking about. When holding a cell phone, the simple act of devoting one hand away from what we should be concentrating on is more distracting than the conversation we're having.
I would bet a very good portion of money that a repeatable scientific study can find that those simply holding a cell phone to their head turned off, will have very similar driving results as those actually holding a conversation.
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Re: Cellphones while walking
Take, for example, people who normally drive a stick shift and then get into an automatic. The stick shift driver almost always only has 1 hand on the wheel and 1 hand on the gear shift. When they get into an automatic, habit will tell them to keep their hand at their side and not have both on the wheel.
I don't believe the driving skill of someone with their hand at the top of the wheel compared to someone with them at 10 and 2 will really be all that different.
If was not speaking to anyone and simply holding a phone/object to my ear without using it or really being distracted by it, I highly doubt my driving skill would be any different than if I had my hand at my side or on the gear shift.
The distractions and active interactions with other people or objects is what degrades safety and skill.
Having a conversation, adjusting the radio, finding a new cd, or checking out the girl next to you as you pass are all actively distracting actions.
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A simpler explanation - the person you're talking
A passenger is less likely to talk to you at a most dangerous moment also.
Finally, it IS distracting to talk to a person in the car, it's just not AS distracting as a phone call.
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cellphone and divided attention
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One in the seat is worth two on the phone?
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Focusing on the wrong thing
It's the radiation that the cell phone emits itself.
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