Wednesday Wait a Minute!

In my new Wednesday Wait a Minute! video series, I will be exploring timely topics that will help you take one minute to pause. This week’s video looks at texting drivers and what we can do to reclaim the road with both hands.

Dumb Use of Smartphones: One in Three Text While Driving

According to the 2011 Traffic Safety Culture Index released by AAA, mobile phone users know they shouldn’t text and drive. Yet many do.

• 95 percent of drivers surveyed admitted concerns about the risks associated with the dumb use of smartphones in the car (texting or e-mailing while driving)
• 93 percent said they were concerned about drinking and driving;
• 87 percent claimed they would support laws against reading or typing while driving.

But check it out. 35 percent admitted they text or read/write emails while driving.

It’s tempting. I know. You’re sitting at a red light so what’s the harm, right? Well, foot off the brake, eyes off the road. The next thing you know you’ve rolled into the intersection.

Distracted driving is a serious issue.

It’s not just the phone, either. Fiddling with the radio, eating, drinking or dealing with children in the backseat can also drive people to distraction.

My power of slow tips for you:

• If you can’t keep your hands off the hand-held, toss it in the trunk. Really.
• Drive without the radio. Just try it to see how focus can help with your safety record.
• If backseat riders get too rowdy, pull over at a nearby rest area or parking lot. Your destination can wait five more minutes. It’s more important that you arrive in one piece.
• Eat at the kitchen table. Your car is not a restaurant.

What challenges do you face to keep your thumbs on the wheel and your eyes on the road?

 

Related articles

• Distracted Driving: AAA Says Drivers Don’t Practice What They Preach (newyork.cbslocal.com)
• Bid to stop texting at the wheel (autonetinsurance.co.uk)
• Mobile phone danger revealed (telegraph.co.uk)
• Texting While Driving More Dangerous Than Thought (nlm.nih.gov)

Supertasking ~ Mutant or Milestone?

Many thanks to my dear friend, Kate Rander, for pointing out a recent article in Time magazine entitled “Supertaskers: Why Some Can Do Two Things at Once“. After reading Alice Park’s piece, I went to the primary source, as I am always curious about what was not actually reported. Here’s what I found.

The University of Utah recently announced the findings of a new study that examined multitasking behavior in 200 students with a median age of 23.6. They simulated driving while talking on a cell phone (and did not fail to mention the phones they used were from Sprint PCS). What they found was that 2.5% of those who performed dual tasks actually excelled when multitasking. These so-called supertaskers performed in the upper quartile when performing a single task so they were already considered ‘special’. Add another task, however, and their performance increased notably. That means they actually thrived under split-attention conditions.

Yikes.

The paper underscores the dangers of driving while speaking on a cell phone (even hands-free) for the mere 97.5% of mankind that cannot supertask. In fact, they even take pains to quote the National Safety Council, which estimates that 1.6 million accidents and fatalities on US
highways were caused by drivers using cell phones (National Safety Council, 2010), 200,000 of which involved crashes with cell phone users who were texting. The total number of accidents and crash-related deaths due to cell phone usage while driving translates to 28%.

Researchers Jason Watson and David L. Strayer go on to say that “inattention blindness associated with cell phone conversations makes drivers unaware of their own driving impairments.” That’s research-speak for “Hey, I am not even aware of my unawareness while gabbing with my pals. I am special. I can do this!”, which is reminiscent of a smoker or alcoholic who says “I can quit any time I want, really. I can handle it!”

The researchers also admit that, in their experience, people tend to overestimate their ability to multitask: “[O]ur studies over the last decade have found that a great many people have the belief that the laws of attention do not apply to them.”

But they do.

The danger I see with this study is that those cell phone junkies who’ve got to get their fix even behind the wheel will use it to label themselves the ‘supertaskers’ they clearly aren’t. They will conveniently forget the study’s warning that “[i]t may be that supertaskers excel at multi-tasking at the expense of other processing abilities.” They will continue to believe the law of attention does not apply to them. Also, did they have to mention the brand Sprint PCS in their findings as a condition for using the company’s equipment? If yes, that’s product placement at its finest, making the findings rather questionable and convenient indeed…

Hands-on the issues of cell phone use while driving

California State Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger signed a bill into law last year banning hand-held cell phone use while driving. Yet even his wife, Maria Shriver, finds it hard to adhere to the rules. CNN.com reports she was caught on film several times as she drove while chatting on her hand-held device.

It appears no one is immune to the multitasking temptations of our Digital Age.

Predicto Mobile CEO Eyal Yechazkell says break the habit by switching off the device altogether or, if in some cases, even find a support group to help.

It has come to this. We are our own worst enemy ~ pretty soon our hyperconnectivity will have serious consequences, yet no one seems to really take the issue seriously. Even Ms. Shriver has fallen prey to the allure of chatting while cruising.

My concern is people are starting to defend their right to carry (and use) cell phones in the car as many are about the right to bear arms. I’m not sure where this conversation will end ~bans themselves do not appear to be working. We need a collective dialogue about what is safe…and what is not. Until we raise our consciousness about these matters, the culprits will still be on the road in full-time distraction. Fasten your seat belts, people. We may be in for a rough ride until then.

The melding of public and private ~ tweeting after sex

Retrevo, an online gadget shop, came up with a neat survey whose results are not that surprising. The 35 and under crowd is clearly in love with its PDAs. In fact, 36% of those surveyed said they updated their social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter immediately after sexual intercourse. A most upsetting 40% admitted to doing so while driving (updating, that is!).

Whether they are driving an automobile or their love life, clearly a large number of younger folks have shifted their focus from a hands-on approach to a more digital one. Virtual worlds are starting to trump their real ones.

I can’t help but think of Mae West who once offered up a great slow quote well before the days of digital devices in the boudoir.

“Anything worth doing is worth doing slowly.”

The next headline might very well read: More people engaged in social media than to each other. But who needs an engagement when you’ve got post-coital tweets to keep you warm at night?

Multitasking Madness

Just because you’re educated, doesn’t mean you’re smart. According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, the higher your education level, the higher the risk associated with cell phone use and text messaging while driving. In fact, in Matt Richtel’s New York Times article “Driver Texting Now an Issue in Back Seat,” it was reported that “48 percent of people worry about a friend or family member driving unsafely. Of those people, 19 percent said the cause of their concern was multitasking behind the wheel.”

A poll taken by Nationwide Insurance of 1,500 motorists found that 48 percent of behind-the-wheel multitaskers engaged in such behavior because they felt “an urgent need to address an issue pertaining to school or work; 33 percent said they felt pressure to stay connected socially.”

Pressure to stay connected socially? For the time it takes to get from the grocery store to your house? It’s in your head, people. It really is.

The article infruriates me even more because it claims heavy multitaskers are like ‘explorers’, compelled to hunt and gather information incessantly. Does that make those of us who consciously choose to engage in safe behavior (i.e. not text while driving) somehow less inquisitive?

Puh-leez.

What did these people do before cell phones? Read novels while driving with one knee?

The jury’s not out on this one. It’s a clear case of irresponsible driving. Texting behind the wheel is dangerous.

Period.