Cell phones while driving..!

[Chuck52]

I'm one of those people who cannot talk on the phone and drive. I don't know why it is so different from talking with a passenger, but it is. This summer I was driving through St. Louis heading for vacation when I got an important call. An important piece of equipment was down and I had to explain how to get it fixed. I should have pulled over to take the call, but pulling over in St. Louis can be interesting....some exits don't seem to have an associated entrance anywhere near, and parts of St. Louis are not great places to stop for any length of time. So....I took the call and spent several minutes explaining how to fix the problem. I absolutely hate driving through St. Louis in the best of circumstances. Probably like most cities, the traffic speeds up as it gets heavier. Looking around at other drivers while you are traveling at 75 in bumper-to-bumper traffic you see some folks you definitely would not pick as someone to hold your life in their hands. And you better not take your eyes off the cars around you to look at any one in particular anyway. I got most of the way through St. Louis while answering that call, and when I finally hung up I realized I had very little memory of the trip. This is quite different from my usual driving experience, in which I remember all kinds of details about the road surface, the color of the car driven by the idiot tailgating me, etc. Bottom line is, I don't answer calls in the car anymore. I just hand the phone to my wife, if she's with me, or I let it go to the answering "machine". Only exception is if I am in really, really, really simple traffic, like all alone on a stretch of open interstate.

Chuck

 

[Steve C]

I'm one of those people who cannot talk on the phone and drive. I don't know why it is so different from talking with a passenger, but it is. This summer I was driving through St. Louis heading for vacation when I got an important call. An important piece of equipment was down and I had to explain how to get it fixed. I should have pulled over to take the call, but pulling over in St. Louis can be interesting....some exits don't seem to have an associated entrance anywhere near, and parts of St. Louis are not great places to stop for any length of time. So....I took the call and spent several minutes explaining how to fix the problem. I absolutely hate driving through St. Louis in the best of circumstances. Probably like most cities, the traffic speeds up as it gets heavier. Looking around at other drivers while you are traveling at 75 in bumper-to-bumper traffic you see some folks you definitely would not pick as someone to hold your life in their hands. And you better not take your eyes off the cars around you to look at any one in particular anyway. I got most of the way through St. Louis while answering that call, and when I finally hung up I realized I had very little memory of the trip. This is quite different from my usual driving experience, in which I remember all kinds of details about the road surface, the color of the car driven by the idiot tailgating me, etc. Bottom line is, I don't answer calls in the car anymore. I just hand the phone to my wife, if she's with me, or I let it go to the answering "machine". Only exception is if I am in really, really, really simple traffic, like all alone on a stretch of open interstate.

Chuck

I don't think you are a minority. I think most of us are wired that way, only some of us are not wise enough to realise it. You are a minority in the fact that you at least realize your limitations.

We see people every day on the highway that do not.

If you have simple conversations about the weather and such, little brain processing is involved, but if someone wants to hear you describe step by step how to build or modify or repair something that you perhaps have never even seen, than a lot of visualization and thought processing is going on.

A passenger would have the good sense to not ask you to try to troubleshoot a complex machine from memory, with nothing more than a series of clues verbaly transmitted to you while in heavy traffic. More than once I have had to interrupt a conversation with my wife in such circumstances while driving in heavy traffic with "I'm sorry I can't deal with that right now I am kind of busy, I am trying to avoid getting us killed"
She often accuses me of not paying attention to her and when we are in the car or truck sometimes she is right.

 

[archerm3]

Which is why the husband typically does the driving!

If he didn't he would have to pay attention to the wife!

 

[Steve C]

Which is why the husband typically does the driving!

If he didn't he would have to pay attention to the wife!

It works for me, (40 years of practice)

 

[D7E]

We're being banned from using phones and maybe rightly so but what about GPS and CD players etc sureley they are just as bad..?

 

[Steve C]

We're being banned from using phones and maybe rightly so but what about GPS and CD players etc sureley they are just as bad..?

No they don't engage your thought process to the extent a phone call can.
They don't suprise you with unexpected requests that you have to respond to.

A GPS can be a distraction for sure but it is driver initiated unlike recieving a phone call. I always program mine before I start the car and even at that I rarely uses it. I don't have to look at it. It has a voice that tells me "turn left in 500 feet". And there is no arguing about it. When it is wrong I just ignore it. I don't find that anymore distracting than asking my co-pilot for directions. On second thought it is even less distracting, because I don't become frustrated at my co-pilots inability to read a map. you would think after 40 years of tutoring.......

As for a cd player they are a no brainer, just slide the disk in and enjoy. No interaction involved. I rarely listen to the radio or the CD unless it is late at night and I am on an expressway somewhere, but I am in the minority I am sure.

I believe that cell phones are in a class of their own when it comes to the ability to divert ones attention. It all depends on what is being talked about and by whom.

 

[D7E]

.....How many people out there don't know how to use the gps properly and the time it takes to look through the glove compartment while selecting a cd and reading the covers ..My wife terrifies me sometimes..?

 

[jimmyj]

I just got a BlackBerry for work. Now you wanna talk about distracting

 

[Steve C]

I just got a BlackBerry for work. Now you wanna talk about distracting

BlackBerries are best with a little sugar and milk unless of course you have got to them after the first frost and picked them in the 4 hour window between where the are good and then go bad. Then you don't need the sugar.