The cellphone paradox - where are all the accidents?

I don't use the phone often while driving, and in the past had a blue tooth earphone that would answer a call automatically, so everything was hands free. Never had a problem with hands free and talking on the phone that way. The next phone I got had an awkward blue tooth device and I hated it, so chucked it and haven't used it. Rarely get a call while driving, and usually ignore it when it rings. I can always call them back. If I'm in stop and go traffic and at a stop light and it rings, I may answer it and tell them I'll call them back.

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Maggie
Reply to
Muggles
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I've seen the same thing, too, but it also seems everyone is more aware of it, too. I steer clear of drivers like that, and it isn't just the people who are on their phones while driving. There are some nuts on the roads who like to drive fast and aggressive that scare me just as much.

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Maggie
Reply to
Muggles

:D

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Maggie
Reply to
Muggles

q: Do you think men are more likely to only do 2 things at one time, and women more able to do 2+ things at one time? I've seen discussions where the conclusion was that women are more able to multitask without skipping a beat and men were more single minded limiting their ability to multitask?

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Maggie
Reply to
Muggles

Studies seem to indicate its the conversation, not the phone, that creates the biggest distraction. IOW, hands free does not make the conversation less distracting.

Reply to
SeaNymph

This is an interesting place to get information. At the bottom is a link to a multitude of studies.

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Additionally, there is much information about the myth of multi tasking.

Reply to
SeaNymph

I have no opinion on the matter. Well, maybe a small one. I've seen women successfully juggling three or more children at one time with little obvious difficulty. I presume that skill could also be applied to driving. I can only handle one screaming brat at a time, and not very well at that. If true, the difference should appear in the distribution of distracted driving accidents and fatalities by sex. I'll dig (later) in the NHTSA data dumpster and see if I can find anything that provides this information.

It's quite possibly true, but I have no experience in the matter. My marginally relevant experience is primarily in RF exposure from cell phones.

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Jeff Liebermann     jeffl@cruzio.com 
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Reply to
Jeff Liebermann

It would be interesting to see what sort of results you find. I'd guess that men would have more difficulty multitasking than women. The results might also trickle through to the level of difficulty each would have using a cell phone while driving.

ahh OK.

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Maggie
Reply to
Muggles

Per Muggles:

Kind of makes sense in the context of man-the-hunter being evolved to stalk something, kill it, and bring it home.

OTOH, woman-the-gatherer, would seem better served by browsing behavior.

At least that's how I rationalize trips to the shopping mall: I want to find the shoes, kill them, and bring them home. My SO wants to look here, look there....

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Pete Cresswell
Reply to
(PeteCresswell)

Per Ashton Crusher:

Maybe it's analogous to cigarette smoking.

The official anti-tobacco spiel is all about cancer and other negative health effects... but I have to think that 90% of the people who got onboard with banning cigarette smoking in the workplace just wanted relief from the stink. I certainly did.... could care less if somebody chooses to addict them selves and ruin their health... I just wanted the stink to go away.

With cell phones: Ok, the official talk is all about safety and that may or may not be all well and good... but I for one can get behind the idea of a ban just so I don't have to cope with people yakking on the phone while they wander back-and-forth over the line and back up traffic by cruising the hammer lane.

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Pete Cresswell
Reply to
(PeteCresswell)

I have two modes: the hunter-killer mode for when I need a specific thing or things (a black straight skirt to wear to the goodam presentation), and the browse mode when I'm in a store where I never know what I'll find -- 99-Cents-Only, for instance. Costco is a combo

-- I have a list, but I have to go up/down each aisle to find stuff and I generally find stuff that I should have put on the list.

That being said, I hate shopping anywhere but 99-Cents-Only and Costco and I despise shopping for clothes.

I always (since I started driving at 16, anyway) regarded time in the car as 'nobody can get at me' time. I still do. If I want to use the phone I'll turn it on. If *I* want to use the phone...

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Cheers, Bev 
MSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMSMS 
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Reply to
The Real Bev

Sully Sullenberger can obviously talk, text, surf and drive an A320 safely down the Hudson blindfolded.

The rest of you numbnutz, HANG UP AND DRIVE! You ain't got Sulleys skills.

Reply to
Harry Hymen

Or, worse yet, LOOK at all of them, then nonchalantly and leave, empty-handed -- yet not *distressed* by this fact!

I think most men treat shopping as a chore-to-be-avoided. Getting me *into* a store requires a significant effort (as does getting me out of the HOUSE!). OTOH, once there, I will scour my brain for every item on the "to be found" list and check to see if THIS store happens to have any of THOSE things; I've made the investment *getting* here, lets' make it yield some results!

OTOH, get into an old-fashioned hardware store (i.e., *not* "Ace") and I can spend hours looking at odd little things wondering what use I could find for them! :>

[Men also seem to have an unnatural fondness for flashlights! And, give a man a garden hose and he won't set it down until the well runs dry! :> ]

I've got clothes down to a science: buy lots of the *same* pants, shirts, socks, etc. Then, buying is just a check-off task (no "looking" or "deciding" required). And, can even be delegated to others: "Pick up three of these, for me -- at ".

It also cuts down on that time in the morning when you have to "decide" what to wear, "today".

Reply to
Don Y

LOL! yeah! We like to look.

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Maggie
Reply to
Muggles

You conveniently left out some important facts.

"US Vehicle Miles Driven Have Sunk To A New Post-Crisis Low"

Read more:

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You also forgot to consider that cars stop faster than they used to, they t urn better than they used to, they generally have better visibility as well as ABS, traction control, stability control, lane change warnings and even accident avoidance.

In most areas, three and four-way stop signs are now controlled by traffic signals, yield signs don't exist (stop signs or traffic lights) and even ba sic intersections that used to be governed by stop signs are now full traff ic lights. It now takes me almost 8 minutes longer to get home from the sa me commute I've been doing for 20 years with no more traffic. I now build up some speed, and bam- right into another red light.

Most highways are being reconfigured to remove any left hand entrance or ex it ramps.

If anything, traffic accidents should have plummeted over the last 10 years , and they haven't. The only new variable is cell phones. I personally go t rear ended by an idiot who was driving with her eyes in her lap (saw her hit me). In my town (Wolcott, CT), a guy waiting in line at a traffic light on a motorcycle was stuffed into the car in front of him by a girl texting . He lived three days. I've seen at least a half dozen near misses recently from people on cell phones.

Reply to
John-Del

ya got me right in the heart! ack!

When I go to Ace Hardware with my husband, I wonder around by myself looking at things, then eventually track him down somewhere in the hardware section looking for odd screws or bolts. I've learned a lot just by doing both over and over and over again every time he wants to go to Ace hardware. Now, I can find things for my own projects! HA!

I go in the back yard and there are garden hoses connected to other hoses going in various directions.

"What's this hose for?" He says, "I need to water blah blah blah." "Why can't you use the main hose for that? He says, "I don't want to mess with dragging it all the way over HERE!"

Ohhhhhh Kayyyyyyyyy!

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Maggie
Reply to
Muggles

According to NBC new tonight they are. We are on track to be higher than 2009, a 14% increase. Could be the highest number of fatalities in years. They said 55% were speed related, 25% cell phone related.

One of you is using the wrong statistics. Me thinks you are FOS.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski
[attrs elided]

It takes a fair bit of effort (IMO) to "go somewhere". E.g., a trip to the library (2.5 miles ea way) is 20 minutes -- not counting the time spent there. (the closest *large* Ace is across from the library). It is distressing to "waste" that time and not come home with crossed of The List.

There aren't that many "20 minutes" in a typical day! If I've got to drive clear across town (45 minutes) to the oriental grocer, you can bet I'll come back with a month's worth of !

Worse, yet, to have to go back *tomorrow* for some silly little item that was forgotten on today's trip!

[A friend claims "Plumbing takes three trips" (TmReg); I've learned that she is basically correct. There's always one little fitting that you discover you need *after* you've come back from your FIRST trip. And, something else that you think of -- or manage to BREAK -- after your SECOND trip! As a result, I have a very conscious goal of trying to do plumbing jobs in *two* trips -- not yet ambitious enough to hope for *one*]
Reply to
Don Y

so says you and ceg. NBC new said different tonight.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

The problem arises when people from the second category think they are in the first.

Reply to
Ed Pawlowski

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