As of July 1, California drivers 18 and over cannot use a cell phone while driving without a hands-free device, and drivers under the age of 18 cannot use a cell phone while driving at all.
At some obvious common-sense level, this new law makes sense. Driving is a challenging task, and deserves our full attention. People who use cell phones while driving are more dangerous in terms of the accidents they cause than people driving while intoxicated [1]. Unfortunately for this new law, Strayer et al. also found that using a hands-free device doesn’t help much–these drivers are still very dangerous.
The problem is not so much about driving one-handed, which Mr. F can do much more easily than I (could have something to do with the fact that he bench presses more than 400 pounds and I’m lucky to do about 80 or 90 or so on a good day). The problem is more about attention and multi-tasking, which is affected whether a person is using a hands-free device or not.
In all fairness, there are many situations that divide our attention while driving. As a native of Los Angeles, I saw people on the freeway shaving, applying makeup, eating breakfast, and looking at maps. Some drivers appear to be sorting out their relationships en route, whether they’re yelling or being amorous. As all young parents know, children riding in the back seat can be distracting. Nobody seems to study these multitasking behaviors and their impact on safety.
In one of the oddities that often show up in California law, the new cell phone law does not prohibit people 18 and over from sending text messages while driving, which seems to me to be much more dangerous than talking on the phone. The DMV does say “sending text messages while driving is unsafe at any speed and is strongly discouraged.” I enjoy living in California–it is so very bizarre.
People do seem to have wide variations in their abilities to multitask, and it would seem sensible to consider these while driving and adjust accordingly. Mr. F complains that when I take over the driving on long trips, I stop talking to him. I don’t do this intentionally, but I think this results from my lack of multitasking ability. I am very focused on single tasks, and I often find it difficult to switch from one to another. In contrast, daughter Kristin is a master multitasker–and also has the benefit of a very high-tech Audi that functions as a hands-free device among many other innovations. I’m surprised the thing doesn’t make coffee, but perhaps the Audi engineers are working on that one.
In the meantime, at least the California law will reduce the irritation some people seem to feel when they see a driver doing stupid things while yakking on a cell phone. It’s very likely that driver will continue to do stupid things, but perhaps we’ll feel better about it.
1. Strayer, D. L., Drews, F.A., & Crouch, D.J. (2004). Fatal distraction? A comparison of the cell-phone driver and the drunk driver. In D. V. McGehee, J. D. Lee & M. Rizzo (Eds.), Driving assessment 2003: International symposium on human factors in driver assessment, training, and vehicle design (pp. 25-30). Iowa City, IA: Public Policy Center, University of Iowa.
