AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety recently released the second part of a long-term study to evaluate the use of hands-free calling systems and how these “safety” features relate to distracted driving. Contrary to the public’s popular belief that driving while using hands-free voice features eliminates risk, the study actually found that hands-free devices are just as dangerous as driving while using a handheld cellphone.
More and more drivers have turned to hands-free calling features with the belief that they are a safer alternative. If their eyes are on road and hands are on the wheel, then what danger could there be? Yes, hands-free does reduce visual and manual distractions associated with cellphone use while driving but cognitive distractions persist.
Cognitive distraction occurs when our focus shifts away from the primary task of driving to attend to another like having a conversation on your car’s speakerphone. We think our full attention is on the road just because we are looking it at, but we are not actually processing what we are seeing.
This “looking without seeing” is known as
inattention blindness. While our mind is elsewhere as we proceed down the road, our visual scanning decreases and our reaction time is impaired. If a pedestrian were to run out in front of us while we are driving and talking via Bluetooth, we may not process the danger and react quick enough to slam on the brakes. And when operating a vehicle, sometimes a fraction of a second is the difference between life and death.
We have known for a while that driving with a phone pressed to our ear is dangerous and texting while driving is even more ludicrous. Now we know hands-free is not risk-free either. This all got me thinking, what is it about driving that makes us want to engage in a phone conversation?
I think that when we spend so much time alone in our cars that we start to feel isolated, especially for those who have long commutes to work and deal with daily traffic nightmares. On these long monotonous rides, we look for something to occupy or mind and relieve loneliness, so what do we do? We press a button and tell our car’s voice-command system to place a call.
It is a backwards concept to think that driving is our downtime and we need to find something to pass the time behind the wheel. I have a friend that told me she regularly uses her 45-minute commute home from work to call friends and family members to catch up. She also disclosed that driving home is the only time she has during the day to place these personal phone calls and maintain connections with people who are important her.
It seems that driving has become second nature to so many of us over the years that we think we are able to multi-task behind the wheel. But juggling cellphone use while driving has proved to have tragic consequences. We may believe that we are skilled multitaskers, but in reality it is impossible for the human brain to efficiently carry out more than one task at a time.
Talking and driving are drawn from two different regions of the brain, and when we combine both tasks at one time, they have to compete for our mind’s attention and focus. Our mental workload only goes so far, and instead of multi-tasking we rapidly switch back and forth between tasks and are unable to carry out both talking and driving as thoroughly as we think.
I also firmly believe we have become very addicted to technology, mainly our cellphones. Today, 90% of American adults own a cellphone and 58% of those cellphones are smartphones. Now compare that to way back when in 1996 where only 14% of people had cellphone subscriptions. These so-called “smart” mobile devices allow us to connect socially and access information instantly from almost anywhere, and our cars are no exception.
According to a study published by the
Journal of Behavioral Addiction, cellphone dependency has been categorized along with gambling and shopping as a behavioral addiction, which is defined as the “the compulsion to repeat a behavior despite its negative impact on one’s well-being”. We know that distracted driving is dangerous but the gratification we receive from instant social connection causes us to jeopardize our safety for our phones.
Car manufacturers are perpetuating our compulsion to communicate with the outside world while driving by including hands-free/voice-activated systems and marketing them as “safety” features that come standard in all new models. The idea of pressing a button on the steering wheel and commanding these systems to make a phone call would seem like a simple task. AAA found that the majority of these voice-command systems are full of errors and inaccuracies making them a less safe option even though consumers are led to believe otherwise. For example, when telling the system to “call home” and it calls your work phone instead, your mind enters into a full-on state of distraction as it works to correct the mistake immediately.
According to the CDC,
9 people are killed and 1,153 are injured everyday as a result of cellphone use while driving. So far
44 states have banned texting and driving while 12 states, including New Jersey, have banned all handheld cellphone use while driving. The only group that has hands-free device restrictions is new drivers under the GDL.
For now, more experienced drivers are able to use hands-free devices with no legal consequence. As more research is being conducted on the impacts of hands-free while driving, the next step may be to outlaw these systems as well. The real work would also need to come from individual drivers to learn to be comfortable alone in the car and resisting the temptation to multi-task while driving.
Where feasible, try taking public transit to family celebrations, gatherings with friends and holiday events. Riding the bus or train is a safe, sane, stress-reducing and hands-free way to travel, especially during peak travel times and inclement weather.
On Thanksgiving Day it was okay to have whipped cream on your slice of pumpkin pie and to try the pecan pie, too. No guilt. It was family time. We’d always joke that calories didn’t count.
Whatever way you travel to spend Thanksgiving Day, consider hitting the “pause button” for a few minutes to reflect on what you’re thankful for. Perhaps that “time out” moment will become your new Thanksgiving Day tradition.
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