Cell Phones and Driving - Research Paper Example

? Cell Phones and Driving School Cell phones and driving Cell phones have increased in number and use like anything in the last two decades. Before that, cell phones were more of a status symbol and only the rich used to possess cell phones. Nowadays, cell phones have become the most basic accessory of even the poorest people in the society. While this can generally be considered as a good sign as cell phones have played a revolutionary role in the improvement of the quality of interaction and communication between people, use of cell phones has also exposed the society to a number of risks. One of the potential ways in which cell phones have increased the threats for the people is their use during driving. “One can easily imagine a driver mindlessly inching through a parking lot or failing to notice that a stoplight has turned green while deeply immersed in a telephone conversation” (McGarva, Ramsay, and Shear, 2006, p. 134). To be more appropriate, it is not the cell phones but their wrong use that is the fundamental cause of this risk. A lot of accidents which can be attributed to the use of cell phones while driving have happened in the past few decades. This paper discusses the implications of use of cell phones during driving for the society and discusses whether it is appropriate to ban the practice to make the driving experience safer. Application of a conceptualization of the process of driving which governs the analysis of deficiencies in performance is a potential means of realizing the impacts of doing a secondary activity during driving. According to Groeger (1999), there are three performance levels involved in the analysis of driving. The first performance level is the control level, also known as the operational level. This level comprises factors which play a role in making a car go on a predetermined route. Any deficit in driving during this level shows up as a reduction of the lateral control the driver has upon the vehicle, and this results into the sideways drifting of the vehicle, so that it loses its track. There has been considerable research which speaks of a negative effect of being involved in a secondary activity like talking over a cell phone upon this operational level (Alm and Nilsson, 1995; Stein, Parseghian, & Allen, 1987). The second performance level comprises the skills required by a driver to move the car in the traffic. This level of performance is known as the tactical behavior. Deficits included in this level show up in the form of driver getting too close to the other vehicles on the road, or the driver’s lack of approach to other vehicles as he/she turns left on an intersection. Impacts of a driver’s conversation over a cell phone on the driving show up as change in speed, change in acceleration, and reduction in the driver’s tendency to quickly react to sudden changes in traffic. Strayer et al (2003) characterize the behavior of drivers influenced by consequences of using cell phone while driving during the first and the second level of performance as “sluggish”. Performance of the driver changes so that he/she starts getting slower. The third level of performance includes goal-directed traits of driving which are more managerial and project the strategic performance of a driver. Problems encountered by the driver at the third level of performance include failing to execute the planning and navigation tasks during driving. Presently, there is a lack of direct evidence which supports the observation of deficits on this level with the involvement of a driver in a conversation over a cell phone while driving. Ma and Kaber (2005) found that drivers using cell phone while driving experienced a considerable reduction in their awareness of the road situation. In addition to that, the perceived mental workload of such drivers relative to the adaptive cruise control conditions had increased a lot. Use of cell phones while driving decreases the tendency of a driver to appropriately react to the stimulated situations that call for an alteration in the direction of movement or speed. The driver loses the ability to brake if the driver ahead immediately brakes, and to brake when the traffic light turns red. These effects are also related to the age of a driver, with the older driver being more susceptible to the risks associated with the practice as compared to the younger drivers (Shinar, Tractinsky, & Compton, 2005). According to the US Department of Transportation, almost 25 per cent of a total of 6.3 million crashes that happen every year are caused by the inattention or distraction of drivers (Seo and Torabi, 2004, p. 101). Seo and Torabi (2004) found alarming results both for the research participants with the hand held cell phone and the hands free cell phone. As many as 34 per cent of the college students included in the research were found to have experienced car accidents severe enough to cause injury or damage to property whereas at least 30 per cent of them were found to have experienced near-accidents. It is not quite inappropriate to consider the use of cell phone while driving as a form of violence in the sense that the driver involved in this activity assumes great potential to harm others. Having realized the negative effects of this practice on the drivers’ ability to drive safely, different countries around the world have started to take measures against the use of cell phones while driving. These countries include but are not limited to Singapore and Japan who have banned the use of any kind of cell phone during driving while another 18 countries have been a little flexible in that they although they have banned the use of hand-held cell phones during driving, yet they allow the use of hands free cell phones (Seo and Torabi, 2004, p. 101). Cell phone usage during driving is not just wrong because the driver has to keep one hand busy holding the cell phone to make or attend the call. This practice is also condemnable because it distracts the driver’s attention that should principally be focused on nothing else but driving. In order to make a call, the driver either needs to dial the number or locate it in the phone directory by scrolling down the list of contacts. This requires the driver to look at the mobile screen rather than straight. To make a text message to someone, the driver constantly needs to look at the mobile screen and also use the brain to guide the action of the fingers so that he/she can write the message. The practice is no less risky if the driver has to read a text message or attend a call. To do either of the two, the driver needs to shift his/her gaze from the front screen of the car to the mobile screen. The risk cannot be avoided anyway. However, the extent of risk varies from one practice to another. The Virginia Tech Transportation conducted a research in 2009 to compare the level of risk of a texting to a non-texting driving experience. Results of the research indicated that a person who makes a text message while driving assumes a 23 per cent greater risk of getting caught in an accident as compared to a person who does not text while driving. Use of cell phones during driving is extremely unjustified on the grounds of ethics. Recently, there has been a lot of emphasis on the implementation of the principles of ethics in all walks of life. Business entrepreneurs have started to take measures to make their business green. Organizations are evaluated according to the level of corporate social responsibility they display. Therefore, it is advisable to evaluate the matter of use of cell phones during driving on the scale of ethics. There are myriad of reasons for which this practice may be considered ethically unjustified including the risk it exposes the cell phone using driver as well as other drivers who are not using cell phones to. The fact that use of cell phones during driving violates the principles of ethics can also be estimated from the fact that it inculcates negative perceptions of the driver who engages in such practice in the minds of other drivers on the road. “The growing number of telephone users who are responsible for dangerous roadway behavior may elicit negative regard from the general driving public. A bumper sticker reading, “HANG UP AND DRIVE!” that has been occasionally seen suggests anger and perhaps—at least—justified nervousness” (McGarva, Ramsay, and Shear, 2006, p. 133). Use of cell phone while driving by a driver inculcates aggression in other drivers, which creates an effect of driver aggression. Other drivers are indirectly affected by the objectionable practice of one driver. “It is reasonable to assume that an avoidable danger that is as recent to the roadways and as widespread as is driver cell-phone use would induce some public resentment toward the activity that causes that danger and that is often easily recognized by other drivers” (McGarva, Ramsay and Shear, 2006, p. 142). Therefore, hands free cell phone is obviously not acceptable as an alternative to the hand held cell phone while driving. People tend to overlook the gravity of this issue by saying that rather than banning the use of cell phone while driving, it is more advisable to encourage the drivers to keep the calls as short as possible. In addition to that, drivers may find adoption of certain techniques quite useful to attend calls while driving including the use of hands-free device. People can attend calls while driving without letting the outsiders catch them particularly when they use a hands free device to attend the call. In other cases, drivers can escape while attending call before they can be caught. Some people consider banning the use of cell phones while driving too extreme an action to be taken. Many people are also of the view that it is impractical for the government to impose ban on the use of cell phones during driving as its implementation is very difficult for a myriad of reasons. While advanced countries have an efficient system of check in place and the ability to catch the drivers involved in the use of cell phones while driving, it is not all too easy for the developing countries to maintain such a security check for drivers using cell phones. The option of using hands-free cell phones has been proposed as an alternative to the use of regular cell phones in an attempt to eliminate the use of hands to use the phone while driving as the use of hands is conventionally considered a potential cause of physical distraction. A lot of research has gone into the comparison of effects of use of hands-free cell phone on driving to that of the regular cell phone. Most of the researchers have found no significant reduction in the level of risk and have declared the hands-free cell phones just as dangerous for use during driving as the regular cell phones (Harvard Mental Health Letter, 2010, p. 7). One research even found the use of any kind of cell phone while driving just as risky as drunk driving (Harvard Mental Health Letter, 2010, p. 7). Many people tend to think that they have immense ability to multitask. However, the reality is that the brain can only focus at one major activity at one time while the processing of other activities is slowed down. This becomes the cause of inattention blindness in the drivers who use cell phone while driving. Researchers mutually consent that cell phone should not be used unless the driver takes a side and parks the car somewhere for a while. “What seems to matter is to deter cognitively distractive barriers to safe driving, thereby focusing on driving mentally as well as physically” (Seo and Torabi, 2004, p. 106). The use of hands-free cell phones while driving is also condemnable because it lends the drivers the feeling that they have been wise in the selection of their cell phone and so they can drive safe. As a result of this, their tendency to use the cell phone while driving increases further and they even use it where they would normally have avoided had they had the hand held cell phone. Concluding, there has been a tremendous increase over the years in the number of drivers who use cell phones while driving. This is a very dangerous and unethical practice as it increases the chances of accidents on the road. Drivers involved in this practice conventionally underestimate and overlook its negative implications and consider it too simple a matter to be taken seriously. A number of alternates to the use of hands to make or attend the call have been suggested including the use of hands free calling service. Nevertheless, this does not make the practice less risky as the fundamental element that increases the chances of accidents is the diversion of the driver’s attention, which is caused when a cell phone is used during driving irrespective of the use of hands. In order to drive safely, it is imperative that the driver is fully attentive towards driving. There has been a lot of research to prove the negative effects of use of cell phones while driving. Some researchers have found the danger inherent in this practice comparable to the danger involved in the practice of drunk driving. Considering the implications of this practice on the safety of drivers, it is advisable for the government to ban the use of cell phones while driving. References: Alm, H., and Nilsson, L. (1995). The effects of a mobile telephone task on driver behavior in a car following situation. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 27: 707–715. Groeger, J. A. (1999). Expectancy and control: Perceptual and cognitive aspects of the driving task. In Hancock, P. A. (Ed.), Human performance and ergonomics. San Diego, CA: Academic. Harvard Mental Health Letter. (2010). Why cell phone conversations distract drivers. Retrieved from www.health.harvard.edu. Ma, R., and Kaber, D. B. (2005). Situation awareness and workload in driving while using adaptive cruise control and a cell phone. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics. 35. 939 –953. McGarva, A. R., Ramsay, M. and Shear, S. A. (2006). Effects of Driver Cell-Phone Use on Driver Aggression. The Journal of Social Psychology. 146(2): 133- 146. Seo, D. and Torabi, M. R. (2004). The Impact of In-Vehicle Cell-Phone Use on Accidents or Near-Accidents Among College Students. Journal of American College Health. 53(3): 101-107. Shinar, D., Tractinsky, N., and Compton, R. (2005). Effects of practice, age, and task demands, on interference from a phone task while driving. Accident Analysis and Prevention. 37: 315–326. Stein, A. C., Parseghian, Z., and Allen, R. W. (1987). A simulator study of the safety implications of cellular mobile phone use. In Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (p. 181). Des Plaines, IL. Strayer, D. L., Drews, F. A., & Johnston, W. A. (2003). Cell phone induced failures of visual attention during simulated driving. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. 9: 23–32. Read More