Hands Free Phone Driving = Drunk Driving?

“Don’t Drink and Drive: You might hit a bump and spill your beer.” This bumper sticker is a perfect microcosm of our ape brain absurdity.

The same absurdity of using phones while driving. When a friend first told me about a new law banning texting while driving, I thought it was a joke. “Are they going to outlaw cello playing while driving next?!”

Can someone really be that stupid that they think it is okay to poke on a tiny screen while piloting thousands of pounds of metal and glass hurtling at highway speeds? Silly me. I had no idea that millions of my fellow hairless apes think it is okay. Good thing we don’t have millions of cello players, or we might have that driving hazard, too.

It is painful even to have to ask, but exactly why is using a phone while driving so dangerous? Here is a hint: It is a bit like asking if the danger of drinking and driving is that you are trying not to spill your beer.

The most obvious issue is the distraction of holding something in your hand. This would be a similar issue if you were holding French fries in your hand. Except it is not.

It is more like the reason drinking while driving is bad: The alcohol impairs your reaction time and your judgment. Talking on a phone while driving has about the same reaction time and judgment impairment as the 0.08 blood alcohol legal limit.

The issue is called “cognitive load.” It is as if you are trying to solve a crossword puzzle while you are trying to drive. It ties up brain resources needed for driving. It makes zero difference whether your phone conversation is handheld or hands free. Just as it would make zero difference if your crossword puzzle is in your hand or fixed to the car.

You are trying to switch tasks between two mental spaces. In the time it takes to switch tasks, you may have covered half a football field.

One thing is actually worse about hands free phone use: No one can see that your attention is diverted.

What about listening to the radio or having a conversation with someone in the car? Those do have a measurable effect on diverting attention from driving. But an acceptable risk for an experienced driver. Young drivers in California are not allowed to carry passengers, in part because their inexperience increases the risk of diverted attention.

How can it be that talking to a passenger in the car is less risky than talking on the phone? Because the passenger is in the car with you. Your mind is still focused on where you are. Talking on the phone, your mind is focused on a distant place where the other person is located.

An adult passenger is also usually able to see what is happening on the road, too. If a danger comes up, they will understand your need to stop talking and devote your attention to the road. Not so with the person on the phone.

How do we know these things? Studies of distracted driving go back to a 1963 study by the Federal Bureau of Public Roads. Researcher John Senders drove in midday traffic on I-495 in Massachusetts… with a mask that would randomly block his vision!

Cell phones were introduced on a commercial scale in 1983. By the mid 1990s they were widespread.

A review article in 2018 looked at 106 experiments going back to 1991. The evidence was clear: Using a phone while driving is an unacceptable risk. And it does not matter if it is hands free or handheld.

The studies showed that a driver impaired by phone use is in the same position as one impaired by alcohol: They do not know how impaired they are. So, they make little or no compensation for their impairment. For example, they could increase their following distance from the car ahead. But they don’t. This is called a lack of “meta-awareness.”

One larger issue I find worrisome: This information has been known for decades. Yet most states pretend that hands-free phone use is okay. Perhaps the law is about what is profitable for the telecommunications industry? And what is politically acceptable? Rather than based on actual risk? Perhaps we need a new grassroots movement to end this carnage, equivalent to the one against drunk driving?