Drivers on Cellphones Said to Impede Commuters
Drivers talking on cellphones are probably making your commute longer, a new study concludes.
Motorists chatting on the phone, even with hands-free devices, crawl about two miles per hour slower on commuter-clogged roads than people not on the phone, and they just don’t keep up with the flow of traffic, said study author David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah.
For someone commuting by car an hour a day, drivers on cellphones could add about 20 hours a year to travel time, he said.
“The distracted driver tends to drive slower and have delayed reactions,” said Mr. Strayer, whose study will be presented this month to the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. “People kind of get stuck behind that person, and it makes everyone pay the price of that distracted driver.”
His study, involving three dozen students driving in simulators, found that drivers on cellphones are far more likely to stick behind a slow car and that they change lanes about 20% less often than drivers not on the phone.
Overall, drivers on cellphones took about 3% longer to drive the same highly congested route (and about 2% longer to drive a route with medium congestion) than did people who weren’t on the phone. About one in 10 drivers is on the phone, so the extra time adds up, said Mr. Strayer, whose earlier studies found slower reaction times from drivers on the phone and compared those reaction times to people legally drunk.
Combine those factors, and Mr. Strayer figures that distracted drivers add an extra 5% to 10% to commuters’ travel times.
Generally, the study makes sense, said Anne McCartt, senior vice president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, although she noted that what happens to students in simulators may not translate to real-world conditions.
Wireless-phone companies encourage people not to talk on the phone in bad traffic, said Joe Farren, a spokesman for the cellular-phone industry’s trade association.
Copyright © 2008 Associated Press