Why hand-held cell phone use should not be banned
Public Policy Proposal:
Should Hand-Held Cell Phone Use be Banned While Driving?
The idea that cell phone use by drivers is dangerous was recently buttressed by studies purporting to show that such use is more dangerous than driving under the influence. Even California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is promising to sign such a ban into law. However, the study flies in the face of reason. When research findings don’t make sense, I always consider the classic book, How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff and ask, what’s wrong with the study?
One problem is that it tracked 40 people following a pace car using a driving simulator. Meth addicts have been studied, too”and were “proven”to be better drivers than non-users. Subsequent studies showed that such addicts have a far greater accident rate than do non-addicts. The best explanation for this contradiction is the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principal, which postulates that the observer changes the behavior of the observed. Addicts are far more careful if they know they are being watched. We should instead study whether those cell phone users driving erratically or aggressively are under the influence”in real life, not in a simulator.
There are many who seem extra careful when driving while using a cell phone. And there are lots of other distractions to consider, which can be every bit as dangerous or more so. We don’t hear about banning parents from having to deal with unruly children while driving, or eating, drinking, smoking or conversing with other passengers while behind the wheel. It turns out, the same researchers found there is no difference in accident rates between hands-free and hand-held cell phone use. The problem, according to the researchers, is the conversation.
Instead, we can use cell phone use”or doing anything else while driving”as an indicator of possible DUI if observed in conjunction with any driving misbehavior, just as we can use cigarette smoking as such a clue (clue # 1 in the chapter on “Physical Signs”in Get Out of the Way! How to Identify and Avoid a Driver Under the Influence). The road becomes safer if we keep mindful of the idea that any activity in a vehicle other than just driving should get our antennae up to a possible DUI or an addict between drinking episodes, who can be every bit as reckless as when drinking. Cell phone use, gesticulating and smoking have been my first clue on many occasions to possible DUI, which has allowed me to get safely out of the way. For that reason alone, I’d rather keep hands-held cell phone use legal, with perhaps enhanced penalties for using a cell phone while committing a traffic violation”under the influence or not. And, we could require that such violators using a cell phone be tested for DUI using non-intrusive Horizontal Gaze Nystagmus, by which any trained officer can non-intrusively determine blood alcohol level within .02 per cent in less than one minute.