In the space of just a few days, the NTSB's December 12 call for an enforced ban on the use of cell phones by drivers generated an immense amount of reaction.
It's certainly true that drivers using cell phones are almost invariably distracted from their driving, and thus become dangerous. Personally, I don't need an NTSB study to tell me this; it's observable in countless ways even in my shortest trip to the supermarket. Weaving, slowing to a crawl, suddenly turning without signal, stopping dead in moving traffic, failure to move when the light turns green - it's all on display, every day.
After the news story above was published in the Washington Post, the newspaper's traffic columnist ("Dr. Gridlock") offered a poll on the subject, asking whether people use their phones while driving. It's worth a look for two reasons. First, because rather incredibly the poll omits the one choice that I feel sure would be accurate for at least 50% of us: "Yes [I do use my phone while driving], even though I'm aware it affects my driving." Personally, I try not to use my phone when I'm driving, especially not if I have to dial the number; I try to keep any such calls short, and to do them at a stoplight. Mostly, I don't initiate calls, but will answer incoming ones if I'm expecting an answer. I suspect that applies to a lot of us.
Second, the poll is worth a look for the insight provided by readers' comments. Hardly anyone admits to using his/her phone while driving, and those who do say they only do so with a hands-free device, so it's not distracting. The degree of self-delusion here is incredible. One person suggests drivers should be able to do whatever they want behind the wheel, and shouldn't even be licensed because driving is no different from walking along the sidewalk. (When was the last time an individual on foot killed someone else by walking into him?) A second suggests talking on the phone is no different from talking to someone in the seat next to you (which sounds superficially right, except that your passenger can warn you when you're about to splatter yourself under a semi, and a cell phone can't). Another argues he can drive all the way across the country with his phone at his ear, "without weaving once." That gent is delusional. The whole point the NTSB is making, of course, is that most people may think talking doesn't affect their concentration, but they're wrong.
So is a ban the answer? I'm not so sure. The boastful ones may be wrong to say their driving isn't affected; but they're partly right -- if we focus just on the "talking" part and not on dialing or texting -- to say the problem is just an extension of all other forms of distraction - talking to your passenger, reading a map, listening to the radio, disciplining your kids, having breakfast at the wheel. Will employers stop expecting to reach their mobile employees wherever and whenever? Then there is the enforcement problem. How are police to decide when someone is using the phone? And the escape clause problem: If referring to your smart phone's GPS directions is to be permissible, won't every driver just claim he was using GPS? And really, what's the rationale for allowing GPS use (except for convenience and necessity when printed maps are no longer published a few years from now)? It's just as distracting as texting.
Finally, Americans or their legislators, I'm not sure which, have generally seemed averse to prevention. We'd rather fix things once they're broken, than try to prevent them from getting broken in the first place. There are voices that oppose preventive health care, those that oppose simple safety standards for various products, those that won't deal with looming problems like social security meltdown or Medicare costs until they crash under their own weight, and numerous others. Here is where the industry groups that promote cell phone use throw their weight around: Cell phones aren't at all dangerous when used responsibly (and of course, neither is liquor).
For all these reasons, I suspect it will be a very long time before total cell phone bans will be widespread. More likely is that technology will take over, as automobile manufacturers, I'm told, are working out details of systems that would simply disable the telephone function inside a moving car. Meanwhile, probably our best bet is continuing education on how distracting phoning can be. It couldn't hurt to put more deterrent into traffic regulations, either; drivers involved in accidents should face strong penalties for contributory negligence when it can be shown they were on the phone, texting, or even painting their nails.