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Phone Addicts are the New Drunk Drivers - analysis from over 160 billion miles of driver data

by hawkinspeter
Sat, Apr 13, 2019 19:10
12

Not really about bikes directly, but about U.S. drivers:

http://blog.zendrive.com/2019-distracted-driving-study-phone-addicts-are-the-new-drunk-drivers/

Quote:

Overall, ‘Phone Addicts:’

  • Spend 3x more drive time actively using their phones
  • Actively ignore the road 28% of the time they’re driving
  • Are on the road 1.5x more times than the general population
  • Are more of a public danger than drunk drivers

The study: https://go1.zendrive.com/distracted-driving-study-2019/

If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.

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12 comments

Avatar
elladebeauty | 5 years ago
0 likes

Not only drivers, but also the pedestrian 'stare' at their mobile phones even when they are walking in the street and road. How dangerous! It is about life, so just put aside the phone or other stuff and mind the road. 

Avatar
ktache | 5 years ago
3 likes

I have always thought that the concept of multitasking was nonsense, great if you want to do many things badly, if you want to do something well, do one thing at a time and concentrate on it.

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FluffyKittenofT... replied to ktache | 5 years ago
2 likes

ktache wrote:

I have always thought that the concept of multitasking was nonsense, great if you want to do many things badly, if you want to do something well, do one thing at a time and concentrate on it.

 

Yeah, it's always seemed that way to me.  Multitasking is something people may sometimes do out of necessity - but being 'good' at it surely just means your performance doesn't decline as much as other people's might when similarly forced to do several things at once. 

 

But I don't believe anybody is so skilled at it that their performance isn't measurably degraded when compared to doing one thing at a time.

 

I'm sure humans multi-task the same way non-parallel-processing computers do - by constantly switching between tasks (and just as with computers, the switching itself probably carries an overhead).

 

When your brain has too many tabs open at once, it's going to slow down.

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bikingbill | 5 years ago
4 likes

Here's some interesting information from the National Safety Council.

Talking on a mobile device (hands-free) has a comparable risk to driving while intoxicated at a BAC of 0.08. Both result in a 4x crash risk.

Hands-free provides no safety benefit. It does not eliminate cognitive distraction.

Drivers are not aware of cognitive distraction (as opposed to visual or tactile), therefore it lasts longer and poses the greatest risk.

The conversation, not the device, creates the danger. We don’t multitask, we switch between two tasks rapidly. Multitasking is a myth.

Results in “look at and not see objects” inattention blindness. vision is filtered and visual cues are missed. 50% of the cues are missed.

Talking to a passenger isn’t as distracting. The phone has more of a cognitive load. Passenger aids driving. Fewer accidents.

Texting is 23x crash risk. Typically 4.5 seconds of inattention.

 

Avatar
kil0ran | 5 years ago
2 likes

Modern cars are full of distractions and require very little effort to drive. Hardly surprising that driving standards are dropping. When I started driving there it was rare to have power "anything" - certainly no ABS, and usually drum brakes, wind up windows, no power steering. Everything demanded your attention. Car safety systems are there to insulate and protect the occupants and to hell with everything else.

Avatar
bikingbill replied to kil0ran | 5 years ago
2 likes

kil0ran wrote:

Modern cars are full of distractions and require very little effort to drive. Hardly surprising that driving standards are dropping. When I started driving there it was rare to have power "anything" - certainly no ABS, and usually drum brakes, wind up windows, no power steering. Everything demanded your attention. Car safety systems are there to insulate and protect the occupants and to hell with everything else.

 

My current automobile, a 2000 Toy-Auto Echo (Yaris) has wind-up windows, no ABS and a 5-speed manual.  I agree that having to pay attention to all of this matters.

Avatar
ktache | 5 years ago
3 likes

Scary.  Well done hawkinspeter, another powerful article.

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to ktache | 5 years ago
0 likes

ktache wrote:

Scary.  Well done hawkinspeter, another powerful article.

Thanks - I saw it on SlashDot and thought that it might be interesting. (I don't know whether I should be emailing in these kind of links to road.cc and let them write it up or just post it in the forum which is probably quicker).

Initially I thought that ZenDrive was some kind of cloud storage service (as it was posted on an IT news site), but it looks like it's a smartphone application that measures your driving (presumably using the accelerometers). Presumably U.S. only though I don't see any reason why they don't expand over here (as long as the app doesn't require the driver to be looking at it which would be ironic).

Avatar
ConcordeCX replied to hawkinspeter | 5 years ago
3 likes

hawkinspeter wrote:

ktache wrote:

Scary.  Well done hawkinspeter, another powerful article.

Thanks - I saw it on SlashDot and thought that it might be interesting. (I don't know whether I should be emailing in these kind of links to road.cc and let them write it up or just post it in the forum which is probably quicker).

Initially I thought that ZenDrive was some kind of cloud storage service (as it was posted on an IT news site), but it looks like it's a smartphone application that measures your driving (presumably using the accelerometers). Presumably U.S. only though I don't see any reason why they don't expand over here (as long as the app doesn't require the driver to be looking at it which would be ironic).

it's Zen. You have to sit in the lotus position, hands well away from the wheel, and close your eyes. If it's anything like Zen in the Art of Archery then the car will find its own target.

 

 

Avatar
hawkinspeter replied to ConcordeCX | 5 years ago
0 likes

ConcordeCX wrote:

hawkinspeter wrote:

ktache wrote:

Scary.  Well done hawkinspeter, another powerful article.

Thanks - I saw it on SlashDot and thought that it might be interesting. (I don't know whether I should be emailing in these kind of links to road.cc and let them write it up or just post it in the forum which is probably quicker).

Initially I thought that ZenDrive was some kind of cloud storage service (as it was posted on an IT news site), but it looks like it's a smartphone application that measures your driving (presumably using the accelerometers). Presumably U.S. only though I don't see any reason why they don't expand over here (as long as the app doesn't require the driver to be looking at it which would be ironic).

it's Zen. You have to sit in the lotus position, hands well away from the wheel, and close your eyes. If it's anything like Zen in the Art of Archery then the car will find its own target.

Never read that, but I did enjoy Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values wrote:

In a car you're always in a compartment, and because you're used to it you don't realize that through that car window everything you see is just more TV. You're a passive observer and it is all moving by you boringly in a frame.

On a cycle the frame is gone. You're completely in contact with it all. You're in the scene, not just watching it anymore, and the sense of presence is overwhelming.

Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values wrote:

The Buddha, the Godhead, resides quite as comfortably in the circuits of a digital computer or the gears of a cycle transmission as he does at the top of the mountain, or in the petals of a flower. To think otherwise is to demean the Buddha - which is to demean oneself.

Robert M. Pirsig, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values wrote:

The test of the machine is the satisfaction it gives you. There isn't any other test. If the machine produces tranquility it's right. If it disturbs you it's wrong until either the machine or your mind is changed

Avatar
BehindTheBikesheds | 5 years ago
7 likes

US study presuming given the number of fatalities?

I watched a couple of the Australian mobile phone driving info films, the people on there were absolutely shocking in how ignorant/blase they were. Until one wonan's friend who was on a motorbike ended up in a coma because of a distracted driver.

Why we still have a paltry couple of hundred quid fine for distracted driving I'll never know. when we know it has a worse outcome numbers wise than drink driving.

Instant driving ban of 18months, public pillory and crushed phone with all the data on it (that'll learn yah for not backing up!) and a mandatory enhanced driving test resit plus lessons at their expense.

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Pushing50 | 5 years ago
5 likes

Wow, thank you for that report and information. The sentence that really stood out for me was:

"The survey found that people know distracted driving is a problem, but aren’t concerned enough to change their behavior."

I have a problem with todays "don't care" attitude society. Immediate self gratification seems to be a lot more important than empathy these days and the insular lives that people live irritates me no end. 

The  problem surely, is that nobody in authority gives a damn to do anything about it because they are all the same self gratifying, insular bastards themselves. 

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