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Calling in Cars: What Are the Benefits?

on Driver Distraction

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By Paul Atchley

Economists like to talk about “unintended consequences” to any law or rule.  In a previous post, I made a case for the economic costs of distracted driving, but in all fairness, we should think about whether there could possibly be any “unintended consequences” to a ban on distracted driving.  In performing a cost benefit analysis, are there any benefits to using cellular phones while driving that a distracted driving ban would eliminate?

Such an analysis is not new. It was over a decade ago that authors from the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis commissioned a series of focus groups to examine benefits of in-vehicle cellular phone use. They identified sixteen potential benefits across five areas (personal, family/household, social network, business and community). Let’s take a look at some of the highlights from these focus group results to understand what we would lose by giving up cellular phones while driving.



Personal and family/household benefits include improving the efficiency of daily living by reducing the number of car trips a household makes, and improving personal or parental peace of mind through ready communication with loved ones. As someone who requires at least three trips to a hardware store to complete any job, the idea of fewer car trips really resonates with me. And no one can deny that having a phone is useful for keeping track of the kids. But the question remains: Do these benefits require that the phone be used while driving? I don’t see a compelling reason to re-check a project list with my spouse while moving at 45mph, and teen drivers are dangerous enough without demanding that they answer their phones while behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. The benefits of both household efficiency and personal peace of mind can still be realized with a phone used in a parked car.

What about the benefits that arise from using a cell phone on the road to call in a drunk driver, a breakdown or a crash? As we know that a driver talking on a cell phone is, statistically speaking, nearly identical in behavior to a driver who has been drinking, are we truly realizing any benefits by adding what amounts to another drunk driver on the road to make phone calls for assistance? Again, all of these tasks can be accomplished as effectively, and more safely, with a phone in a parked car.



And what about increased business productivity? Are we going to crash our economy by trying to not crash our cars while making that big business deal?

Probably not. First, if you want to make a good deal, don’t negotiate while driving. Business decision making is poor while driving -- a fact that's been verified by several studies. (And by the way, do we really need these studies to tell us that attending to the business of driving translates into less available brain power for a phone conversation?) Second, research by the National Safety Council shows no impact to productivity after bans on cell use while driving have been instituted. While 7% of the companies surveyed as a part of the NSC's research did indicate a decrease in productivity following a ban, 19% indicated an increase in productivity. Twenty-two percent of companies surveyed said that cell phone bans had no effect on productivity, and the remaining half said it was too soon to tell how cell phone bans may or may not have an impact.

Perhaps more importantly, the research showed that cell phone bans led to decreases in crash rates and property damage. Many companies and municipalities have been successfully sued for millions of dollars because of crashes involving employees who were driving while distracted. They can attest to the fact that not only are crashes a big hit to their organizations' bottom lines, but they also manage to increase lost employee time while lowering public goodwill. To quote one plaintiff's lawyer, “Can you imagine how a jury would react if they knew a business regularly knew about, encouraged and profited from its employees driving while intoxicated?”

While we would certainly lose some conveniences by disconnecting while driving, it's pretty clear from the results of our cost benefit analysis that many of those benefits are perceived, not real. It's even more clear that those benefits which are real can still be obtained, at no additional risk, by simply pulling the car over to use the phone.

To this scientist and researcher, the case is closed. Banning cell phone use while a vehicle is in motion has little or no negative consequence, and results in the equivalent of one more drunk driver being taken off the roads. That seems like a pretty significant benefit.


Comments

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ClayManBob

Thu, 2011-12-15 11:26

I first had a phone in my car in 1985 when I sold real estate. I always felt that it helped me stay in touch with all of my clients whenever they needed me or I had promised to call them back and was on my way to somewhere else, late as usual, and couldn't afford to stop to find a payphone and be even later to my next appointment. Looking back, I now realize that I wasn't driving as safely as I should have. I have had mobile phones ever since that time and have come more and more to the realization that driving while on the phone is a good way to end up in an accident. Thank God I have never been in an accident where mobile phone usage on my part was involved. I have, however, narrowly avoided people coming towards me or beside me in the next lane, drifting into my lane as they are talking or looking at their phone. I no longer talk or text on the phone when driving by myself - I either ignore it or pull over. If my wife is with me and someone calls my phone, I hand it to her. I am strongly in favor of a national ban on texting and talking (or any other use of a mobile phone) when a vehicle is in motion. The law will need to be strongly enforced, however to break people of a really bad habit like this one. Fines need to be substantial, not just $25 or so. Maybe $200 for the first offense, then $500, then loss of license and impounding of the vehicle for 3 months after that. No call or distraction is important enough that someone might die because of it.


drw

Thu, 2011-12-15 12:20

I think I see an opportunity to decrease the unemployment rate by hiring secretaries to ride along and perform business for you or a chauffeur to drive you while you do your job. Even I would consider applying for such a position if it reduced cellphone-related accidents.


b33cux

Thu, 2011-12-15 16:44

This question is absurd. If you have to ask, you haven't the judgement needed to determine the answer. The question SHOULD be: how many spectacular accidents, deaths, and injuries have to occur before we come to our senses and realize that this public safety hazard is worse than drunk driving ever was due to its ever-increasing pervasiveness. If safety isn't a good enough reason, it's likely money eventually will be: I can't see the insurance companies digging into their pockets to pay the damages for too much longer...


Banty

Sat, 2011-12-17 12:30

Not only is little lost by not using the cell phone while driving, but it would discourage some decidedly *in*-efficient bad and inconsiderate habits that have crept in to our daily lives, because we have begun to rely on cell phones. When my son was school aged and participating in Scouts, I found that many other parents don't plan well anymore. I'd be notified of a change in plans very close to an event, decisions regarding an event would be held off (like regarding weather) until very close to the event, making it necessary for me to continue to have my schedule arranged as if the event is on, when normally I'd have, by morning at least, known if it were on or off. People think "I can call everyone by cell, I don't have to decide now." Worst of all, there has been a greater tendency to be late to events (people think if they call ahead that they're late, it's all OK), a greater tendency to arrive with other people in tow (often times because they've gotten a last minute plea from a third party). And just an overall tendency to quickly and sloppily account for meals and coordinating with spouses, etc., in a flurry of irritating traded cell phone calls "no, I'll be there, but hang on, my husband needs me to pick up something on the way" and stuff like that. It might seem to increase efficiency to combine a trip, but that could have better have happened by planning, and it's *in*efficient to impact others' plans with it. The cell phone has also become a tether of expectations on the part of some people, where they're very disappointed if you don't answer their calls anytime, every time. If I don't answer, and they do get back to me, oftentimes its some little item that they solved on their own, and I never needed to have been involved, but it was just way easy for them to call on their cell, before figuring out the problem on their own. *In*efficient.


papafox80

Sat, 2011-12-31 15:31

RE the idea that calling in a drunk driver is like adding in an additional drunk driver. The problem with assessing how distracting using a cell phone is, is that none of the assessments really address the subject of the call. Most, indeed, attempt to make that subject as different and distracting as possible - apparently in an effort to prove a point. I have heard no one look at the obvious parallel of a pilot's radio communications with the ground. Those are not distracting, those are necessary. The difference is the subject. If what you're talking about has no reference to what you are doing at the time, then yes it's distracting. If however you are describing what you see ahead of you at the time, are you not perforce paying attention to what's ahead of you at the time?


MIT86

Sun, 2012-01-15 14:08

I have a degree in cognitive science as well as comp sci. It is clear that the problem with phones (etc) is mental load not dexterity. I can tune a radio, load a pipe, eat a sandwich while driving, no problem. Conversation (even with passengers) is distraction ---removing a limited resource, ie attention, from driving. Phones for passengers and emergencies are great. Not for the driver. Its just reality. Humans do not have infinite resources.


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