Cell Phone Users Drive like Older People

I'm pretty young and I don't drive like an old person while I'm on the phone, but I realise I'm in the minority here... I hate it when you see traffic moving abnormally slowly and then you get up to the front of the blockage and it's some stupid idiot yapping on his or her cell phone.

If it's so important you have to pay more attention to it than to the road, pull off to the side. (This advice not valid in New England, New York or New Jersey, where the breakdown lane is the 'express passing lane'.)

...post #2000!

 

congrats on 2000, Zaphod!!! That belongs in the RZ!!! j/k... LOL!!! :browani:

 

I do agree some people can't drive without doing something else like chatting on the phone. And I do agree with this statment 100%, I know of a couple of people killed in the NY/NJ area for doing this. I thought the Right shoulder was a new High speed lane, Guess I better get back to the Left shoulder again.

 

I was almost hit on my way home from work this week. Person was on his cell phone when he decided to change lanes without signaling or looking. The only problem was that I was where he wanted to go. If you're looking for a thrill, you should come drive in Nashville rush hour traffic. It's death-defying!

 

That's true......I see a lot people talking on their cell phones both in my town and on I-75.

Congratulations on #2000 Zaphod. :cheers:

 

Or drive on I-75 betweem Ft. Myers and Naples between 4-6:30 p.m.

Traffic is not moving in the northbound lanes.....usually a 25 mile back-up and the sounthbound lanes people are cutting each other off and passing in the break down lanes or next to the medians (in this case an area about 50 feet wide, maybe a little less) between the north and sound lanes on the shoulder of the road.....

 

I saw this yesterday and I think it is partially true. I know you can very easily get distracted if you are talking on the phone, especially if the conversation gets heated!

 

What I want to know is how talking on a cell w/ hands-free kit or speakerphone is any different from talking to another passenger in the car?

 

Very true.

I was behind a car on my way to Chicago., whose occupants were clearly having an heated discussion/argument. The car was weaving and straddling lanes and in general making it a dangerous situation for everyone on that freeway.

 

Lots of people have wrecks because they were talking w/ passengers (like on the phone) or changing the radio (like trying to use the phone). In the future, cars will be automated so we won't have to worry about these things.

 

I get that with people walking on the street. Just like in their cars, they are oblivious to their surroundings.

 

... and iPod connections.

 

Sorry wgray8231, we got you beat in the Los Angeles area. There may be a lot of freeways, but come rush hour, they're all packed to the gills. Too many people, too many cars, and on cell phones!!! :rant: :thumbsdow

 

Does your Friday rush hour start Thursday morning like it does here?

I don't doubt LA traffic is horrid. Here, it's more like a slot machine. You never know when it will take you 20 minutes for 40 minutes to drive home 10 miles.

Being on the coast forces most everyone to live N, S, or E of downtown? Here, you can take your pick, N, E, SE, S, W, or NW. I envy one person in my department who lives in Knoxville--he works at home and comes to Nashville twice a month.

 

Any of you ever been to the Phoenix area? We have something like 400 people per day moving here! Most of them are from California or the Mid-West...

 

same here

 

Ok, so people talking to others (passengers), on their cell phones, chaning the radio station... all that may be a distraciton but AREN'T we forgetting....

People lighting up cigarettes (while driving) and parents turning around (while driving) to talk/yell at their children

 

There are many distractions while driving(like holding hands w/your girlfriend ). I talk on my phone all the time while driving. And although I do notice a change, it's not bad at all in my case. Europe has high fines for talking on your cell while driving, LOL, even while on your bike!!!!
Zap, Congrats on our 2000 posts!

 

Everyday is rush hour. How about an hour and a half to drive 10 miles. It doesn't matter what freeway you take in L.A. it's a nightmare. This is what happens when you have no metro-wide transit system. We do have MetroLink trains, but that is not an option for 95% of commuters. When they crash, as one did last week, the effect is crippling.

The other problem with L.A. is that Downtown is 10 miles inland, and there are several other "Downtowns" spread throughout the metro area, such as Century City, the Wilshire District, Westwood, Santa Monica, Long Beach, Orange County, the Inland Empire, the San Fernando Valley, and on, and on, and on. There is no "central" location in the L.A. area. L.A. is definately the blueprint for how NOT to lay out a city. Also, all of the areas of greater L.A. that make up the entire metro area comprise about 18 million people!! I'm not exagerating, and all of them are on the road at the same time!!

 

Yeah, Phoenix is growing out of control, but people are still coming to SoCal as well. It seems that for as many people we seem to lose we gain back more. Greater Phoenix is huge at about 5 million people, but wait until you reach the 18 million people in Greater L.A.!

BTW, Los Angeles County alone has over 10 million people. This dubious mark was reached 2 years ago! I used to be one of them, ah but no more!

 

I've been to L.A. numerous times, and am glad to come back home to UT(even though I'd rather live out there too), but at least we only have minor traffic jams, unlike in L.A. where you have to worry to get to the airport on time, etc.

 

It's not. I think the study was talking about no hands free kit, i.e. traditional phone in one hand.

What about looking up a # in phone book to dial, or emailing or surfing the web for news etc on the phone? Even more distracting. If you're a Sprint user, then using Voice Command you could do those things hands free as well, and I hope you do so we don't "bump into each other." The rest of you, pull over to the side so you can TCOB and we'll pass you! :biggrin:

 

Like lbmike said, there is a downtown, but most people don't work there. Actually the fashionable places to live are all west of downtown (which is 13 miles inland from the coast). Also, unlike Nashville, you can drive 70 miles and still be in the middle of suburbs.

Rush hour (meaning that traffic is moving below 20 miles an hour) is usually from 0600 to 1000 and from 1500 to 1930 (every day, weekends too), but traffic can happen at any hour and in fact I have been stuck in a traffic jam on the 405 at 11pm on a Wednesday.

Today I worked down in Anaheim, 43 miles from my home. I left at 0645 and got to work at 0905. I left work at 1600 and got home at 1830. My normal commute of 11 miles can take anywhere from 8 minutes (at 0230 on a Tuesday, assuming no construction) to an hour and a quarter, on a rainy Thursday night. People live ridiculous distances away from their work so they can afford a house -- I have a coworker with a 104-mile commute to Perris and another that rented an apartment near work and goes home to San Luis Obispo on the weekends.

It's not better for local drives either -- when I lived in Santa Monica I remember that we would always walk to the Third Street Promenade because even walking 11 blocks was faster than driving and trying to find parking, and going to UCLA, which is just three miles away, could take an hour.

There is a metro-wide transit system, but it's always jammed full, and it's not very convenient to use, and if you have a car you don't take the bus. We don't have much in the way of subways/light rail, though they're starting to work on that.

I've lived in and driven in a LOT of places and LA has the worst traffic I've ever seen, bar-none. It's worse than London. It's worse than Rome. And it's worse than New York.

Everyone in LA uses their cell-phone to do SOMETHING on their ridiculous commutes.

 

Next time, read the article.

People also put on makeup and shave while driving. Eating can be a distraction, too.

 

I've actually seen someone playing the trumpet while driving! Now that is distracting!