Quicksand Fans

A couple days ago I was in an electronics store with my family and came across someting on sale I had not see in a number of years. CB radios.
I happen to comment to my family that way back in the 1970's I didn't recall anyone mentioning that chatting on ones CB was a distraction like the way cellphones are today.
That's not to say that it's safe to be using something to chat with (a CB or cell phone) while driving is safe but it's interesting how one device is considered a distraction while driving while I don't recall the other getting that type of publicity offhand.

jagfiles wrote:A couple days ago I was in an electronics store with my family and came across someting on sale I had not see in a number of years. CB radios.
I happen to comment to my family that way back in the 1970's I didn't recall anyone mentioning that chatting on ones CB was a distraction like the way cellphones are today.
That's not to say that it's safe to be using something to chat with (a CB or cell phone) while driving is safe but it's interesting how one device is considered a distraction while driving while I don't recall the other getting that type of publicity offhand.

Well, the CB Radios back then were not 'smart'. No color graphics, no text, no instagram goodies to grab your attention. Just a volume and squelch knob and a channel display. You didn't have to look at the mic to use it. Big differences.

If I had to guess I'd say the difference is probably just shear numbers. I doubt 85% of the country had CB radios in their car. Plus people had common sense back then.

In the 1970s, most of the people who had CB radios were truckers. They used the radios to keep in touch with their bases or to pass information along to each other. They were also quite expensive in comparison with today's cell phones.

The problem with cell phones is many people regard them as being like land line phones and carry on conversations when they should be focusing on the road ahead of them.With so many people having cell phones and being distracted by them, accidents are virtually guaranteed to happen.

I have a high regard for someone who tells me, "Can I call you back? I'm driving now" when I call him or her on that person's cell phone. That tells me they want to do the right thing.

-Big Bad John

I don't know about America, because here and there are two very different worlds, but here the police clearly explains that the main danger of usage the cell phones while driving is responding a call rather than talking. Responding a cell phone call is rather different procedure from responding a CB radio call. Typically a person (while driving!) has to pick up the phone from where it is (it could be in a pocket or in a bag), look at the display, make a decision to respond or not, unlock the phone (depending on the type of the phone it can be a sequence of buttons to press or a special figure to draw on the touch-screen), and press the button or move a finger over the touch-screen. It's a lot of actions demanding some attention - what distracts from driving for several seconds. Enough to cause an accident.

Actually, nobody prohibits use of cell phones with hands-free headset and auto-answer.

Having recently almost been killed by an idiot who couldn't take the time to pull over to answer the phone, I'm a little biased, but my personal opinion is just don't do it. Anything that takes your hands OR just your mind off the task of driving is insanely dangerous. People caught texting behind the wheel should receive an automatic day in jail.

Agree, texting in such conditions is just asking to die or kill someone.

But operating comms while hands free or the controls are integrated, should not be a problem. Far faster craft than automobiles do it safely every day. The problem , as with anything, is that the operators are generally incompetent drooling retards who shouldn't be allowed to operate a rubber duck in the bath. Under those conditions, they're as likely to kill themselves with a coffee cup as anything more dangerous

There is a very well-known scientific principe that says that the human capacity for attention (that is, to pay attention to inputs) is limited. While that capacity is not the same for everyone the limitation is a factor for everyone. It is even possible, and fairly simple, to measure the change in simple reaction time, or any other ind of reaction time, as the number of things one attempts to attend to increases. Thus, the use of a CB does result in a slowed reaction time. The difference is that a CB requires much less attention than does texting, so the effect on reaction time is less.

When I first got a cell phone many years ago, I tried to make a phone call while driving. I was on a four-lane divided highway, in daylight, no other traffic around- and I couldn't do it. Couldn't take my eyes off the road long enough to make a call. Not ashamed to admit that, either. So I pulled over.

Interesting experience recently on this topic. I've been memorizing a long speech I have to give, and I recite to myself in the car. When things get busy on the road, I find myself slowing down my speaking and even stopping. I automatically devote more of my resources to driving. Either that, or I don't multitask well.

Fred588 wrote:There is a very well-known scientific principe that says that the human capacity for attention (that is, to pay attention to inputs) is limited. While that capacity is not the same for everyone the limitation is a factor for everyone. It is even possible, and fairly simple, to measure the change in simple reaction time, or any other ind of reaction time, as the number of things one attempts to attend to increases. Thus, the use of a CB does result in a slowed reaction time. The difference is that a CB requires much less attention than does texting, so the effect on reaction time is less.

This illustrative of the principle I mentioned, plus one other. In this case you so-called "executive function" is able to force your attention toward the task that is more important. In the event you were very tired, affected by strng emotions, drunk, or half a dozen other conditions were present, that function might not work.

nachtjaeger wrote:When I first got a cell phone many years ago, I tried to make a phone call while driving. I was on a four-lane divided highway, in daylight, no other traffic around- and I couldn't do it. Couldn't take my eyes off the road long enough to make a call. Not ashamed to admit that, either. So I pulled over.

Interesting experience recently on this topic. I've been memorizing a long speech I have to give, and I recite to myself in the car. When things get busy on the road, I find myself slowing down my speaking and even stopping. I automatically devote more of my resources to driving. Either that, or I don't multitask well.

Fred588 wrote:There is a very well-known scientific principe that says that the human capacity for attention (that is, to pay attention to inputs) is limited. While that capacity is not the same for everyone the limitation is a factor for everyone. It is even possible, and fairly simple, to measure the change in simple reaction time, or any other ind of reaction time, as the number of things one attempts to attend to increases. Thus, the use of a CB does result in a slowed reaction time. The difference is that a CB requires much less attention than does texting, so the effect on reaction time is less.