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By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science WriterThu Jan 3, 3:24 AM ET
Drivers talking on cell phones are probably making your commute even longer,
concludes a new study.
Motorists yakking away, even with handsfree devices, crawl about 2 mph slower
on commuter-clogged roads than people not on the phone, and they just don't
keep up with the flow of traffic, said study author David Strayer, a psychology
professor at the University of Utah.
If you commute by car an hour a day, it could all add around 20 hours a year to
your commute, Strayer said.
"The distracted driver tends to drive slower and have delayed reactions," said
Strayer, whose study will be presented later this month to the Transportation
Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. "People kind of get stuck
behind that person and it makes everyone pay the price of that distracted
driver."
Strayer's study, based on three dozen students driving in simulators, found
that drivers on cell phones are far more likely to stick behind a slow car in
front of them and change lanes about 20 percent less often than drivers not on
the phone.
Overall, cell phone drivers took about 3 percent longer to drive the same
highly traffic-clogged route (and about 2 percent longer to drive a medium
congested route) than people who were not on the phone. About one in 10 drivers
is on the phone so it really adds up, said Strayer, whose earlier studies have
found slower reaction times from drivers on the phones and compared those
reaction times to people legally drunk.
Combine those factors and Strayer figures distracted drivers are adding an
extra 5 to 10 percent of time to your commute.
It's simply a matter of brain overload. Your frontal cortex can handle only so
many tasks at one time, so you slow down, Strayer said.
Generally the study makes sense, but what happens to students in a simulator
may not translate to real world conditions, said Anne McCartt, senior vice
president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Further, she said the
study itself points out how distracted drivers are slower, but is short on
calculations on just how it affects other drivers.
Wireless phone companies encourage people not to talk on the phone in bad
traffic, said Joe Farren, a spokesman for the cellular phone industry's trade
association. But he said he couldn't comment on the study because he had not
had a chance to go over it.