Cell Phones and Driving Don't Mix, even with Headsets

(My thanks to Katharine Mieszkowski for an excellent article in Salon magazine from which this report is adapted)

Seven states now have laws banning drivers from holding a cell phone to your ear while driving, and many more will probably follow suit.

So naturally, everyone (in LA, at least) is running out to buy a headset.

But it's questionable whether this will accomplish anything. Switching to "hands free" isn't really a solution to the problem. "The impairments aren't because your hands aren't on the wheel", says David Strayer, professor of psychology at the University of Utah. Strayer's research has found that driving while talking on a cell phone is as dangerous as driving drunk. "The overtaxed driver's poor brain doesn't distinguish between a conversation that takes place on an iPhone or a Bluetooth headset", reports Mieszkowski. "In both cases the chatting driver is distracted".

Neuroscience backs her up. "Say there's an 18 wheeler to your right and suddenly a call comes in from that motor mouth client in Kansas City", she says. "As the client's voice starts buzzing in your ear, the activity in the parts of your brain keeping your car in your lane declines".

Marcel Just, PhD, a psychologist who directs the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging at Carnegie Mellon says "Forty percent of your attention is drawn away when you're on the phone". That goes for a phone that's held to your ear, or one that's connected to it by a headset.

Researchers can actually see the parts of the brain devoted to driving in brain imaging studies, and those brain areas- specifically the parietal lobe- get wildly distracted when you're talking on the phone. There's a similar reduction in activity in the visual cortex. According to Just, if you're in a tough driving situation and someone talks to you, the processing of language kicks in whether you like it or not, and that processing distracts from your attention (whether you like it or not). You can't "will" yourself to not pay attention.

I wrote about the energy draining properties of multitasking in a book on Energy which will be out in January of 2009. I really feel multitasking is one of the biggest energy drainers on the planet. In the case of driving, it may also prove to be one of the most lethal.

An Insurance Institute for Highway Safety study found that drivers chatting on cell phones were four times more likely to get in an accident serious enough to injure themselves. My advice: When you're driving, drive. Put the cellphone away. It's a great way to practice mindfulness, a valuable skill that will serve you well in everything from weight loss to personal relationships.