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Should cell phone use be banned while driving?

Results so far:

Yes
69% 3288 votes Total: 4763 votes
No
31% 1475 votes

No, cell phone use should not be banned while driving. However, it needs certain regulation.

The major argument against cell phone use while driving is that the driver is distracted from the road.

In this case, drivers can be distracted by many other things too. They talk to passengers. They listen to music or radio. They drink and eat.
Everything, anything can be dangerous while driving.


Should talking in general be banned while driving? Should radio or music be banned too? Should food be allowed?

Human information processing is limited. This is known for decades in cognitive psychology. Doing one thing at a time is better than performing multiple tasks simultaneously.
However, practically we humans usually do more than one thing when everything does not need full attention to be accomplished. We can drive home while asking our kids who are in the car about their day in school. We can make coffee while listing a shopping schedule. We can walk while rehearsing a work presentation in our head. We are able to process much information at the same time.

But we cannot type while dressing up. We cannot chew while singing. Things that share the same body part to be operated cannot be done at the same time.
Thus, the danger of using a cell phone while driving is the fact that the hand holds the cellphone cannot hold the steering wheel.
Two hands on the wheel or one hand on with the other hand free for emergency need is a much safer driving condition than the condition in which one hand on with the other hand holding the phone.

Therefore, the solution is to use hand-free device for cell phone while driving. For example, a speaker phone option or a headset.
This is the most important regulation for cell phone use.

Another regulation is self-control.
I have to stop walking when getting an important phone call. I missed exits on highway when my passenger were talking to me. Some people are like me who need more attentional capacity to do one task than the other.
Driving is definitely more important than chatting on the phone or anything else happening in the car. If you find road users (drivers or pedestrians) careless around your car, you should stop talking and stop eating and even stop moving your body with the music and pay full attention to the traffic. If you are driving in an unfamiliar neighborhood, you need to pay full attention to the wheel too in order to get to the correct direction.

To conclude, cell phone use should be allowed while driving, but a hand-free device should be enforced. A driver should know him/herself the times to devote full attention to the road by stopping doing anything else than driving. If necessary, there should be some scientific research to suggest what the times are.

At least it should be allowed to use a cellphone when all cars are stuck in a motionless traffic.

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Should cell phone use be banned while driving?

No
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Yes
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    by Mark Waybill

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