| Key 2 Safe Driving - Science Insider
Reported December 2009
CELL PHONES AND DISTRACTED DRIVING: Everyone has heard about the laws restricting the use of cellular telephones while driving and the studies that justify them. Driving while distracted is not a good idea, and can raise the risk of accidents. Studies show that texting while driving is particularly dangerous, perhaps because it takes more attention to compose a message and manipulate the phone to send it than just talking. But talking on a phone, even with a hands-free device, has been shown to be dangerous, causing unintentional blindness, which is the idea that a driver could look at the road, but not recognize the surroundings if sufficiently engrossed in a conversation.
WAYS CELL PHONE SIGNALS COULD BE USED: Cell phones are everywhere, so scientists want to use them as tracking devices. Several state transportation agencies, including those in Maryland and Virginia, are testing technology that allows them to monitor traffic patterns by tracking cell phone signals and comparing them to road grids. These new systems can monitor hundreds of thousands of cell phones at once -- not private phone calls, just the radio signals emitted by the devices. The phones only need to be turned on, not necessarily in use. Advanced software now makes it possible to tell whether a signal is coming from a moving car or a pedestrian, for example.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.-USA, and the American Society of Civil Engineers contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.
If you would like more information, please contact:
Xuesong Zhou
University of Utah
(801) 585-6590
zhou@eng.utah.edu
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
IEEE
Pender McCarter
IEEE http://www.ieee.org
IEEE-USA http://www.ieeeusa.org
p.mccarter@ieee.org
The American Society of Civil Engineers
Leikny Johnson
Reston, VA 20191-4400
(703) 295-6413
http://www.asce.org
ljohnson@asce.org
Lois Smith
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
Santa Monica, CA 90406
(310) 394-1811
http://www.hfes.org
lois@hfes.org
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