Experts link highway mobile conversation with traffic jam

Cell phones are used widely in our day-to-day lives giving us the freedom to communicate anywhere and at anytime. But how the mobile phone usage on highways can affect daily routine of a person is revealed by a new study conducted by researchers at the University of Utah.

Using cell phone while driving not only poses a safety risk but also causes traffic jams, researchers have found. Besides driving slower, the drivers talking on cell phones also pass slower vehicles less often and take longer to complete their trip compared to the cell phone-free drivers, said David Strayer, a psychology professor at the University of Utah and co-author of the new research.

“The distracted driver tends to drive slower and have delayed reactions,” said Dr. Strayer. “People kind of get stuck behind that person, and it makes everyone pay the price of that distracted driver.”

Researchers headed Joel Cooper, a doctoral student in psychology at the University of Utah, will present their findings on Jan. 16 at the Transportation Research Board's annual meeting in Washington, D.C.

To reach their findings, the researchers tested three dozen students in PatrolSim driving simulators, designed to mimic a Ford Crown Victoria sedan with automatic transmission. Each participant drove through six 9.2 mile-long freeway scenarios in low- to high-density traffic with freeway speeds of 70 mph to 40 mph.

The participants were instructed to obey the speed limit and to signal when changing lanes, and were also allowed to talk on a hands-free cellphone. What the researchers at the end of the study found that the conversational activity tends to cause traffic to show down.

"We found that when drivers were conversing on the cell phone, they drove those sections about two miles per hour slower when traffic density was medium or high," Cooper noted. "In all three scenarios, when people were talking on the cell phone, they made about 20 percent fewer lane changes."

In medium- and high-density traffic, cell phone talkers were about 20 percent less likely to change lanes, and also spent about 25 to 50 seconds longer following slow-moving vehicles before changing to an open lane. In addition, the highway conversationalists took 15 to 19 seconds longer to complete the distance assigned.

Not only causing traffic jams, cell phone usage is being blamed for several problems this week. Recently, the French government said mobile handsets can be bad for children. In October, Professor Kjell Mild of Sweden's Orbero University has said young children are more at risk when using cell phones because of their thinner skulls. Using cell phones for more than 10 years increases the risk of brain cancer, and thinner skulls and developing nervous systems make kids particularly vulnerable to tumors, he added.

Massachusetts law enforcement authorities have also said this week that a hit-and-run fatality was caused by a man who was text messaging on his cell phone while driving his SUV.