Originally Posted by Republic
To exactly what extent are you willing to give up your personal liberty?
|
To exactly the point that it doesn't infringe on others. If you drive while texting, whether or not you have actually caused an accident
this time, you
are unnecessarily endangering my life. I seem to remember some quote somewhere about rights to "
life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness". I notice life comes first there.
Originally Posted by Bellan
The difference between talking to a passenger and talking on the phone is that if something happens on the road that you have to react to, your passenger will likely also see it (or see you see it) and shut up which makes it easier (faster) for you to focus your attention on dealing with the situation on the road. A person on the phone can't know what's going on around your car so when something happens that you need to respond to, he or she just keeps on talking which makes it harder (slower) for you to shut them out and focus on driving.
|
That may be some of it, yes but it's not the whole story. I have actually had to do quite a bit of research on this topic (English papers ftw! bcs us prgrmrs use gd eng oftn). People actually assign (as strange as it may be) a much higher priority to the phone conversation, than the passenger sitting next to them, giving it much more of their concentration. This causes the driver to miss significantly more of what is going on around them.
I'm afraid I don't have my original references from that paper (does anyone keep their college carp around after graduation?), but here's a link to a case study that puts some numbers on the passenger vs. cellphone debate:
http://www.psych.utah.edu/AppliedCog...4-000597-1.pdf