How Do Cell Phones Affect Your Driving?

Overview

Objectives/Goals My objective was to learn if talking on a hand-held cell-phone affected your driving. I believe talking on a cell- phone does lessen your ability to drive. Methods/Materials I made a driving course out of cones. Drivers were instructed to stop at all the blocks in the road, stay within the cone lines, stop for a red ball that rolled across the lane, all while staying under 10 miles per hour. I had 14 people do the course twice, once while talking on a cell-phone and once without talking on a cell-phone, alternating whether the drivers got called the first time or the second time they drove the course. Results Two of my drivers did not answer the cell-phone. Of the other 12, the average driving accuracy (stops and staying within the lines) was the same for people who were talking on a cell-phone and people who weren't. The reaction time to the ball was 1 second longer for people talking on a cell-phone. The drivers talking on a cell-phone took about 50% longer to drive the course. Conclusions/Discussion My conclusion is that talking on a cell-phone does affect your driving. Both slower driving and longer reaction times by cell-phone users in my experiment shows that cell-phone use significantly reduces the attention given to driving.

Competition history

• CSEF 2010 Behavioral & Social Sciences · Entry J0313

Resources

• CSEF project summary ↗

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