This document discusses whether mobile phone use should be banned in cars. Several studies are presented that show using a handheld mobile phone or engaging in visual and manual tasks while driving significantly increases accident risk, with risk ranges from 1.20-4.51. Hands-free use has lower but still elevated risk ranges from 0.25-2.30. Talking to a passenger also introduces cognitive load and distraction. Ultimately, banning the most dangerous activities like handheld use and texting may be reasonable, but other distractions like passengers talking, audio books, and teenage driving also introduce risks that must be weighed against the needs to communicate, learn to drive, and stay entertained while traveling. A total ban on all mobile phone

1. Should mobile phone be
banned in cars?

2. We all know that mobile phone is a
distraction in cars.
It is annoying and frightening to see people talking on
their hand held mobile phones while driving, especially,
when their behaviour creates a hazardous situation for
everyone on the road.
However, banning mobile phone use in cars is like
stuffing a genie in a bottle. There are certain obvious
cases were mobile phone use truly should be banned,
such as teenage drivers and bus drivers but there are a lot
of people who depend on communicating while driving.

4. Below we show the results of two recent studies:
AAA study
This study showed the rank of distraction and gave the distraction level a
score from 1.0 to 5.0. Here are the results:
No distractions 1.00
Radio on 1.21
Audio book 1.75
Hands-free mobile phone 2.27 (talking only, not looking at the
mobile phone)
Talking to passenger 2.33 (passenger unaware of surroundings)
Hand-held mobile phone 2.45
Speech to text 3.06
Operational span task 5.00 (solving a math problem while trying
to remember a fact)

5. Virginia Tech & NHTSA study
This study found that the risk of an accident depended on the specific task
associated with mobile phones. Here are the results:
Task Risk Range (with 95% confidence)
Hand held mobile phone use 1.20-2.49
Portable Hands-free mobile phone use 0.49-2.30
Integrated Hands-free mobile phone use 0.25-1.31
Visual and manual subtask 1.91-4.51

6. Portable Hands-free/Integrated Hands-
free or Hand held mobile phone use

7. Putting things in perspective, accident risk
depends on a number of other factors:
• Speed
• Choice of roads
There is a huge variation in accident risk depending on the choice of road. The accident rate on a
complex urban arterial road is about 10 times higher than a motorway.
• Age
Drivers under 25 years old are at 3x risk of having an accident. Old age is not a big problem until
the driver gets quite old around 70 years old.
• Gender
Men get in more fatal accidents. Women get in slightly more fender benders.
• Alcohol
In California State, a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 is the legal limit but any amount of
alcohol is dangerous. A legal drunk driver, about two drinks for most people, is about equal to
teenage driver.
Driving (MPH) Risk
1 5%
10 1.62%
20 2.65%

8. Blood Alcohol Concentration vs
Relative Risk
Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) Relative Risk
0.00 1.0
0.05 1.8
0.08 3.2
0.12 7.1
0.21 30.5

9. More factors
• All drivers think they are better drivers than
they really are.
• Some drivers have mental deficits anger issues
that make them far more dangerous than the
rest of population.
• Citations for moving violations predict how
likely you will be to get in an accident.

10. Here is what we know:
Pros vs Cons
• Talking with
• Texting
Hands free mobile Hand held mobile
Better for driving Worst for driving
It is not illegal/It is not easy to
enforce
It is easy to enforce/That should be
banned
It is not risk-free, Risk Range : 0.25-
2.30
Highest risk of accident, Risk Range :
1.20-2.49
It is not as safe as driving without
distractions
It is totally unsafe
Speech to text is dangerous Touching to text is dangerous
Worse that driving drunk The worst of all
That should be banned (speech to
text, score: 3.06 distraction level,
where MIN is 1.0 & MAX is 5.0)
That should be banned (visual and
manual subtask, Risk Range: 1.91-
4.51)

11. Pros vs Cons
• Trying to find your mobile
When you look at the risk and the carnage on
the roads, it is questionable whether humans
should be driving cars at all.
Hands free mobile Hand held mobile
No problem at all Dangerous, but if the driver uses
good judgement, then it is a limited
hazardous

12. Even after guys got a car accident, they
don't stop talking on their mobile phones!

13. Conclusions
• These studies are ones of many that show that any form of talking
puts a cognitive load on the brain and causes a degree of
distraction. Also, anything that puts a load on the brain also tends
to narrow our peripheral vision. That is, we literally see less when
we are distracted.
• Without a doubt, hand held mobile phone use, any task involves
touching the mobile phone, talking to passenger in the front seat
and taking your eyes off the road will increase your risk of an
accident.
• These studies show that driver judgement is a big factor but even
with typical drive judgement, visual and manual task will cause
more accidents.
• Until we have self-driving cars, it is reasonable to ban the worst
offenders: hand held mobile and texting.

14. Talking on mobile is about the same cognitive load as talking to
someone/passenger in the front seat.
Should talking to a passenger be banned? , yet nobody is
suggesting banning passengers from talking to driver.
Listening to Audio-book is less cognitive load as a conversation or
talking but the driver might be listening to the Audio-book close
to100% of the time.
Should Audio-books be banned from cars?
A teenage driver is about the same risk as a legally drunk driver.
Yet, a teenage driver has to actually drive in order to learn how or
know-how.
Should teenage driver and/or drunk driver be banned from cars?

15. End
Alexander Rojas