On Sunday January 12 I had the honor of being a guest on the Mr. Dad Positive Parenting radio program hosted by Armin Brott. The show was broadcast on KOIT in the San Francisco area and is now posted as a podcast. Looking at the list of prior guests on this show and the scope of Mr. Brott’s national following on parenting issues, it was a delight to be able to introduce Not So Fast to his audience. Here is the link:
http://www.mrdad.com/positive-parenting/not-so-fast/
Yes, this post is not strictly for parents of teen driving, though it does fit with my ongoing concern, shared of course by many others, that in-vehicle, dashboard mounted electronics are on occasion getting entirely out of hand, and this can have an impact on both parents as role models and teens who follow their lead.
So, I noted recently, in an article written for the Tribune Newspapers by Paresh Dave, entitled “Useful versus wasteful,” highlighting two new pieces of equipment presented at the Los Angeles Auto Show: a “bidirectional camera that sits atop or within the panel behind the steering wheel,” and a “photo gallery app” for a dashboard mounted screen.
To which I can only ask: Really? As always, my position is not that we should ban in-vehicle electronics, but that they should be limited to those that help with driving, navigation and safety; they should be simple to use; and every step should be taken to ensure that they are used only when the car is stationary. These two new gadgets don’t meet any part of this test.
The relatively new science of the human brain and distracted driving seems to be gradually exposing, as myth, the idea that texting and use of cell phones and in-vehicle electronics is not distracting because humans are good at multi-tasking. The reality is that our mental capacity to process situations, including dangerous ones, is a so-called “zero sum game.” When we use electronic devices while driving, we don’t just add a task and do both well, but rather we switch from driving to whatever the distraction is, and as a result, driving attention and skill decrease.
Well, to add to this concern, the article linked below discusses a study, newly published in the New England Journal of Medicine, which among other things notes that one reason teens are more at risk when using cell phones and other electronic devices, in addition to the physical distraction of using the device, is that the still-developing teen brain is even less adept at dividing attention among tasks. In other words, it is not just that teens are culturally more prone to text, but when they do so they are even less able than adults at performing what might be called multi-tasking, which also means they are less able to refocus their attention on the traffic situation when their use of the electronic device is finished.
I will grant that this is a subtle addition to our knowledge of this subject, and it probably does not make a difference in the only sensible advice to parents about teen drivers and electronic devices — zero tolerance. But I think it is always helpful for parents to know all of the aspects of why teens are more crash prone when they use electronic devices. This new study illuminates one more corner of the problem.
Here is the link, which at the end has a link to the Journal study itself (and thanks to my work colleague Ed Parks for sending the article):
http://ca.news.yahoo.com/distracted-driving-bigger-problem-novice-drivers-220755717.html