New Evidence of Impacts of Cell Phone Use on Driving Performance: A Review

Whether And How Seriously Does Cell Phone Use Impair Driving?

Numerous studies on impact of cell phone use on driving have reported the association between cell phone use and decreased driving performance in various aspects, such as longer reaction time, lower detection rate, and poorer vehicle control, including lane-keeping, headway distance keeping, driving speed controlling, and following distance keeping (Benedetto, Calvi, & D' Amico, 2012; Collet, Guillot, & Petit, 2010; Horrey & Wickens, 2006; Lee & City, 2008; Strayer, Watson, & Drews, 2011; Rosenberger, 2012). In the two meta-analyses on effects of cell phone use on driving performance (Horrey & Wickens, 2006; Caird, Willness, Steel, & Scialfa, 2008), for example, Horrey’s team and Caird’s team reported the similar findings in strong associations between cell phone conversation, for both hand-free and hand-held, and the increase in reaction time and observed associations between cell phone conversation and lane-keeping tasks. Copper and his collaborators (Cooper, Vladisavljevic, Medeiros-Ward, Martin, & Strayer, 2009) indicated that the cell phone use not only distracted drivers but also had the serious consequence even to the overall traffic flow. Consistently with previous publications before 2007, robust scientific evidence has been found after 2007, continuously supporting the conclusion that cell phone use seriously impairs driving performance.