Driven to distraction

Cell phone usage while operating a motor vehicle has been outlawed in many states. It is still legal in Ohio, however, where rear seat passengers over the age of five don't have to be belted in and motorcyclists are not required to wear helmets. But that might not be the case for long.

I agree that using a hand held phone while driving should be banned. I have seen too many situations where distracted drivers were holding a phone in one hand while trying to make a left turn in traffic, or where they hadn't noticed until it was almost too late that the traffic signal up ahead had turned red and there was a line stopped cars in front of them. They scare me. I am convinced that the statistics indicating that cell phones in cars are responsible for an increase in accidents are correct. Recently, texting while driving has become a matter of concern.

I keep reading that studies have also shown that hands-free cell phone usage is just as distracting. I'd like to think it is not. Because, if that is the case, it only makes sense that simply talking to a passenger while driving is a danger. I have long thought that young drivers should not be allowed to carry passengers for at least the first six months of their having a license and only one passenger for the next six months. State legislatures around the country are starting to agree.

You would think that, with advances in technology, driving would get safer. But that is not the case. Inventors keep coming up with more gadgets for use inside automobiles while they are being operated. Browsing in the automotive department while I was waiting for a tire to be changed in Wal-Mart the other day, I found a wide variety of on-board video playback equipment, gigantic subwoofers and amplifiers designed not only to drive the driver to distraction, but also anyone within 100 yards of his car, and global positioning satellite navigation equipment.

Last week I attended an event at a conference center in Columbus where I had never been. The woman who was riding with me offered to bring her GPS. I agreed in spite of the fact that I had long thought that GPS monitors had to be even more distracting than driving while talking on a cell phone. I wanted to see how it worked. It worked great. I was so busy talking I didn't hear it warning me that our exit on I-670 was coming up. When I drove past the exit, it advised me to get off at the next one and redirected me back to the conference center. I was impressed.

This weekend, I was driving again as a bunch of us were going to another friend's house in Trotwood. Again, someone offered to bring along their GPS. It directed us right to the house, which was located in an area that would have been difficult to navigate otherwise. I was hooked. If I had printed out directions from MapQuest and had to consult them frequently, even with the help of a human navigator, I still would have been subject to a certain amount of distraction, I reasoned.

That was Saturday night. By Sunday afternoon I was shopping at Sam's Club for a GPS of my own. Someday, just like the cell phone, everyone is going to have one of these. In fact, nowadays, some cell phones actually come with GPS software.

By Sunday evening I was ready to try out my new equipment. We decided to drive over to Kroger as a test run. But how was I going to program it to take us to Kroger when I didn't even know the address. Not a problem. Kroger was already listed in the software as point of interest under shopping/grocery. How cool is that!

I mounted the machine, which is a little bigger than a Blackberry, on the windshield of my car and started out. It took us on my usual route from the south end of town, down 68 to Hyde Road, up 235 and left on Dayton-Yellow Springs Road. All the while, in a soft, but firm female voice, it advised me how close I was to my next turn and which way I would be going. On the screen, it showed my speed, a map of the streets before me and an arrow indicating the direction of my next turn.

"Watch the road!" Amy would warn me every now and then.

I was a little annoyed. I thought I was doing quite okay.

As we approached the Kroger parking lot, the GPS advised me that I still had three-tenths of a mile before my right turn. It wanted me to go in by the Blockbuster, but I am in the habit of entering the lot at an earlier entrance, the one by the Burger King. I turned in where I usually do. The machine started recalculating.

"Your destination is on the right in three-tenths of a mile," it kept saying.

What's it going to do next? I wondered.

"Watch the stop-sign," Amy shouted, as I almost blew through an intersection where I must have stopped thousands of times before.

I hit the brakes just in time to avoid hitting a car that was about to cross in front of me.

"I told you to watch the road," she said.

I hate it when she is right. I'm going to have to learn how to balance using this contraption with attentive driving. I'm not sure it's going to be easy.

After the stop-sign, the machine guided me flawlessly to the front door of the grocery store.

When we were done shopping, I told Amy, "Watch this, all I have to do is touch the screen here where it says, 'Home' and it will guide us right back."

"Give it a break," she said. "We know how to get home. That thing is going to get us killed!"

I pressed "Home" and a map appeared on the screen. We started out.

"Turn right," the machine said. But I knew better. We had to make a left. I turned left.

"Make a u-turn," it said.

I looked at the screen. I started poking it.

"Make a u-turn," it repeated.

"It's trying to take us to the wrong home," I said.

"Watch the road," Amy warned.

Then I figured it out. "It's wants to go back to Sam's Club!"

"Shut that thing off!" Amy said.

I shut it off.

The rest of the trip was glum, but uneventful.

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Coincidentally, there is an article on the subject in today's Dayton Daily News: Texting, talking on cell while driving could cost you