News-Record.com

"If you've observed people using a cell phone, they really do look like they're sluggish in their responses," Strayer said. "Reactions are slower."
Here's how they did the study:
Twenty young adults and 20 senior citizens spent time "driving" in a simulator that took them on a virtual freeway trip. Participants made this drive several times.
Once inside the simulator, "drivers" spent half their trip talking to a research assistant on a hands-free cell phone. The other half took place in silence.
Surprise, surprise. When talking on cell phones, braking reaction time among young adults slowed 18 percent, putting them on par with folks who received their licenses during the Truman administration.
And senior citizens using cell phones? As it turns out, talking doesn't terribly affect their driving.
Local young adults showed no shock at the results.
"When you talk on the phone and drive, reaction time does go down," said Scott Fitzgerald, a freshman at UNCG. "I'll spend more energy on the conversation than keeping my eyes peeled on the road."
The timing of the study couldn't have been better for Virginia legislators, who last week passed a Senate bill prohibiting anyone under 18 from driving and dialing.
If seconded by the House of Delegates and signed by Gov. Mark Warner, high school students here should pay close attention to crossing the state line.
Critics, however, fault the Utah researchers for their methods. Using a simulator? C'mon. Like that re - creates real driving conditions.
"When people are normally talking on a cell phone, they're talking on a route they know, with people they know and at times they want," said Eric Skrum, a spokesman for the National Motorists Association. "Of course reaction times are going to be slower (in a simulator), because nothing's familiar — everything's brand new."
Besides, he said, how is talking on the cell phone any different than chatting up a car full of friends? If it's the conversation and not the device (as a hands-free cell phone proves), then should passenger conversation also be banned?
"I would think if more and more people are using cell phones every year, and cell phones are a danger on the road, we would see the (national road) fatality rate begin to climb," Skrum said. "But it hasn't."
The Utah professors are the same guys who brought us a 2003 study equating cell phones with alcohol. In that report, Strayer and Drews argued motorists who chat behind the wheel are more impaired than drivers with blood alcohol levels of 0.08, regardless of age. North Carolina's legal driving limit is 0.08.
A study that is years away will also counter criticism of simulated environments. Last summer researchers observed traffic at a four-way intersection near an elementary school, Strayer said.
"These are real people, engaged in real conversations, with people they knew in their own vehicle," he said. "What we found was that people on the cell phones were three times as likely not to stop."

Turn lanes and yields
Jere Hershey of Greensboro sent two good questions by e-mail. I'll tackle one today and answer the second next week.
"The first is signage I can't figure out ... I even asked several policemen and they seem perplexed. Here is the situation:
"An intersection with a traffic light has a right-turn lane. The turn lane has a yield sign. When the signal is green and a person is in the turn lane and turning right, does that person need to yield to a car coming from the opposite direction who is turning left?
"Examples of this situation: Aycock and Benjamin Parkway (and) East Cone and U.S. 29 and, I expect, many more.
"Logically, to me, it seems the person with the green light and turning right would have the right of way ..."
You're right, Jere.
I spoke with Bill Jones at the state Department of Transportation. The driver waiting to turn left should wait for oncoming traffic to clear.
"(The driver) would have to yield to the person who is making the right turn," Jones said. "It would be that way in any intersection."
So why put the yield sign there? Because someone waiting to turn right who has a red light must allow cross traffic the right of way.