The Antiplanner has previously noted the frightening increase in highway fatalities in the last few years and suggested it might be related to growing traffic congestion. An alternative view is presented in a new paper by researchers at Purdue University titled “Death by Pokémon Go.” The paper found that the release of the Pokémon Go game led to a “disproportionate increase in vehicular crashes and . . . fatalities in the vicinity of locations, called Poke?Stops, where users can play the game while driving.”
After mysteriously collapsing by 25 percent between 2005 and 2010–the biggest five-year decline in 60 years–the number of fatalities remained roughly constant at around 32,500 for five years. But between 2014 and 2016, they grew by 15 percent, or nearly 4,800 deaths. While one computer game isn’t responsible for all 4,800 deaths, the study suggests that the growth of cell phone apps–from 800 iPhone apps in 2008 to more than 2 million today–and related distracted driving could be responsible for much of the increase.
Comparing 2016 fatalities with those from 2005 shows a 14 percent decline overall. However, the decline for occupants of motor vehicles is much larger, while non-occupant fatalities actually increased.
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Thanks to features such as vehicle-stability control, collision avoidance, and curtain airbags, cars are getting safer. But drivers may not be driving more safely, partly because of more distractions and possibly because they are willing to be distracted because they know their cars are safer.
As a result, legislatures that are passing increasingly strict distracted-driver laws may be doing the right thing. Oregon’s previous ban on cell phone usage allowed drivers to use other apps on their phones. Starting October 1 of this year, use of any phone apps while driving is illegal. If that can be enforced, it is probably a good thing, especially if the lives it saves will be those of non-occupants.
I’m having to be extra vigilant these days as some drivers veer over the center line. Most of them who do are looking down. One particular stretch of highway is particularly bad just before 8:00 AM. It’s full of teens driving to school, and every other one appears to be looking down at a phone. Meanwhile, my phone is in my pocket.
It’s not just the phones but the in-car systems that are distracting. The lawyers for these crack me up sometimes. In one rental I had the system wouldn’t let me turn on the feature for it display and read outloud my texts. My phone was already pared. It just wouldn’t let me turn on that feature while the car wasn’t in park. That seemed penny wise, pound foolish.
Another did the standard not letting me blue tooth pair my phone, but had no qualms with me plugging it in and endlessly scrolling through podcasts being indecisive about which one to play. I’ve figured since then I have to set some things up and play and then move. I hope others realize that without going through it.
But ya, those screens are a mind suck. You can get lost thinking about what to pick from next. And they take your eyes down off the screen.
I’m a bit surprised that all this stuff hasn’t lead to more head up displays. They’ve been around for awhile.
We really, really need AVs. Less than two years?
“It’s not just the phones but the in-car systems that are distracting.”
Exactly. I drive a new car and selected it in part because it didn’t have a massive “infotainment” screen.
Incidentally, Oregon’s new tough criminal penalties do not apply to these infotainment screens, which are every bit as distracting as handheld devices. It’s very difficult just to even change the temperature or select heat or A/C. Knobs can be used without looking.