Outline 4 of My Required Weekly Outlines

Outline 7 of My Required Weekly Outlines

How Many Things Can We Do When We Drive?

Distractions and Driving

By: Dr. Leon James and Dr. Diane Nahl; Published by Prometheus Books, 2000,

pg. 257-269

By: Kyle Takeshima

Instructions for this oral presentation are found at:

www.soc.hawaii.edu/leonj/leonj/leonpsy22/g22-oral.htm

Eating while driving

A. Many people, with their busy schedules, eat while they are driving to save time.

a. Many cars now are making it more “comfortable” to eat in cars with appliances such as refrigerated glove boxes and mini microwaves.

b. Many fast food restaurants have begun to make food easier to eat by preparing them in certain ways that will make eating and driving easier.

Example

a. Eating on the go seems to be the American way of life. I have driven numerous times while eating my meal from McDonalds. I could imagine that most anyone with a car has eaten in a vehicle before.

Opinion

In my view as far as eating goes, as long as you get the food ready to be eaten and don’t have to go searching for everything all the time in the car then it is easier and safer than talking on a cell phone in the car.

II. Can cell phones and driving mix.

A. There will be 80 million cell phone users by the end of 2000.

a. 1% of car crashes will be due to cell phone use at a national cost of $3 billion dollars.

b. Many countries have laws that restrict the use of cell phones. Australia, Brazil, England, Israel, and Switzerland.

c. Older drivers (above 55) are twice as likely to be distracted by cell phone use.

B. Example

a. In the MSF (motorcycle safety foundation) class many of the older riders talk about looking out for the cell phone toting soccer mom in the big SUV. We learn to watch out for everyone but I keep my eye on them.

C. Opinion

a. I think that people just need training to use the cell phone appropriately in the car. I have done report on the cell phone and driving in the class and ideas of cell phone training during drivers education came up in the discussion portion. This would be a good idea.

b. Even the hands free accessories for the car have shown not to be totally affective, so I think education must be the key to this problem.

III. ITS the wave of the future.

A. In 2003 congress has added $1.2 billion to fund ITS projects.

a. ITS (Intelligent Transportation Systems) are to do things like manage traffic-make the roads safer-do toll operations-e.t.c.

b. The TranStar system in Huston is said to “reduce delays caused by traffic incidents, saving the city about $8 million annually.”

B. Example

a. The only problem here in Hawaii is that we don’t have money for a big ITS system. From what we have been discussing in class, even if we did make a system like this and the people didn’t like what it was doing it would be shut down like the van cams and the red light cam.

b. The benefits for a system that would help to ease the flow of traffic in the mornings would be enormous. This would help the state with the huge traffic problems that we all face here on Oahu.

C. Opinion

The ITS system is great for the mainland because the people there can travel far, far distances. For the island of Oahu I am not too sure how much it would help out. If they could create something to make the traffic flow in the mornings and afternoon without using police or other kinds of man power I think that they should look into it.

My Home Page:

http://www.soc.hawaii.edu/leon/409as2005/takeshima/homepage.htm