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Thursday, September 30, 2010

Texting bans appear to increase the risk of driving accidents

A study published this week by researchers at the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI) in the USA has found that laws banning texting while driving aren't reducing the number of accidents. Instead, there appears to be a slight increase in the number of collisions.

The HLDI survey looked at insurance claims in California, Louisiana, Minnesota and Washington before and after 'texting bans' were introduced. (Most US states now have similar laws). Data was also collected in nearby states where text/driving laws remained relatively unchanged.

Month-to-month changes in the rates of collision claims didn't alter much from before the bans to after the bans were put in place – and the patterns didn't differ much from those in nearby states that didn't ban texting. Any changes in crash rates showed an accident increase in the text-ban states, from 1% more crashes in Washington to around 9% in Minnesota. Younger drivers – those more likely to send SMS text messages when driving – were more likely to have accidents following the ban, with a 12% increase noted in California.

The HDLI's survey also indicates that many drivers, especially younger ones, are ignoring the bans, with 45% of 18-24 year-olds in states with a text/driving ban saying they were breaking the law.

Adrian Lund, president of the HLDI, said "Texting bans haven't reduced crashes at all. In a perverse twist, crashes increased in 3 of the 4 states we studied after bans were enacted. It's an indication that texting bans might even increase the risk of texting for drivers who continue to do so despite the laws. The point of texting bans is to reduce crashes, and by this essential measure the laws are ineffective."

"If drivers were disregarding the bans, then the crash patterns should have remained steady. So clearly drivers did respond to the bans somehow, and what they might have been doing was moving their phones down and out of sight when they texted, in recognition that what they were doing was illegal. This could exacerbate the risk of texting by taking drivers' eyes further from the road and for a longer time."

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Opinion Articles

Why a mobile TV service is just like a zombie

Mark Bridge writes:

Here in the UK, we’re struggling a bit with mobile TV. Which made me wonder what the problem really was. Well, after a long evening with the finest stilton and the cheapest port, the answer came to me in a dream. A mobile TV service is just like the lurching, drooling nightmare creatures that appear in every zombie film. And once consumers understand zombies, they’ll understand the problems with mobile TV. Let me explain.

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Selling your way out of a recession? Of course you can!

Iain Graham writes:

Everybody these days (apart from a lucky few!) is suffering from a lack of business or reduced sales due to the current 'downturn in the economic climate'. In my opinion, this is the time when sales people should stand up and be counted!

No, I don't mean the hard nosed, foot in the door double-glazing, second-hand car or mobile phone types (no offence!), I mean EVERYONE! Selling is a concept as much as it is a profession.

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Mobile & Contactless Payments

James Rosewell offers his opinion on the current state of mobile and contactless payments.

The banking and mobile industries have big plans for Near Field Communication (NFC) as the mobile payment mechanism of the future. Barclaycard has been leading the way from the credit card sector forming a partnership with Orange, having previously worked with O2, and running a catchy TV advert prompting contactless cards using VISA’s paywave system.

However the reality of NFC payments appears a lot further away. The Point of Sale (POS) technology appears to be badly deployed by some of the first-phase retailers mainly made up of low-value high-volume businesses like coffee shops, fast food outlets and newsagents.

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Insecure Mobile Browsers

James Rosewell writes: I note with interest Barclays mobile on-line banking home page extolling the safety of mobile banking whilst claiming it’s as secure as their non-mobile equivalent. This is on the same page that recommends customers use Opera Mini to access Barclays mobile on-line banking.

Yet following the link to the operamini.com web site and looking at the help section we can read Opera’s answer to the question “Is there any end-to-end security between my handset and — for example — paypal.com or my bank?” and the answer is “No. If you need full end-to-end encryption, you should use a full Web browser such as Opera Mobile.”

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