Originally posted by deliriou5
i hope you guys see the glaring flaw in logic used to come to the conclusion they did. they are associating TIME spent doing a certain activity with the relative RISK of becoming distracted to the point of getting in an accident.
is it just me, or is it a LOT easier to fiddle with the radio than it is to operate a cell phone while driving? even if i spend 3 times more time playing with the radio than using my cell phone, if it's 5 times easier to do, then it's still safer than using the cell phone.
You are assuming too many variables. The amount of time spent performing an activity which is familiar to a person trained in said activities will probably present less of a risk than that of an unfamilar (or not as familiar) activity engaged in even during a short period of time. One cannot make a blanket statement saying that operating a mobile phone is more risky than operating a radio. For some, the distraction factour may be the same. For others, one may be more. I think it's also safe to say that these effects will vary from person to person as well.
Yes, ergonomics does play a certain role in ease of operation but so does training whether formal or informal. People can get accustomed to operational procedure despite their perceived user-friendliness. Some people find that things which may be outwardly easy to use to be frustrating and difficult. Such is the case with MS-Windows for me for instance whereas I find using the "arcane" interfaces of Unix, VMS and even VM/CMS and CyberNOS to be much easier.
