Cellphones vs CB radios - which is more dangerous?

[hexola]

Does anyone else find it stange that we didn't have this "distracted driver syndrome" in the early 70's during the CB craze...?

If you are too young to remember - CB radios were quite the rage in the early and mid-seventies...

There must be something about the level of engagement - attentionwise - that makes Cellphones more engaging and distracting...

With CBs - its more of a call and response thing...taking turns...

Cellphones - its like you are somewhere else...

Odd how two seemingly similar communication formats can produce strikingly different behaviours...

[ZanZaBar]

1. More appropriately...

Minivan or SUV drivers? Which suck more?

[dipsydoodle]

4. Here in the UK

it all depends on colour believe it or not. Proximity to white vans should be avoided at all costs.

See : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/special_report/1999/02/99/e-cyclopedia/1387977.stm

Funniest thing I ever saw finger written on the dirt was " I'm dreaming of a white Christmas"

[Warpy]

5. Here in the US, that applies to black SUVs, the enormous ones.

Of course, I've seen a taxicab yellow H2 that I'd avoid unless it were after dark and I had a potato of exactly the right size in my pocket.

[dipsydoodle]

6. It was thought that

they had a scoring system. So many points for the max number of cars they could get behind them with allowing them to overtake, trumping - which was another white van overtaking the whole lot, and max points for running a nun over on a zebra (pedestrian) crossing.

[Solo_in_MD]

7. Ive kicked both kinds when they have intruded into my lane

The minivans always retreat, the SUVs may not. No one has ever stopped to see what the thump was.

Note: I ride a motorcycle in the Wash DC area.

[mike6640]

2. With the CB's

You didnt have to hold the thing to your ear....you had a big 'ol speaker and a handset.

I know they have fancy hands free now, but a lot of people I see are driving one handed with their cell's clamped to the head.

M

[MrModerate]

3. Even though CBs were a craze . . .

They never reached the penetration that cell phones have today. Also, since all conversation tended to be vehicle-to-vehicle, you didn't have people making sales calls, participating in conference calls, or blabbing with their significant others.

Short, businesslike calls, and not many of 'em.

[SpiralHawk]

11. Don't forget cell-phone sex - that's happening, too

whatever.

Can't they just pull over to do that?

[MazeRat7]

8. The majority of CB users were also professional drivers

Most truckers and rural small town types... I don't recall seeing a whole lot of CB antennas on cars in any major city, but there were very common in out-lying areas.

MZr7

[Cleetus]

9. Unfair comparison

There were less CB's in use then cellphones now. My guess would be that for every CB in use in their heyday, there are hundreds of cellphones in use now. Maybe thousands.

It's all a distraction, and none of it is good.

[hexola]

10. Its fair - on an individual level...I wasnt really referring to a group...

Not really about the group dynamic here...

Just on an individual level...the cellphone is more engaging than the CB...thus more distracting to the driver...

[Cleetus]

12. Oh OK, now i get it

I agree, the cellphone is more distracting than a CB. If anything, CB is casual chat, a cell conversation is a personal call, and we all know how passionate and engrossing personal calls can be.