User:Philip s/bagrut project/Philipwork

Project

Research Question - Does a cellular phone distract drivers?
Teacher`s Name: Nellie Deutsch
School Name: Ort Guttman
My Name: Philip Shinder
26.02.2009

Topic

Driving and Cellular Phones

Research Question

Do cellular phones distract drivers?

Reason for Choosing the Topic

I chose this topic because driving and cellular phones interest me.I want to find out if it really so dangerous like everybody say or they just saying it because everybody say.If it really dangerous, I won't drive and speak together anymore. The purpose of my project is to find out how dangerous it is to drive and talk on the phone.

Is it realy dangerous to drive and talk on the phone?
In Israel, like in lot of other countries, the law blames technology and sometimes it doesn't help anybody. But all that connects to using phone while driving, the law is too soft.

Why? Because the risk in using a phone while driving is much bigger than we can think. A lot of research shows it. One of the most popular researches belongs to crew of researchers from Utah Universty. The researches checked 40 drivers in different conditions: regular driving, driving under the influence of alcohol, driving while using cellular phones and driving while using the phone speaker. The examination was performed by a simulator called "PatrolSim".

The results obtained from the research show that driving while talking on the phone with speaker or without speaker are same to the results of driving under influence of alcohol! The reactions of the drivers are much slower and the stopping range is much longer in case of danger.

How does the law deal with talking on the phone while driving?
The law says: "driver must keep his two hands on the driving wheel while the vehicle is on. However, the driver can remove one of his hands from the driving wheel to make sure that the vehicle is working well."

Last year the Israeli law was expanded and now it says this: "While the vehicle is in movement, the driver won`t hold cellular phone and won't use it in the vehicle, but only by speaker. The driver won't send or read SMS while driving."
You can use wireless speaker, but not wired speaker. The punishment for talking on the phone while driving is 1000NIS, Last years it was only 500NIS.

What happens in other countries in the world?
Most of the countries aren't pay so much attention to talking on phone while driving. There is no enforcement and if there is, people ignore it and keep risk thier and others lifes. There is some countries that are out of ordinary in Europe. For example, in Denmark, there is a law that prohibit using phone while driving from 1998. A similar law exist in Ireland and if you ignore that law, you will pay 1500NIS. In Holland, the financial penalty is the highest in the world(2000EUR).
On the other hand, in the USA, the law is very soft. Only six countries prohibited using phones while driving. The first country that prohobited using phone was New York in 2001. In California the financial penalty for talking on the phone while driving is just 20$. In Louisiana, only new drivers aren't allowed to use phones while driving.

So, What can we do to stop this phenomenon?
In Canada, there is an organization called "Coalition for Cellphone-free Driving". This organization take care of the legislation and publish surveys against driving while speaking on the phone. The actions of this organization helps.
But, the real answer for this phenomenon located only in ourselves. If we have an important call, we can stop next to the sidewalk and speak. If the call is not so important we can reject it. Those little things can save our and others' lives.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I can say that the researches call us to stop to speak on the phone while driving. They show us how it is dangerous to drive and speak at the same time. I think that the law in Israel isn't so strong like it should be.
In my opinion, the best solution is stop this phenomenon should come from us, the drivers. We need to stop speaking on the phone while driving completely!

Reflections

The process of working on my project was very interesting and I enjoyed to work on it, I learnd some new things, too. I like my way of searching for information on my research question. I search information about my topic in books and on the internet. At the end I took my information from the internet.
It was little bit hard, but at the end everything got done.

Bibliography

Hebrew encyclopedia Yavne
http://www.ynet.co.il
http://www.freeonlineresearchpapers.com/speaking-your-cell-phone-while-driving-should
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=41430

Appendix

Survey

Here is the link to my survey: Speaking on the phone while driving.

Results

And here are the results of the survey:
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/4099/35350484.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/306/35678760.jpg
http://img11.imageshack.us/img11/2052/59011442.jpg

Oral Presentation

Recording

Here is my ppt : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVFjEysvDTw