Multiple studies have demonstrated that a handsfree phone is no safer than holding one in your hand, so why is it silly?
Please provide links to such "studies"
If you remove the common distraction variable "phone conversation" from the parameters that study would show that driving with one hand is just as safe as driving with both hands on the wheel.
I find that very hard to believe. Perhaps the difference is below the noisefloor of the study but last five years a multitude of socialpstchology studies have been redone and rejected as non significant. It would not surprise me if these are some of those studies.
I read the same studies. I do not know if they were updated or refuted. The studies used to support legislation either had very poor control groups or the legislators did not care, but why would they?
The common factor with the greatest effect was the distraction caused by using any phone or even talking to a passenger in the car; it was the intellectual distraction and not the physical distraction. None of the studies covered it but I wonder if using a two way radio where only one side can talk at a time like with amateur radio is less distracting.
Many such studies employ young students---- they work cheap, & are less likely to consider the study nonsense.
They also tend to use simulated traffic situations.
The two things may cause errors because-
(1) The participants have very little experience in driving in the real world, & are still in the "panic" stage" where they have to actively "think through" the very mechanics of driving.
Experienced drivers perform the normal tasks of driving subconciously, so their attention is available to analyse traffic situations, despite alleged distractions.
(2) "Simulations" don't reproduce the driving experience all that well, so the "noob" may be fixated on that difference, become easily distracted, & miss vital traffic information.
It seems that the "distraction" idea has been extended out of all proportion to the original obvious problem of people looking at their mobile phones while driving.i
All of the other things have been around nearly as long as cars have, with little statistical record of them causing accidents.
Most things a driver might do were designed to be possible using just the sense of touch.
Driving itself, for example:-
With a manual gearbox, do you ever look at the shift pattern diagram on the gear knob?
Look at the headlight switch, or wiper switch?
Car radios were for years made with pressbuttons so pre tuned stations could be selected.