Drivers On Cell Phones Slow Traffic, Become Even More Unlikable

We may earn a commission from links on this page.

If you didn't dislike drivers who spend all their time in the car chatting away on their cell phones before, a new survey from the University of Utah is going to push you that much closer to grabbing a tire iron and smacking the crap out of their X3 (in places where Cell phone driving laws don't exist). The study shows that drivers on cell phones drive about 2 mph slower on congested roads, thus slowing down every driver behind them. What makes them slower?

According to the study, which involved putting students in driving simulators, we simply lack the ability to do many tasks at once and the cell phone thus slows down the calculations you can make. For instance, when you're listening to your friend Mel tell that story about how Brenda dumped Mark because he was "into pee" you just missed an important lane change. Was it really worth it? [AP via Yahoo]