WASHINGTON, July 12 (UPI) -- The public should be able to use cell phones while driving, as long as the drivers are not being reckless while using the phones, says a recent report released by two Washington, D.C. think tanks. The report says the current focus by lawmakers on regulation of cell phone use while driving is a result of politicians following public perceptions, instead of research and scientific data.
The report, "The Disconnect Between Law and Policy Analysis: A Case Study of Drivers and Cell Phones," by the American Enterprise Institution-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies, says there is not a strong policy analysis case for a ban phone use while driving, either for hand-held or hands-free phones.
"The public places a greater cost benefit on the convenience of using phones while driving than it does on safety," said Patrick Dudley, who authored the report with Robert Hahn.
Numerous studies conclude that health risks from talking on the phone while driving are equal to or less than the risks from other activities people often engage in while driving, such as eating and changing the car radio station, the report said.
"A good policy should pass a broadly defined benefit-cost test," said the Joint Center report. "In this case, that means analyzing the benefits of a ban, which include the reductions in fatalities and property damage, and the costs of a ban, which means measuring how much drivers value the unregulated use of their phones while driving."
"We're explaining why the case for a ban isn't there, looking at safety versus economic benefits," Dudley said. "The mere existence of a risk doesn't mean we should ban it; we need to look at whether the risk is acceptable or too large. We're doing this by measuring how much people value the phone calls they no longer would be allowed to make, and looking at a ban's safety gains."
Such a ban is being debated by many states and municipalities. Though New York is the only state so far to pass a ban -- and that is only for hand-held phones in cars -- many lawmakers and city councils have debated restrictions on cell phone use while driving because "people tend to overestimate the risk," Dudley said.
Studies quoted by the Joint Center report said a ban would result in much larger economic costs than economic benefits. One study conducted by Robert Hahn and John Hird estimated the costs of a ban at $25 billion, compared to the total economic losses, including deaths and injuries, of $4.6 billion.
The same study estimated a hands-free policy would reduce both costs and benefits, compared to a complete ban, but would still result in negative net benefits under most circumstances. This is because the act of engaging in conversation, not holding a phone, is what is most distracting, the study said. Hahn and Hird estimated that unless the policy reduced accidents by 25 percent or more, it would fail a benefit-cost test.
Another study quoted by the report, conducted by Donald Redelmeier and Robert Weinstein, estimated that cell phones were responsible for $1.8 billion in health care costs and property damages annually, and that the annual costs of a ban are $12 billion of foregone welfare that would be gained by using the phones.
"Compared to seat belts or driver-side airbags, a cell-phone ban would not be a very good investment in saving lives," the Redelmeier study said.
Other think tanks agreed that a ban is unjustified. Instead, they favor strict enforcement of reckless driving laws and public education.
Adam Thierer, director of telecommunications studies at the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank in Washington, D.C., said a ban, especially one that would include hands-free phones, is simply not enforceable.
"The enforcement costs would be outrageous," Thierer said. "Police would have to sit around and figure out who every person in a car is talking to (if they are talking into a phone, singing to the radio, or to another passenger in the car).
The public solution is to enforce distracted driving laws, where police can pull you over and ticket you for swerving in traffic when engaging in any activity. In this country, we have a serious problem with etiquette at the wheel, and when using cell phones everywhere else, for that matter. We need to deal with that as a society and a culture, through more public service announcements and encouragement by the industry."
"Cell phone usage is way down there on the list of distractible activities while driving," Thierer continued. "The most distracting conditions while driving are external influences, like a ball in the street. Then comes adjusting the car radio, other occupants in the vehicle, moving objects in the vehicle, and eating or drinking. After all those comes cell phones."
"I would stress on the cost-benefit side the life-saving applications of cell phones, like when reporting an accident or crime while on the road, and calling for help when your car is stuck, or you're in a life-threatening situation," Thierer said.
The potential economic losses from a ban include the economic activity generated by direct sales of the cellular phones and services, and the economic activity undertaken on the phones while people are driving, Thierer said.
Jacob Sullum, senior editor of Reason magazine, published by the libertarian Reason Foundation, also said a ban is not justified.
"Making trade-offs when composing policy and regulations is nothing new; we do the same thing when we decide to raise the speed limit," Sullum said. "There is risk associated with raising the speed limit, but people value getting to places more quickly, and that outweighs the risks."
Even Jamie Love, director of the Consumer Project on Technology, at the liberal Center for Study of Responsive Law, says he favors only a hand-held phone ban.
"I'd like to continue to look at the evidence before I condone a total ban," Love said. "I have an open mind about implementation of hands-free technologies that would be superior to others, such as voice-activated phones where you wouldn't have to look down to dial, like they have in South Africa. There is a difference between driving while talking and fumbling around with stuff in your hand."
"The good news is that technology will solve the problem, where we'll never have to put a phone to our ear again in the car," Thierer said. "Communication devices will be bundled into our cars on the dashboard or into the very clothes that we wear."