(Source: Jalopnik & Oregon Live, Car and Driver & CNBC)

If you use a cell phone, chances are you’re aware of “text messaging”—brief messages limited to 160 characters that can be sent or received on all modern mobile phones.  Texting, also known as SMS (for short message service), is on the rise, up from 9.8 billion messages a month in December ’05 to 110.4 billion in December ’08. Undoubtedly, more than a few of those messages are being sent by people driving cars. Is texting while driving a dangerous idea?

Image Courtesy: Jalopnik

The boys fromCarandDriver spent time determining just how bad it really is versus, say, drunk driving. Turns out drunk driving‘s safer. Here’s why.  Drivers distracted by texting are four times slower to brake to avoid a collision than those driving under the influence.  (The results in a nutshell:  Unimpaired: .54 seconds to brake; Legally drunk: add 4 feet; Reading e-mail: add 36 feet; Sending a text: add 70 feet.  If are somene who has a lot of time to spare, continue reading the test details and the explanation of the test results conducted in different scenarios.)

The testers wired a Racelogic VBOX III data logger to the test vehicle (in this case a Honda Pilot) to record vehicle speed via the VBOX’s GPS antenna and brake-pedal position and steering angle via the Pilot’s OBD II port. The testers then wired a red light to the windshield to play the role of brake lights from an imaginary car ahead of the Pilot. When the red light lit up, the driver’s supposed to hit the brakes.    Each trial, one with a younger test candidate (Jordan Brown) and using an iPhone, the other with old man (Eddie Alterman) and a Samsung Alias, would have the driver respond five times to the light, and the slowest reaction time — the time between activation of the light and driver hitting the brakes — was dropped.

Image Courtesy: Car & Driver

The results from the first test scenario involving the younger driver are as follows:

• The younger driver’s  baseline reaction time at 35 mph of 0.45 second worsened to 0.57 while reading a text, improved to 0.52 while writing a text, and returned almost to the baseline while impaired by alcohol, at 0.46. At 70 mph, his baseline reaction was 0.39 second, while the reading (0.50), texting (0.48), and drinking (0.50) numbers were similar. But the averages don’t tell the whole story.
• Looking at the younger driver’s slowest reaction time at 35 mph, he traveled an extra 21 feet (more than a car length) before hitting the brakes while reading and went 16 feet longer while texting. At 70 mph, a vehicle travels 103 feet every second, and older driver’s worst reaction time while reading at that speed put him about 30 feet (31 while typing) farther down the road versus 15 feet while drunk.

The results from the 2nd test scenario involving the older driver are as follows:

• While reading a text and driving at 35 mph, the older driver’s average baseline reaction time of 0.57 second nearly tripled, to 1.44 seconds. While texting, his response time was 1.36 seconds. These figures correspond to an extra 45 and 41 feet, respectively, before hitting the brakes. His reaction time after drinking averaged 0.64 second and, by comparison, added only seven feet.
• The results at 70 mph were similar:  The older response time while reading a text was 0.35 second longer than his base performance of 0.56 second, and writing a text added 0.68 second to his reaction time. But his intoxicated number increased only 0.04 second over the base score, to a total of 0.60 second.

Well, do you know what’s happening in the real world?  According to one industry study, still, 20 percent of drivers regularly send texts or e-mails on the road.  Governments at all levels (State, Local and Federal) are combating the texting meance with a legal and PR campaigns.  As of now, 14 states have banned driving while using handheld cell phones and a bunch of them are expected to join the bandwagon. in teh near future (Oregon is reportedly on the verge of enacting a ban).  Click here to watch a video of this story that appeared in this morning’s Today’s show.