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I'm Brian Cooley from Cnet On Cars with another top five about the way we drive.
This is one we can all feel crappy about.
Top five driving distractions.
Latest survey results from 2015.
And the trend line of what we do more or less Than a year ago.
So it's an interesting snapshot of our behind the wheel behavior.
At number five is going to be, oddly enough, email behind the wheel.
23% of us say we do this and that's down 2%.
Email is something where I lay the blame pretty squarely at our work styles.
Our 24/7 always on jobs so many of us have these days.
Let's face it, if you're talking to friends and family behind the wheel Messaging them, what have you.
I doubt you're using email.
Probably texting or using Facebook or what's app or what have you, or calling them the old school way.
This one to me feels like you're trying to make sure the boss isn't breathing down your neck as you're just trying to get home and get dinner on the stove.
Number four is accessing the internet.
29% admit to this, up three percent from last year!
Could be anything from looking at Facebook at a red light, googling something screwy you just heard on talk radio, looking at someone's inane Instagram feed.
All of this, I think, as inexcusable as it is, underlines how boring driving is.
Bring on those self-driving cars.
Number three is an old chestnut, it's texting.
36% admit to it.
Up 3% across all age groups.
What do you say about this?
I mean, this is the original example of your eyes, hands, and mind coming off the task of driving.
Don't do it.
There's a thousand public service campaigns reminding you all the time.
Not sinking in.
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Okay.
Number 2 brings us a tie between entering destinations in GPS and talking on the phone hand held.
Both at 51%.
We've got a change of 3% up on destination and 4% down on hand held calling.
So a split direction here.
Here.
The hand held calling is of course the original, tech driven behind the wheel distraction.
Find Chorely Park
Entering destination of course, you may say hey I'm using voice to enter that destination but a lot of cognitive studies remind us that whenever your mind is involved in such a complex task, researching, finding, telling the machine where to go and hearing its prompts come back, make sure it got it right
You can be so disengaged mentally that you're looking through the windshield and still not even seeing what's right in front of you.
Bear that in mind.
Before I get you to number one, here's the other number one.
73% of people report listening to GPS navigation instructions.
This is gonna split the room.
A lot of folks say, wait a minute, I thought the idea of Eyes on the road, using my ears to get navigation prompts was a good idea.
It's certainly a better idea, but it's another example of how cognitive distraction can come when there's no hands or eyes involved at all.
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The number one distracting behavior we admit to doing behind the wheel is and old friend of ours
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Talking on the phone, even though it is hands-free.
55% of us say we do this, and that's up 4%.
Talking on the phone can be very distracting, even though your eyes and hands are on the road.
If you're on a stressful conversation, an asinine conversation.
Straining to listen to one of those conference calls, where everyone else is on a cell, too.
And you can't hear anything?
Your tying up this CPU big time.
And there's very little left of it to handle the driving task.
Just bear that in mind.
Try and keep the calls short.
And if it's going to be a big deal.
Maybe do it after you arrive.
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More top five list await the car lover.
GO to CNETonCars.com and click on top five.
