from Bikeleague.org Blog by Darren
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The bottom line is that drivers talking on cell phones may look at you but not see you. Here’s chilling section of the paper:
Inattention Blindness – Vision is the most important sense we use for safe driving. It’s the source of the majority of information when driving. Yet, drivers using hands-free and handheld cell phones have a tendency to “look at” but not “see” objects. Estimates indicate drivers using cell phones look at but fail to see up to 50 percent of the information in their driving environment. Cognitive distraction contributes to a withdrawal of attention from the visual scene, where all the information the driver sees is not processed. This may be due to…how our brains compensate for receiving too much information by not sending some visual information to the working memory. When this happens, drivers are not aware of the filtered information and cannot act on it.
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https://www.bikeleague.org/blog/2010/04/looking-but-not-seeing/oldId.20100503165644197
Biking in Baltimore