Laws against distracted cycling have failed to break through at the state level. A few individual cities have established rules against riding a bike and using a cell phone (without a hands-free device), but such regulations are far from sweeping.
Whether you’re for or against distracted cycling rules — more on that in a moment — you can’t deny that using a cell phone changes the way a person rides a bike. If logic alone doesn’t convince you, there’s plenty of empirical evidence to do so. The foremost research team on the subject comes from the psychology department of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands.
The group’s most recent work, published this month, observed 24 test participants engaging in common cycling activities as they rode along a public bike path. Some texted on a smartphone, some texted on a conventional cell phone, some texted and listened to music simultaneously, some spoke on the phone, some spoke to a cyclist beside them, some even played a phone game. A few rode without doing any secondary task.
So it’s fair to say that distracted cycling should, at the very least, be on the radar of city officials in charge of public safety. At the same time, it’s not clear whether or not the problem warrants action.
As cycling gains in popularity, more cities will have to confront the question of whether or not to ban distracted riding. But before they do, especially in these fiscally challenged times, it’s worth weighing the cost of enforcing the law against that of protecting the public in other ways — namely, creating safer bike infrastructure. One may discourage unsafe behavior from a few riders, sure. The other will encourage safe riding for everyone.