Amazing Sudy:Mobile users to blame for clogged traffic

If you're late for work, a driver using a cell phone may be to blame. US researchers said on Wednesday that people who use cell phones while behind the wheel impede the flow of traffic, clog highways and extend commute times.
"It's a bit like breaking wind in the elevator. Everyone suffers," Peter Martin of the University of Utah's Traffic Lab said in a telephone interview.
Prior studies have equated the risk of driving while talking on a cell phone with driving while drunk. Some 50 countries have banned use of hand-held phones while driving.
The latest study shows the impact of cell phone use on traffic patterns. "It has to do with the reaction to changes in speed," said Martin, who teaches civil and environmental engineering.
"When a driver who is not distracted is in a traffic stream and the vehicle in front slows down, the driver will brake in response. When a vehicle speeds up in front, the driver will respond and speed up," he said.
Martin and a team of researchers devised a study involving 36 university students, each of whom drove through six 9.2 mile-long (15 km) freeway scenarios in low- to high-density traffic at speeds that resembled driving on an interstate highway.
The drivers used a hands-free phone during half their trips and no phone in the other half. They were told to obey posted speed limits and use turn signals but the rest of the driving decisions were up to them.
What they found is that when the drivers were distracted by a phone conversation, they made fewer lane changes, drove slower and took longer to get where they are going. In medium- and high-density traffic, drivers were about 20 percent less likely to change lanes.
They also spent about 25 to 50 seconds longer following slow-moving vehicles before changing to an open lane. And they drove about 2 mph (3.2 kmh) slower than the undistracted drivers and took 15 to 19 seconds longer to complete the 9.2 mile (15 km) trip.
For an undistracted driver, these accommodations might make driving safer. "But if you are doing that so you can take your mind off the road and talk on the phone, that isn't safer," said University of Utah psychology professor Dave Strayer, who led the team.
Those delays can add up, especially in light of studies that suggest as many as 10 per cent of US drivers are using a cell phone at any one time. "Delays in traffic streams of very small amounts grow into massive numbers when you project it across a highway and across a nation," Martin said.
The next step is to use computer models to determine just how much those delays are costing drivers in time and extra fuel costs that result from traffic delays. "What we've done here indicates already that those numbers are likely to be significant," Martin said.

7 detained for molestation in Mumbai

Mumbai: The Mumbai police on Wednesday detained seven people in connection with the molestation of two girls by a group of New Year revellers outside a prominent Mumbai hotel on Monday. One of those arrested hails from Andheri East while two others are from Sion.
The arrests were made after the police registered an FIR taking cognizance of the photographs published in a national newspaper which showed two girls being molested by a group of people. The two girls were allegedly molested when they were leaving a New Year eve party.
The two were walking to Juhu Beach along with their partners after leaving the JW Marriot Hotel at around 0145 hours (IST) when a large mob teased the women. When one of them reacted and swore back, the mob closed in and pounced on the girls.
A man tore off one girl's dress while another led the assault, with dozens joining in. The ordeal continued till two lensmen spotted the incident and called in a traffic inspector.
The police had not registered an FIR till Wednesday afternoon as no complaint had been lodged with them in this regard. But later in the afternoon, the police recorded the statements of the two photographers who had clicked the pictures and registered a formal FIR.

'I don't want to see my face on TV'

On December 31 night, as the world partied away to usher in the new year, two NRI women were molested by a group of nearly 60 men near Mumbai’s Juhu beach.
While one of the victims spoke with CNN-IBN on condition of anonymity, the other spoke with a Mumbai tabloid on Thursday. Recounting the horror she described how the hooligans assaulted her.
In an interview to a city tabloid, she said, "I just want to get over the horror. I want to stop seeing my face on TV. When we came out of the hotel (early) on January 1, I did not sense any trouble. But when we were walking, the crowd just kept getting closer."
"They touched my butt and pinched me. They also began grabbing my sister-in-law. People just watched as my husband tried to protect me," PTI quoted her as telling the newspaper.
The victim’s husband, too, recounted the sequence of events. "We are the victims. We were at J W Mariott from 9 PM on December 31 and at around 2 AM we (he, his wife and two cousins) decided to leave (the hotel) and take a rickshaw back to hotel Royal Gardens,”
"Just as we stepped out, we saw a group heading towards us. They reached us and immediately began grabbing my wife. Since we were walking against the crowd it was difficult to move ahead. But then it got worse. It seemed like the whole crowd was on my wife and my cousin," he recalled.
"Then somebody pushed all of us on the ground. It seemed like they were 50 people around .... all trying to get at my wife and cousin."
The victim's husband said he and his brother tried to fight the crowd but they were too many people.
“That's when some photographers started clicking us. All of a sudden from the crowd, there emerged a man wearing a red T-shirt who tried to help us and started shouting for the police. The cops arrived in a few minutes and the crowd thinned out," he said.
Explaining the reason for not filing a police complaint, the victim's husband said, "We could not identify any of the molesters as it happened too fast. For the record neither the police nor the J W Mariott hotel should be blamed. We are all based in California and I got married just a day before this horrible incident. I have been coming to Mumbai for the last five years, but this experience on New Year has changed my perception about Mumbai," he was quoted as PTI as saying.