I hate driving. I hate the traffic, the confusing design of highways in my city and the long periods of claustrophobic sitting with nothing to do but listen to the radio. To top if off, I am a nervous, slow driver, fearful of other cars and distracted drivers. （Yes, I'm the one you've probably honked at, annoyed.）

    But I live in a sprawling Southwestern city with limited public transportation and intense heat that makes long-distance walking or biking tough for much of the year. So driving, alas, is a fact of life for me.

    My fears, though, have only been further confirmed by a harrowing series in the New York Times called 'Driven to Distraction' about the dangers of using cellphones and of texting while driving. One article cited a new study, by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, which found that when truck drivers texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting.

    Another article cited research that drivers using phones are four times as likely to cause a crash as other drivers─and that driving while talking on a cell is akin to being legally drunk. Hands-free devices, meanwhile, don't eliminate these risks, according to studies. In fact, they may worsen them by giving drivers a false sense of security.

    Because I'm such a wimpy driver, I try not to talk or answer my phone on the road unless it's urgent or traffic is at a standstill. But for many Jugglers, especially those with long commutes and important business to take care of, talking or texting while driving is common, and perhaps necessary. I am amazed by how many interviews I've conducted for articles with subjects talking to me while driving; I can sometimes hear the sound of horns and the hushed strains of NPR in the background.

    Readers, do you regularly drive and talk on a cell or text? Given the risks of doing so, have you tried to reduce usage while driving? And more generally, how much is driving a part of your juggle and how do you feel about it?

    我討厭開車。我討厭堵車、討厭我所在的城市公路那種令人一頭霧水的設計，還有長時間一個人坐在車里什么也干不成只能聽收音機的慘狀。最重要的是，我開車時十分緊張，車速很慢，害怕其他的車以及那些不專心的司機。（沒錯，我就是那種你可能會惱火地對之狂按喇叭的人。）

    但我所居住的城市位于美國西南部、占地十分廣闊，這里的公共交通不甚發(fā)達，氣候又極其炎熱，遠距離步行或騎自行車在一年中的大部分時間里都會讓人受不了。因此，唉，開車成了我生活的一部分。

    《紐約時報》（New York Times）刊登了一個悲慘的系列報導，名為"開車怎能不分心",內容是關于開車時打手機或發(fā)短信的危險。這個報導進一步強化了我的擔憂情緒。其中一篇文章援引了弗吉尼亞科技運輸學院（Virginia Tech Transportation Institute）的一項新研究，研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，卡車司機邊發(fā)短信邊開車時，撞車的風險比不發(fā)短信的司機高出23倍。

    另一篇文章引述了一項研究，稱開車時打手機的司機撞車的機構是其他司機的4倍，并聲稱開車時打電話相當于醉酒駕車。與此同時，研究表明免提設備并不能消除這些風險。事實上免提設備還加劇了風險，因為它們給了司機一種安全的錯覺。

    由于我實在是個無能的司機，我盡量避免開車時接打電話，除非是緊急情況下，或者堵車堵得動不了的時候。但對于許多上班族來說，尤其是上下班路途很長、有重要業(yè)務需要處理的人，開車時打電話或發(fā)短信是尋常之事，或許還必須為之。許多次我進行采訪時，采訪對象都是一邊開車一邊通過電話跟我對答，對此我驚駭不已；有時我還能聽到電話里傳來對方那邊的喇叭聲和被調低音量的國家公共廣播（NPR）播放的音樂聲。

    讀者們，你們經常一邊開車一邊打電話或發(fā)短信嗎？考慮到這樣做的危險，你有沒有試著在開車時少用手機？從更普遍的方面來說，開車在你生活中占有多大的比重，你對此感覺如何？