Car and Driver Magazine

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 3:32pm on Sunday, June 28th, 2009

Car and Driver magazine conducted a test that demonstrates texting while behind the wheel can be even more dangerous than impaired driving.

Text messaging is on the rise, and undoubtedly, some "texters" or "tweeters" are sending and receiving messages while driving. In December 2008, more than 110 billion messages were being sent each month, up from less than 10 billion just three years ago. To gauge the effect of these road messagers, Car and Driver magazine conducted a road test to determine just how dangerous texting and driving can be. The results were eye-opening.

Previous academic studies have shown texting while driving using simulators impairs a driver's abilities.

The focus of the test was solely on the driver's reaction time. All of the driving was done in a straight line on an 11,800-foot runway. Given the prevalence of the BlackBerry, the iPhone, and other text-friendly mobile phones, the test subjects would have devices with full QWERTY keypads and would be familiar with text messaging. A web intern 22, armed with an iPhone, would represent the younger crowd. The older demographic would be covered by Editor-in-Chief, Eddie Alterman, 37.

After conducting the texting tests on both drivers at 35 mph and 70 mph, the test subjects then drank alcoholic cocktails until they reached the legal driving limit of 0.08 percent blood-alcohol content. They then went back behind the wheel and ran the identical test without any texting distractions.

The results showed even using a straight road without any traffic, road signals, or pedestrians, and looking just at reaction times, the texting results were even worse than the negative impaired driving results.

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 7:04pm on Thursday, February 26th, 2009

February 26, 2009: Car and Driver magazine has named Eddie Alterman vice president and editor in chief. Alterman was previously the editor in chief at Motivemag.com.

Eric Kallgren    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 12:39pm on Thursday, December 18th, 2008

On December 16, 2008, MinOnline reported that the editor in chief of Car and Driver is leaving the magazine:

"Longtime Car and Driver EIC and VP Csaba Csere is leaving Hachette at the end of this year. Csere, who started at Car and Driver in 1980 and became EIC in 1993, told min, "For various reasons, I’m not ready to speak about my departure from Car and Driver." HFMUS SVP and group editorial director John Owens will take the role of acting EIC until a replacement is found.

The auto industry's current state of despair could have something to do with the health of the magazine or Csere's departure. The magazine's YE ad pages are down 12% from 2007 to 2008."