Driving can be a downright perilous endeavor.

Think of the major roadways in the south metro area.

From about 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., you can pretty much count on tons of traffic. There’s usually some type of road work that takes away an available lane at some point. Rain or snow compounds the obstacles.

Why make it worse?

Why tie up traffic and put lives in danger with a cell phone?

I know, this is not a new discussion. Frankly, it’s getting old.

Here’s a scene that I’ve become all-too familiar with:

Red light turns green. The motorist in front of me, phone in hand, is oblivious. More than 10 seconds pass before said driver looks up at the light then steps on the gas and bolts away like Secretariat. The rest of us shake our heads and possibly drop an expletive or eight.

Better to be late starting than late stopping, though.

A distracted teenage driver in Denver ran a red light and killed a woman on June 6, police say.

We haven’t been told what the distraction was, I should note. We don’t know if it was talking or worse, texting, on the cell — both of which are illegal for motorists under the age of 18 in Colorado — or something else.

Talking and texting are only two among myriad possible driving distractions — eating and grooming are a couple others. Cell phone abuse just happens to be the most common form these days, it seems.

I’ve seen the guy shaving behind the wheel on his way to work. I just haven’t seen him every day on every road for the past decade.

Nearly 6,000 people died in crashes in 2008 involving a distracted driver, and more than half a million were injured, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. A Carnegie Mellon study shows using a cell phone behind the wheel reduces the amount of brain activity associated with driving by 37 percent.

I found those figures on the U.S. government’s official website on distracted driving, www.distraction.gov. The very fact this site exists is testimony to the problem.

It’s good to have a resource like the website, but I don’t need a meteorologist to tell me it’s hot outside.

Traffic feels choppier these days, with less of a flow to it. The mix of inattentive, frustrated and angry drivers can’t be good for keeping streets safe. Road rage, anyone?

It’s time to talk turkey.

While no state has banned all cell phone use while driving, seven have made it illegal to talk on a handheld phone, according to the Governors Highway Safety Association.

In 2009, Colorado lawmakers, like those in many other states, banned texting and driving. Legislators here also barred teen drivers from using a cell phone at all, another common move among states.

As adults, we were left with the privilege of talking and driving.

From what I can see, we’ve abused that privilege. Now it should be taken away.

If stamping out distracted driving is what we’re after, then simply making it a rule to use a headset is probably not enough.

Consider:

A study by the Highway Loss Data Institute earlier this year showed no reduction in crashes in states that mandated hands-free cell phone use.

A University of Utah study found that using a cell phone while driving, hand-held or hands-free, delays a driver's reactions as much as having a blood alcohol concentration of .08 percent — that’s legally impaired, by the way.

During their next session, state legislators in Colorado should take a hard look at outlawing all cell phone use by motorists.

We should set a good example for younger drivers.

Can we not talk?

Chris Rotar is a news editor for Colorado Community Newspapers.