# "Sure I text while driving. \*#@% you if you don't like it!" **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 5, 2016, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271 "2016-02-05T21:07:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/161 "2016-02-10T00:53:57Z")
I have a sneaky suspicion that, back when car radios were first invented (they used vacuum tubes), there was much noise (from those who couldn’t afford a car with a radio) about how dangerous car radios were. When car radios became cheap enough to be (more or less) standard on even cheap cars, the noise subsided. I don’t have a cell phone, and have no idea how to “text”, but I did commute with men driving with a newspaper over the steering wheel and women applying makeup. A new generation, a new way to distract yourself while driving. I do have some concern that entering text using a phone keyboard might require a bit too much attention - more time than applying mascara or turning a page. But nevermind - the Cloud will save us from this self-inflicted plague. All Hail the Cloud! The Trinity for a New Century: Father, Son, and Holy Cloud! (I really should start a Church) ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/162 "2016-02-10T01:22:06Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > I have a sneaky suspicion that, back when car radios were first invented (they used vacuum tubes), there was much noise (from those who couldn’t afford a car with a radio) about how dangerous car radios were. > > When car radios became cheap enough to be (more or less) standard on even cheap cars, the noise subsided. > > I don’t have a cell phone, and have no idea how to “text”, but I did commute with men driving with a newspaper over the steering wheel and women applying makeup. > A new generation, a new way to distract yourself while driving. > > I do have some concern that entering text using a phone keyboard might require a bit too much attention - more time than applying mascara or turning a page. > > But nevermind - the Cloud will save us from this self-inflicted plague. > All Hail the Cloud! > > The Trinity for a New Century: Father, Son, and Holy Cloud! > (I really should start a Church) Good point, in the sense that times change, technology changes, social mores change, etc. I mentioned this in a related thread in IMHO that I’m old enough to have grown up in the time when it was common place for people to drive drunk. Please note: I AM NOT CONDONING DRIVING DRUNK. Anyway, “everyone” did it, myself included. I actually knew people who had several DUIs by the time they were actually legally old enough to drink. Good or bad (obviously bad) that’s just the way it was. Right about the time I was really starting to get my drink on, MADD had come to the forefront and poof; legislature was passed and that really bad, stupid thing that we all did also became something for which you could get seriously busted. I’m not talking staggering, slurring, crosseyed drunk, but drunk by definition of the new BAC standards. I said then, with the same conviction that some people talk about their ability to text while driving, that I was perfectly fine. And you know what, I’m not totally divorced from that thought sometimes. I remember doing it when, though I was \*legally \*drunk, I felt fine. And, knowing the risk, I was extra attentive (which speaks to my comment in the other thread that I’d rather be on the road with moderately drunk drivers than actively texting drivers). My point, if anyone is still reading this, is that both are dick moves. And on a board where I’ve heard plenty of people get sanctimonious about drunk driving, we sure have a lot of people using the same justification that drunk drivers used back in the day. ---
**Author:** ![russian\_heel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f05b48/32.png) [@russian\_heel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/russian_heel)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/163 "2016-02-10T07:03:25Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > So what’s the current thinking on getting a blowjob while driving? Not needed. I get fucked every time I pay the latest tolls. ---
**Author:** ![Dinsdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/97f17d/32.png) [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/164 "2016-02-10T17:38:54Z")
Periodically I wonder why local police don’t enforce this aggressively. Seems to me it could raise revenue similar to speed traps and redlight cameras. Simply have an unmarked car equipped with cameras to take pics of a driver with a cellphone and their license. If the driver contests, get the cell records. Ding ding ding. ---
**Author:** ![Crazy\_Canuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazy_canuck/32/5282_2.png) [@Crazy\_Canuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazy_Canuck)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/165 "2016-02-10T17:42:50Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > There are NO driving scenarios where texting can be done safely. Only the Sith deal with absolutes. In reality, there are such scenarios, particularly in more remote places. There is a big difference between texting while driving in a city and on a deserted rural back road. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/166 "2016-02-10T17:59:19Z")
True. There are rarely deer in a city. Sure, it’s saf_er_ to take your attention from your driving on a long flat stretch of deserted road than on a crowded freeway. I’m not certain that’s the same thing as _safe_. Of course, _driving_ isn’t “safe.” ---
**Author:** ![Locrian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/locrian/32/14146_2.png) [@Locrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Locrian)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 8:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/167 "2016-02-10T20:18:32Z")
Forgot to add this story to my first post. I was with a friend in my car after having lunch at Nate & Al’s in Beverly Hills while working freelance. We were first at a red stoplight. Suddenly we were hit from behind at about ten miles an hour. No damage to my car, but the guy who hit me-- a traffic agent in company car-- was texting when he hit me. His license plate and bumper were a little dented, so no insurance activity here. But imagine if HE were the first car at the stoplight. It’s a four-lane intersection, around 2:30 pm, plenty of pedestrians. He may have easily hit a pedestrian as he did me. So this is why I stand by my “pull over or just wait” texting rule. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/168 "2016-02-10T22:23:36Z")
> [@Hooleehootoo](#): > > I feel like recounting the incident that was probably the deciding one in causing me to post on this topic. I was driving near my work on the way to go out for lunch. Along side me I saw a texter. I drove beside him for a while. Eventually he got in the same lane behind me. I did not have to drive dangerously to reach this position. The light was red ahead of us, with cars stopped, and I was able to slow and stop leaving a gap of, say, 30-50 yards between me and the car in front. The texter stopped behind me. I kept looking at him in my rear view mirror waiting to gesture to him to stop texting. The texter was doing a cycle of looking up for 50 milliseconds, then down for 450 milliseconds, up for 50 mS, etc. When the light turned green, I did not immediately go. He kept cycling, but never looked up so as to notice me… After a second, I advanced 5 yards and slowed. The texter advanced behind me in the period he looked up, then went back to texting as I stopped. We did 3 or 4 cycles of this, then I stopped longer, and this triggered his interrupt. The subroutine it activated was “go-around”, so he did. I gestured to him, but did not honk. He looked at me blankly. > > There are completely justifiable reasons why I might have to drive slowly through an intersection where I have a green light: Perhaps there is a previous accident we have to get by. To me it shows that some people may think that they have enough awareness at a stop light to text safely. After all, the guy did not rear-end me. His short glances out the windshield gave him enough awareness to keep up with me. But he wasn’t really aware of what was going on around him, and he could have found himself in the middle of an intersection stopped behind a disabled vehicle (In my scenario, I go around this vehicle, and he mistakes the disabled vehicle for the one he used to be following). Has trying to teach another driver a lesson EVER worked? It seems that the best case scenario would be that he stops texting momentarily because he’s confused by your bizarre behavior, but then keeps texting later and tells his friends about what a weirdo he was stuck behind, and worst case scenario would be road rage or the two of you are focused on each other and cause an accident with someone else. Texting while driving is not safe, but trying to teach other drivers lessons on the road is also not safe, please don’t do it. ---
**Author:** ![Hooleehootoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/eada6e/32.png) [@Hooleehootoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hooleehootoo)\ **Post date:** [February 10, 2016, 10:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/169 "2016-02-10T22:30:09Z")
> [@Sam\_Lowry](#): > > Has trying to teach another driver a lesson EVER worked? Not often, but see my point up-thread about the custom on the Autobahn of flashing lights in the passing lane. Some set of people were early adopters of this. ---
**Author:** ![Leonard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a6a055/32.png) [@Leonard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leonard)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/170 "2016-02-11T03:35:59Z")
I text and drive on private roads at work a LOT. Have to to get my job done. It is pretty tricky for a while, but if you keep your phone up high and just do no more than 2 characters before checking the road it’s not any worse than checking the dash. Certainly don’t want to drive any faster than you’d want to hit the ditch, either. I probably wouldn’t worry too much about someone doing it on a rural back road, but at speed around other drivers is crazy! ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/171 "2016-02-11T20:46:42Z")
I read books on my phone while driving. It takes less cognitive involvement than typing or responding to texts, and is really easy to manage in city traffic which is slow moving and really only requires me to maintain some distance from the car in front of me. I’ve been doing it for a year, incident free. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/172 "2016-02-11T21:18:43Z")
**Bullitt** is that guy you knew in high school that told his prom date, that she wouldn’t get pregnant if he only put the tip in. ---
**Author:** ![Crazy\_Canuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crazy_canuck/32/5282_2.png) [@Crazy\_Canuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazy_Canuck)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/173 "2016-02-11T21:19:24Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > I read books on my phone while driving. I’d be careful with that one. If you get pulled over, the cops will probably throw the book at you. ---
**Author:** ![Sunny\_Daze](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunny_daze/32/438_2.png) [@Sunny\_Daze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunny_Daze)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2016, 9:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/174 "2016-02-11T21:33:18Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > I read books on my phone while driving. It takes less cognitive involvement than typing or responding to texts, and is really easy to manage in city traffic which is slow moving and really only requires me to maintain some distance from the car in front of me. I’ve been doing it for a year, incident free. I can’t tell if you’re trying the subtle, sarcastic route. If you aren’t, then I have this suggestion for you: Audio. Books. ---
**Author:** ![irae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/f0a364/32.png) [@irae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/irae)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/175 "2016-02-12T21:28:15Z")
The only times it’s okay to text while operating a moving vehicle are: 1. Never 2. When you’re being a dangerous asshole and hazard to navigation on purpose ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2016, 11:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/176 "2016-02-12T23:44:30Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > **Bullitt** is that guy you knew in high school that told his prom date, that she wouldn’t get pregnant if he only put the tip in. Based on posts I’ve seen, I think he _really is_ that guy. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/177 "2016-02-13T00:39:57Z")
> [@bldysabba](#): > > I read books on my phone while driving. It takes less cognitive involvement than typing or responding to texts, and is really easy to manage in city traffic which is slow moving and really only requires me to maintain some distance from the car in front of me. I’ve been doing it for a year, incident free. A mark of a texter, or a drunk, is being careful by leaving tons of room in front of them. Which works fine until someone cuts into that space and they don’t notice. Plus, you must be reading incredibly crappy boring books, because any good ones I read (never while driving) make me forget about the world for a short time. Audiobooks are a bit distracting, but much less than what you do. ---
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2016, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/178 "2016-02-13T05:28:07Z")
I sleep while driving, but I never set the cruise control above 75 when I do. Plus, I only do it when I drive on the other side of the road against oncoming traffic. It’s safe because I have my high beams on and I sleep with one hand on the horn. ---
**Author:** ![Cicero](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cicero/32/3594_2.png) [@Cicero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cicero)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2016, 9:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/179 "2016-02-14T09:58:34Z")
I was around when radios in cars were optional and to be honest I can’t see it being a valid comparison to texting. Yes, you had to take your eyes off the road if you wanted to change stations- if you were the only one in the car (days before preset memory with push buttons). I can not recall any criticism about radios distracting drivers. Will easily concede cars were not as fast or as safe as today, and there was not as much traffic. Roads were worse, seat belts were viewed with suspicion and drink driving viewed more as a challenge than a risk. So things were dangerous but it is difficult to compare with texting. Also, if a car was not fitted with a radio there was normally an 8 track player or someone had a transistor radio. What I would comment to Bear Nenno’s comment on the first page is not a statistical comparison about how many people have texted and not been involved in accidents is that however you look at it there are a number who have been killed / injured while texting. Some may have had that happen anyway but most certainly a lot wouldn’t. Final point is- is your life on such a knife edge that you need to answer a text, or send a text while driving. If it is I believe you need to review your lifestyle. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2016, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271/180 "2016-02-15T02:22:51Z")
Texting is in a class by itself. It is simply not the least bit comparable with changing tunes, glancing at your passenger or blinking. Anyone thinking it is resembles those people who keep smoking because “it’s not been proved it causes cancer, that’s just scaremongering.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sure-i-text-while-driving-you-if-you-dont-like-it/745271.md?page=10)