"Sure I text while driving. *#@% you if you don't like it!"

[Bullitt]

Hi again.

What I have been saying is that, on occasion and depending on location, there are times when it can be done safely enough. Is one more safe if not texting? Yes, of course. But depending on occasion and location…

Case in point: last night I drove north through Liberal KS, north on US-83 in the middle of the night, at 11pm, 12am, 1am, to Colby KS and then west on I-70 to Stratton CO. I arrived in Stratton CO at 3am. I was wide awake and alert the whole time.

250+ miles, and many stretches of this route are in the middle of nowheresville, are arrow-straight roads on the high plains. Very few hills. You can see for miles and miles for oncoming headlights, front and rear. Check a map and you’ll see.

Yes it was pitch black. There could have been a critter crossing the road during that half-second to one second I looked at my phone.

I was driving 80-85 mph. Much of this area is posted at 75 mph. 2-lane highway. Sometimes, to pass, I hit 100 mph.

I am here to post this reply. I am alive, I arrived safely. I sent and received a couple of quick texts.

If anything happened, it would be only me who’d have been affected, nobody else. I am right, for me. You don’t have to agree with me. You do what’s right for you, and also do what is safe for other users of the road. Just like I strive to do.

I am in the Rodeway Inn in Stratton CO right now. If you’re in the area and wish to discuss, if you’re the type who can agree to disagree and still discuss civilly, then find my white Jeep Grand Cherokee with the California plates, and c’mon over. I’d be happy to have an adult discussion about it.

[Anaamika]

Uh…you’re inviting us to your hotel so we can discuss whether or not texting is a good idea?

Isn’t that just a little weird?

But I still submit that texting is dangerous. Even in the dark. Even by yourself, with no one on the road. But if you hit a deer and destroy your car, as you say, it’s all on you.

All I will say is, goddamn deer never cross at the “deer crossing” signs like they are supposed to. :mad:

ETA: I just re-read your post. Are we just supposed to hang around near your car until you show up?

[Channing_Idaho_Banks]

One real problem with texting driving laws is the fact that your phone might get subpoenaed in order to determine whether you are at fault for an accident. You sent a text while you’re driving? Its your fault!

[Muffin]

http://www.opp.ca/ecms/index.php?id=327

Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) confirmed that 2015 marked the third consecutive year that driver distraction as a causal factor exceeded all other categories of road deaths on OPP-patrolled roads.

Last year, 69 people died in road crashes in which driver distraction was a factor, compared to 61 speed-related, 51 seat belt-related and 45 alcohol/drug-related deaths.

[Bullitt]

@Anaamika

Uh…you’re inviting us to your hotel so we can discuss whether or not texting is a good idea?

Isn’t that just a little weird?

But I still submit that texting is dangerous. Even in the dark. Even by yourself, with no one on the road. But if you hit a deer and destroy your car, as you say, it’s all on you.

All I will say is, goddamn deer never cross at the “deer crossing” signs like they are supposed to. :mad:

ETA: I just re-read your post. Are we just supposed to hang around near your car until you show up?

My room is near my car. I didn’t want to give out my room number. Just call out, Bullitt, and I’d hear ya and come out.

And we would talk outside, not inside. I think that’s better. But I’m checking out soon, so best hurry to get here. And don’t text while you drive over.

[Bullitt]

And there are SF Giants hats on my dashboard so the car is easy to spot.

GO GIANTS!!!

[Anaamika]

@Bullitt

My room is near my car. I didn’t want to give out my room number. Just call out, Bullitt, and I’d hear ya and come out.

And we would talk outside, not inside. I think that’s better. But I’m checking out soon, so best hurry to get here. And don’t text while you drive over.

I’m in NY, it might take me a while.

[Siam_Sam]

@Bullitt

Hi again.

What I have been saying is that, on occasion and depending on location, there are times when it can be done safely enough. Is one more safe if not texting? Yes, of course. But depending on occasion and location…

You are simply wrong. Period. Give it up.

[andros]

@Bullitt

I am here to post this reply. I am alive, I arrived safely.

I’m excited for my new round of PSAs.

“This is your brain. This is your brain on confirmation bias. Any questions?”

“Just say no confirmation bias.”

“They said just a little confirmation bias wouldn’t make me look like a total fucking idiot. They lied.”

“I learned my shitty critical thinking skills from you, ok?!? I learned it from you!!”

“Crack is wack, and confirmation bias is…something that rhymes!”
We’ll get those poor kids off the hard stuff, and it’ll all be thanks to your shitty example! DARE to be MADD!

(Also, stealth bragging is typically more stealthy. Just sayin’.)

[Siam_Sam]

@Bullitt

I am here to post this reply. I am alive …

Could also pertain to Russian roulette. Which this sort of is.

[Bullitt]

@Siam_Sam

You are simply wrong. Period. Give it up.

If memory serves, you don’t even drive…?

[Siam_Sam]

@Bullitt

If memory serves, you don’t even drive…?

1. Your memory serves you poorly, possibly as a result of one too many head injuries. I do in fact drive, I just do not have a car. But I drive whenever the occasion demands it, I have driven in Thailand, and I certainly drive in the US whenever I’m there, renting a car with an international driving permit based on my Thai driver’s license. I would never, ever text while driving under any circumstances whatsoever, period, because like my un-brain-damaged brethren, I know there is no safe way to do that.

2. Even if it were true that I did not drive, even if it were true that I never learned to drive, even if it were true that I had never slipped behind the wheel, not even once, even if all of that were true, which it decidedly is not … it would be completely and totally irrelevant. You’re simply throwing out a red herring.

3. As for your offer of having “an adult discussion about” the pleasures of texting while driving, that reminds me of the gentleman I encountered in that West Texas bar who wanted to have “an adult conversation” about the pros of Nazism. You’re both just jerk-offs.

[Voyager]

@Bullitt

And there are SF Giants hats on my dashboard so the car is easy to spot.

GO GIANTS!!!

Okay, you text in the middle of Kansas. But do you on 101, 880, or 80? On the Bay Bridge?

[Bullitt]

@Voyager

Okay, you text in the middle of Kansas. But do you on 101, 880, or 80? On the Bay Bridge?

Highly unlikely, but, if it’s bumper-to-bumper traffic crawling at 0-5mph, and I have the adaptive cruise control on, I might.

And I would be safe doing so.

[Seanette]

@Bullitt

Highly unlikely, but, if it’s bumper-to-bumper traffic crawling at 0-5mph, and I have the adaptive cruise control on, I might.

And I would be safe doing so.

Bullshit. Unsafe by definition.

[Bullitt]

@Siam_Sam

I do in fact drive, I just do not have a car.

Ahh, that’s it, I thought it was something like that. So, … well I don’t want to get into a pissing contest about who has more driving experience.

@Siam_Sam

I would never, ever text while driving under any circumstances whatsoever, period, because like my un-brain-damaged brethren, I know there is no safe way to do that.

Well, that’s just taking the easy, non-thinking person’s way out. Calculus usually introduces the concept of limits, especially the concept of limits (like going from velocity = 0 to, say, velocity = 100mph), …

… would you still say it is never safe, at any velocity?

Not even at 1 mph on an empty street?

Not even at 0 mph on a gridlocked highway?

The last two scenarios, BTW, would be illegal but are still safe to text. There is a threshold of multiple variables (including speed, traffic, light, weather, road curvature, driver skill and experience, etc) that, when crossed, makes texting while driving an unsafe act but below which it can be done safely – like those last two scenarios.

Would you, Sam, agree to this? Do you think those last two scenarios are safe to text?

Serious question. Let’s start there. Do you want to discus civilly, or simply hurl insults while hiding behind your mama’s skirt, or behind your keyboard?

[Sunny_Daze]

Serious question for you Bulitt - do you have complete control over the actions of everything and everyone around you when you’re driving? Never seen an accident in stop n’ go traffic? Never had a deer leap in front of you in the country? Never had a cat/raccoon/kid scoot on the road on an “empty street”?

What you are proposing is just not safe, because you cannot control everything else in your environment, even if you can control your car while texting (which is another conversation).

[Skywatcher]

Is it me or is Bullitt really galloping on a horse named “Gish”?

[Bullitt]

@ddsun

Serious question for you Bulitt - do you have complete control over the actions of everything and everyone around you when you’re driving? Never seen an accident in stop n’ go traffic? Never had a deer leap in front of you in the country? Never had a cat/raccoon/kid scoot on the road on an “empty street”?

What you are proposing is just not safe, because you cannot control everything else in your environment, even if you can control your car while texting (which is another conversation).

I do not have complete control over the actions of everything and everyone around me.

Question for you: ever take your eyes off the road, for any reason whatsoever? If you do, how do you justify that?

[Muffin]

@Skywatcher

Is it me or is Bullitt really galloping on a horse named “Gish”?

Well, Steve McQueen was a good car and motorcycle racer, so it follows that Bullitt must be, well, er, . . .