Again, read what I wrote while also taking an honest appraisal of how you drive:
You don’t ever take your eyes off the road for 1 second to change the radio station?
You don’t ever take your eyes off the road for 1 second to look at your cup of coffee in the cupholder to get it?
You don’t ever take your eyes off the road for 1 second to turn to your passenger to say something?
You don’t ever take your eyes off the road for 1 second to look at a map?
You don’t ever take your eyes off the road for 1 second to look at the written directions to get to where you’re going?
Ever?
You never take your eyes off the road? To scan quickly your gas gauge? Your water temp gauge? Your speedometer?
Bullit texting in the manner you describe is dangerous. You could try using Siri or another voice control program if you absolutely must answer. Of course, how do you even know you must answer? I’m guessing you read that message first… Glad you feel comfortable with your maneuver. The rest of us would rather not share the road with you.
Digs I have called the Highway Patrol on drunk drivers. Drunk as in wildly swerving, no lane control, no speed control, clear road hazard. Not that I’ve done this often, but the HP never showed up. It may be dependent on location and conditions (no officer available due to other calls, etc). It’s not a fool proof way to get idiots off the road.
So they’re staring at their phones, and you’re staring into their cars to determine if they are texting. Neither activity seems like a good idea, and both are a form of distraction.
I think you are misguided, but I do want to acknowledge your point. I think I am slightly more likely to be in an accident and injure others due to the fact that I have a radio in the car, or that I sometimes eat in the car. I listen to the radio because it benefits me. It does not benefit other drivers. It is a negative externality to them.
But texting is orders of magnitude more dangerous than other technologies that don’t demand that you cast your view down into your lap for multiple seconds at a time.
Look, I understand what people are saying, or trying to. I do. But anybody who denies taking their eyes off the road in, for example the times I posit in post #21, is kidding them self. That is ignorance, and I’m here to fight it.
This just about sums up your previous post. I don’t consider phone calls or texts important enough to give my immediate attention to while driving. Especially texts, as the sender usually doesn’t expect an instant response. Otherwise he’d have called, right? I only use my phone to play music on my stereo.
At or near intersections, in traffic, near pedestrians, where there are uncontrolled access points (cross streets or driveways or hidden bushes where a child or animal may dart out) – idiots who text in those situations are the ones who cause accidents. I do not do this.
At or near intersections, in traffic, near pedestrians, where there are uncontrolled access points (cross streets or driveways or hidden bushes where a child or animal may dart out) – people who take their eyes off the road in those situations (whether to change the radio or pick up the french fry that dropped on the center console or whatever reason) cause accidents. I do not do this either.
Receiving a text msg does not command my immediate focus. Safety is first and foremost. Safety to me and my passengers, safety to others.
When I coached my kids as they learned to drive, if they needed to pick up something in the car (e.g., a cup) or change the station, I taught them to:
Without reaching for the item and only when it is safe, quickly find it with your eyes and then bring your eyes immediately back to the road.
Then while kerping your eyes on the road, reach out and do what you need to do.
This can be done with only 1/4 second having your eyes off the road.
Please remember, I am a trained and certified motorcycle safety instructor with MSF, the Motorcycle Safety Foundation. I hve over 200,000 accident-free motorcycle miles. I have never been in any motorcycle accident.
In my classes I hold and teach a Zero Tolerance for texting and driving.
I have texted while driving. I do not do this anymore. I thought that I was doing it safely, and it was fine.
I have ridden in cars with other people who felt that they could text and drive just fine, and it made me realize that this is not possible. You are distracted enough to think that you are in fact driving fine, but you most certainly are not.
I spent nearly 5 years driving large vehicles professionally, and nearly killed several dozen people in that time because they were distracted by their phones. It was only due to my defensive driving and avoidance that possibly fatal accidents (that would have been 100% their fault) were avoided.
I do occasionally read or send an “ok” text at a red light, but I acknowledge that I probably shouldn’t even do that, though the consequences of being distracted there are more likely embarrassing than dangerous.
The only safe way to send a text while driving is to have a passenger do it.