Indeed. At the very least, such comparisons are disingenuous.
I set my music up before leaving, and have controls to skip a song or change volume on my steering wheel. So, no, it’s not the same at all.
If your IQ ever reaches 65, sell.
For the sake of accuracy, I went to the National Center for Education Statistics
website, and did a search. Within 50 miles of the zip code I am currently sitting in, there are 21 high schools. But that’s just in Louisville, KY. This city sits on the Ohio River, and the border with Indiana is the river. Using the same search mechanic as above, but with Indiana instead of Kentucky, it adds another 14 to the count. The search engine required me to list different states. It wouldn’t do a metro area across state lines.
So, within a 50 mile radius (and using a smaller radius for the Indiana side, as a 50 search from there would list schools not considered local. I used 20 miles for Indiana, as a way to consolidate the search) of my current location, there are about 35 high schools. Not to mention the major university (The University of Louisville), and the tech colleges and so on.
I don’t even want to hazard a guess as to how many potential “text and drive” people that amounts to. And that’s for a town that had, as of its last census, 1.2 million people (including the metro area). Bigger cities would be more problematic, I would imagine.
I’ve almost been hit in crosswalks (as a pedestrian) quite a few times by text addicts who just COULD NOT bear to take their eyes off the precious phone to pay attention to piloting a ton or two of vehicle through downtown urban traffic.
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).
I am going to change my behavior regarding this subject.
COULD THIS BE THE FABLED EXISTENCE PROOF !? DISCUSSING ON THE INTERNET IS NOT 100% FUTILE?
First of all, it is (hypothetically) a Public Good, and I know enough Economics to know that Public Goods should be under-produced. If there is not a massive benefit (small benefit multiplied by many drivers) from the experience of being shamed for texting then I should not bear the private cost of shaming people.
Next, I think the most generous take on what people likeBullitt and Bear Nenno were saying is that it should be an empirical decision to ban texting. A lot of things we do in a car benefit only us, and other drivers would prefer we don’t do them. However, before you can make policy, you need the facts. There should not be laws banning texting while driving, or radios, or GPS’s just because I, or Hillary Clinton , or some other random set of politicians think texting is frivolous. I think there probably are such studies (I did not read all the links in this thread), and I bet that texting effects driving as much as a few alcoholic drinks, but study should come before legislating.
Even if you assumed that all accidents involved texting, it would be assuming the converse to say texting implies accidents. The proper way to investigate is a randomized controlled trial.
Maybe some people really could text and drive safely and in some better world they could pass a test and get a certificate allowing texting and driving, like a commercial license. If you really loved to drink, you could pass the exam, pay the fee and get your sticker to drive at .09 BAC. But enforcement of all this would be a mess. Even though Bullitt thinks he would be a good candidate, we have to remember that most people are overconfident. I’m overconfident too, so I am taking it down a notch.
Who’s making such an argument? I personally don’t want you performing life-saving heart surgery while driving, either. Pull over, first.
SR! Y SR!
Funniest post in a while. Good job.
Agreed. There probably is something in most Vehicle Codes against unsafe actions while driving, and you are civilly liable for accidents even if you were doing something heroic like heart surgery while driving, which is as it should be, because you can pull over.
But there are the specific laws about specific actions, and I was thinking about what you should do before you make another specific law.
Goodness gracious. Though I agree with the OP’s rant, this isn’t *always *a black/white issue. Like **Bullitt **said, there’s (rare) times when it’s acceptable and safe to do so. Sure it’s illegal, but that doesn’t mean that it cannot be done safely. Before you jump all over my ass like you did his, note that I didn’t say that I do it. But I fully recognize that the situation **Bullitt **describes could present itself and would hold no ill-will towards him within it.
That being said, when some asshole has the disrespect to text + drive where I can see him, I hang my head in shame for humanity.
Well, it’s easy to pass a generic law saying “unsafe operation of a vehicle is illegal” and hope for the best, but in this case we have a specific action (i.e. using an electronic device to send and receive text messages) that is:
- Known to be particularly unsafe when combined with driving, and
- Commonplace, and likely to become even more commonplace as people who grew up with such devices learn to drive.
The downside of specifically banning texting while driving eludes me. I have possibly misinterpreted your intended point.
This is why I can’t wait for robot cars. I’ve even seen fucking cops doing this. The temptation is too strong for a lot of people.
The rate of vehicular deaths is going down as we have fewer and fewer drunk drivers on the road but the rate of injury from vehicular accidents is going up ass more and more people text while on local roads.
In the meantime, you have to get a car with Bluetooth technology that uses voice recognition texting technology.
I have no doubt that one day not only will texting / using any hand held device while driving be illegal it will eventually be as vilified as drunk driving. It’s still new enough that we haven’t had time to compile the numbers of accidents / fatalities that are a result. But when enough people are injured or lose there loved ones to texting drivers a new form of MADD will be formed and DWT will be as costly as DUI and will carry the same stigma.
I suppose we could say the same thing about those drivers reading the newspaper and driving, or turning around and smacking their kids while driving.
I may be selfish but I much prefer driving on a road where drivers are not texting, reading newspapers, putting on makeup or smacking their kids.
I suppose it’s like robbing gas stations. You might get away with it a few times, but eventually the odds of failing catch up with you. I just don’t want to be there when they do.
Reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw.
Bad driving? Blonde, drunk or texting?
(sorry blondes, but that’s what it said)
Make sure you keep your eyes on the road.
What gets me are the people who say they text and drive and see no problem with it. That’s bullshit! I have texted and drove and I stopped doing it pretty quickly, because I was distracted, way more than anything else I do in my car. I general try not to eat while driving; most of the time I can pull over.
I do listen to music, but I set the ipod before I go, and I know where all of the buttons are.
Texting is a distraction to a degree that I would argue not even talking on the cell phone is. When I am driving on a straight road, for example, coming down the northway which is a straight stretch for about 50 miles, I have no problem talking on my Bluetooth - I can watch traffic and react well enough because my eyes are never off the road. But I can’t do that with texting.
Texting forces your eyes off the road. And it only takes one second. I’ve been driving almost 20 years and knock on wood have never been in a major accident but I have come close. And I’ve seen, in those close situations, that were I not paying close attention, something much worse might have happened. I’m still only 40 and still have fast reflexes. Just wait until old age sneaks up on everyone.
Hey, that was good!
You are still distracted. It doesn’t matter bugger-all what your peripheral vision is doing. You are focused on the screen and your brain is dedicated to reading what’s on the screen instead of being focused on your driving.
There are NO driving scenarios where texting can be done safely. If you have to text, pull over and stop. If you can’t, hand the phone to the passenger and let them text for you. If you’re alone in the car, you can frickin’ well wait until you can get off the road before you text. No text is important enough to risk killing or maiming someone else.