Holding a conversation with the passengers in your car is distracting. How many times have you missed an exit or a turn because you were engaged in a conversation with your passenger? Talking on the phone adds the complication of visualizing who you are talking to, along with the conversation. Not only that, you are either also holding the phone, or you have had to engage the hands-free controls. Up to this point, I can see the point of a person saying, "yeah, that's distracting, but I can handle it." Should there be a law against any of the above? Maybe, maybe not. If you do something distracting, and you are guilty of a moving violation because of it, should it contribute to your penalty? Maybe. It's a tricky question.
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| Image of just the first three of the Facebook pages dedicated to texting while driving. There are more. |
But you know what isn't? Texting while driving. It is always wrong. There are no exemptions. Nobody has to text while driving. There are no "ticking time bomb" scenarios that apply to texting while driving. Nobody ever really needs to text anything at any given moment, let alone while driving. It's preposterous to argue otherwise. I realize that I'm a 45-year-old fuddy duddy, who only texts 0-5 texts on any given day. I've never texted a message, and anxiously awaited a reply. I find "text addiction" to be utterly unfathomable. I mean, do people get instant message addicted? Do they get email addicted? Because texting is just a version of those things.
On top of texting while driving being 100% unnecessary, it is also clearly, logically, inarguably dangerous. I don't care how fast you are with your thumbs, I don't care how little you have to look at the screen to accurately type, you are involved in a task completely removed from driving, while driving. It's like trying to solve a Rubik's Cube, or play an X-Box game, or knit a sweater while driving. Completely stupid.
I've actually heard conservatives argue that passing laws against texting while driving is a "nanny state" mentality. Really? If there was suddenly a trend of people steering with their feet, and working the pedals with sticks, what would you think? Because as stupid as that is, arguing for it, is just about the same thing as arguing for texting while driving. Facebook has dozens (hundreds?) of pages dedicated to the subject. Fortunately, they mostly seem to be against the practice. But what does it say about our collective intelligence, that we need this much discussion for such a spectacularly stupid practice?
[Excerpt]
Distracted Driving: How Bad Are Texting or Cellphones Behind the Wheel?
There are probably few people who are surprised to hear cellphones and driving don't mix -- but do you believe it's true for you?
Maybe not. Some safety advocates say we are in a national state of denial about the dangers posed by using a cellphone behind the wheel. According to distracted-driving expert David Strayer, Ph.D., a cellphone might as well be a bottle of beer. . .
Read more at: ABC News
I must add that as a motorcyclist it was already dangerous enough to ride around town with less distracted drivers. I have watched many drivers end up in a spot I would've been if I didn't watch out for them... and I never saw their eyes. They were thumb jabbing away at their cell phones.
ReplyDeleteAnd then add soccer mom SUVs + Las Vegas' already volatile crucible of drivers & it is a recipe for destruction that has already proven itself more than once.
On a motorcycle you should consider yourself invisible anyhow... Texting has made us non-existent.
I should also add that there are a crapload of idiots on motorcycles too... That only add yet another element to the danger... While making the rest of us look bad.
ReplyDeleteThe whole phenomenon is almost unfathomable, and further evidence of a world you express with your pseudonym. I tried to pick a practice (steering with feet/working pedals with sticks) that is as stupid, but at least if you did that, you'd be TRYING to drive! I really would like to have a conversation with a person who thinks texting while driving is acceptable. I'd like to find out what kind of brain thinks it makes any kind of sense.
ReplyDeleteI have been tempted to use my navigation system while driving (which would look a lot like texting), but always poke in my info while at a stop, and then turn the phone over (speaker side up) on the dash and just LISTEN to the spoken instructions. This is the only scenario I can think of where I even understand the IMPULSE.
As for motorcyclists, I cringe for them, driving in this town. This is a town where "lane ends ahead" means driving in that lane until the very last second, then forcing yourself into traffic. That mentality also means "me bigger, you smaller, screw you." Cyclists who bob and weave in and around cars though, they do make the situation worse.
Good topic - my sense is that the majority is against texting while driving however I'm willing to bet that many of the people who publicly say they are against it are guilty of texting while driving themselves. Perhaps the same technology that allows us to text will some day soon be smart enough to automatically disable texting when in a car or at minimum be able to read our texts to us and allow us to dictate our texts rather than type them. In the meantime, I suspect we will see lots of new laws prohibiting texting while driving - I just wonder how effective those laws will be.
ReplyDeleteThis weekend while driving to Mt. Charleston, The Other Half was texting on and off as a passenger. There's nothing wrong with this, and a car/texting disabler would needlessly prevent it. The fact that any such device might be needed is the stumbling block for me. . .
ReplyDeleteThe very idea of texting and driving is so stupid, it is STUNNING that it is widespread enough to even need prevention. Seriously, it is like trying to do a crossword puzzle or watch a movie while driving. There is rarely--if ever--a time when ANY texting is urgent. There is almost never--if not ACTUALLY never--a time when texting while driving is urgent. It's not just about causing accidents. It also would diminish a person's capacity to AVOID accidents primarily caused by others.
Though truthfully, if a person thinks that the activity is acceptable, I question their ability to make any rational decision, or have any capacity to prevent a collision. There simply isn't enough cognitive ability there.
This subject is actually being tested heavily on the drivers permit test. Thank god. Its just common sense.
ReplyDelete