Abstinence based policies are not working. We need to let people hold and talk on their phone. Everyone is trying to hide their phone. Ride in a bus in the bay area and you'll see ~25-50% of people on their phone on a given day. Are there any studies of cities that allowing talking on the phone, but no texting?
My car doesn't have aux-in or bluetooth, so I'll often listen to a ebook via TTS while holding my phone on my shoulder (if it's loud), or in my chest pocket if it's not loud in the area.
Not just talking, we have to ban listening too. If somebody is listening to the radio, they're not focusing absolutely 100% of their attention on driving, so that makes them a menace. Never mind that statistics don't show that listening to the radio causes accidents (just as statistics don't show that talking on the phone causes accidents), we won't rest until everybody is miserable all the time.
Its very different. A passenger has a stake in the safety of the vehicle and reacts to surroundings. They pause when the driver is entering a complicated intersection and sometimes remind the driver to look at the road.
Not in my experience. They're playing with the music, on their phone, reading, hanging their feet out the window, etc. In fact if you're one of those backseat drivers "reminding me to look at the road" (as if I'm not paying attention) you can find your own transportation.
I wonder how harsh penalties would have to get before you'd achieve an acceptable level of compliance. Like, I'm not suggesting this is a good idea. But if you instated a nation-wide death penalty for texting and driving, and then actually executed a few people, compliance would likely follow soon after. People would be terrified to look at their phones while driving.
OK, that's probably too harsh (although viewed from a utilitarian lens, perhaps not?). What if the fine were like $10k, and were handed down liberally for first offenders?
None of this is going to happen of course. I suspect we'll be living with this problem until self-driving cars are ubiquitous. I'm just sort of morbidly curious what level of viciousness would be required to convince people to behave like responsible human beings.
--- But if you instated a nation-wide death penalty for texting and driving, and then actually executed a few people, compliance would likely follow soon after. ---
Draconian enforcement has it's place, but it's not on this sort of policy. This would either become a tool of assassination, or just kill a bunch of young, poor people. The enforcement would stop for wealthy kids in privileged areas.
Honestly, this is a more carrot then stick problem. It's unsolvable with the privacy rights American's are entitled to under the constitution. The best approach would be to incentivize safe usage and create some sort of system to track and penalize unsafe behavior. It would need to be a minor fine, but that would make enforcement more likely, give better data, and allow us to punish habitual offenders who actually cause harm.
The thought experiment is predicated on just application of the policy. There are dozens of practical problems with the idea more serious than "it would cut unevenly across socioeconomic and racial layers."
The carrot/stick idea is interesting though. I wonder if you could incentivize manufacturers to make a really good triangulating beacon that would allow a phone to know if it's in the driver area of the car, and whether the car is in motion. The phone could disable all functions for the duration of the drive based on this signal. You'd do this in firmware and ideally using some sort of chain of trust that can't be circumvented by rooting the phone. Free software folks would squawk, but the world might be better off for it.
I'd say the 'no talking/text' laws went into effect locally, the problem has gotten worse. Anecdotally, I would previously see people would holding their phones up in front of the windshield while they used it. This would at least reduce the time required to switch focus between the road and the phone.
With the regulations now in place, as you said everyone is trying to hide it. This usually means below the dashboard - so the driver is now looking _down_ at their phone. Not only does this seem to increase the amount of time spent looking away from the road (it's slower to switch, and so people are doing it less), it also greatly reduces even _peripheral_ awareness that something relevant may be unfolding on the road.
I used to have a great system for texting and driving, before it was made illegal in CA -- I generally drive with my left hand, so I would hold my phone up on the steering wheel with my right hand (at 3:00) and I would text as needed with my right thumb. Since I was holding the phone up on the wheel, I would never take my eyes off the road to text. I did this frequently for years and years, was never really distracted, got very good at it (quick at thumb typing), didn't have any issues to speak of.
Then, when it became illegal, I got like two tickets for doing this in two years. So, I learned to start hiding my phone way down low on my lap to text. Now, if I decide to text while driving, I constantly have to take my eyes off the road and look way down at my lap to text, for seconds at a time. Texting the easy and safe way, where the phone is held next to the steering wheel, has been punished and gets tickets. Texting the unsafe way, holding the phone down at lap level, rarely gets a ticket.
In the next couple years of holding my phone down at my lap level to text, I had not gotten any tickets, but I did have some minor issues doing this. Since I had to take my eyes off the road to text this way, I caught myself swerving towards the center line, or the berm, etc., multiple times. And I almost rear ended someone because traffic stopped when I was looking down at my lap for 1-2 seconds.
Because of these issues, I gave up texting and driving entirely, however, I doubt most people ever will, as I tend to have a lot more self-control than most people (I've completely quit drinking, quit smoking, quit gaming, etc.) Overall, I find it very ironic that the safe(est) way of texting, where you don't have to take your eyes off the road, is punished, while the unsafe, dangerous way (holding your phone at lap level) is not.
Banning texting basically made it far less safe than it used to be -- everyone holds their phone at lap level now, so of course that's a huge issue.
Your form of texting while driving was likely safer than the alternatives.
Your form of texting while driving was less safe than not texting.
Do not text and drive.
There are plenty of people who have texted without incident, that doesn't reflect a particular merit to the way you texted it's just simple statistics. If you touch an electric stove top hot enough to boil water you'll be burned, but if you touch it a short while after turning it on you may be burned. Texting and driving is not an instant guarantee of an accident so don't mistake your luck for skill.
You may be a quite skilled driver, I'm, personally, a very distractable person in open environments, so I've never pursued a license to drive.
The choice to text and drive is an absolute malus on your driving safety, being in a car with you may be safer than being in a car with other folks when they are fully focused, clear minded and sober - but you're accepting an additional risk and it is putting yourself and others in danger. When you text and drive you lower your awareness and a situation you may have been able to escape with full focus may become a fatal accident, studies have shown that texting does significantly impact driving and not only because of looking away to a screen - it also diverts your attention to consider the environment which can result in slower reaction times.
It may very well be that your skill at driving is sufficient to avoid an accident while texting that a normal person couldn't avoid at full focus but, your reaction speed is lowered and if you text and drive it will reinforce that being a socially acceptable activity and lead other people to text and drive that may have fatal accidents themselves.
I upvoted you because you were brave enough to post a story about your texting and driving. While I agree in theory with your point that the law made texting and driving a less safe activity, what you were doing was already unsafe, don't you see that? You could have easily killed someone.
Cars have blind spots to check; pedestrians, pets, kids, bikes can come from no where really quickly. Don't you agree that drivers should have 100% of their cognitive capacity devoted to driving? If not, if you allow 90% of cognitive capacity to watching all around the roadway, multiply that 90% over millions of drivers, and you're statistically going to have thousands of unnecessary deaths and countless more injuries and accidents.
If you're texting "okay" or "on my way" and you kill someone, you will have killed someone's family member all for a completely pointless, inane text. Even if you never killed someone, and you only injured someone or scared the Beejesus out of someone, how is it worth the .001% convenience to text someone now instead of at your destination or pulling over briefly with hazards or turn indicator?
There's no safe texting and driving. You're lucky you didn't murder anyone.
This is how you sound to me:
> When I drive drunk, I drive real slow. But I started getting pulled over, so I started driving drunk and at normal speeds. It's so dangerous to do that. Why can't I drive drunk really slow, it is the safest way to drive drunk after all! Most people don't have the self control I do.
If you find that unconvincing, don't expect others to find your anecdote convincing.
My first experience with a giant texting anus was with a guy in a big SUV who I noticed was draping his hands over the top of the steering wheel while driving too close behind me on the Merritt Parkway. Eventually I figured out he was holding Blackberry (back in the day) and texting. All the way to New York. Using me as a human shield. I'm sure he was delighted at his "system."
