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Text-Messaging Behind the Wheel
theodp writes "TIME interviews 21-year-old Taylor Leming, creator of the 600-member Facebook group I Text Message People While Driving and I Haven't Crashed Yet! While Alaska and Louisiana just became the latest states to pass laws banning text-messaging behind the wheel, Virginia resident Leming is still happily texting away while driving despite some near-accidents. 'Sometimes it just seems easier to text 'Be there in 5' instead of calling,' explains Taylor."
Why is it important to text that you'll be there in 5 minutes anyway? You can also wait 5 minutes.
And I hope when he crashes and kills himself he doesn't take others with him. Driving and calling (even hands free), texting, or doing anything else (tuning the radio, setting up your nav system) for that matter is just dangerous.
despite some near-accidents
Enough said.
Also, just because someone hasn't had an accident in the past, it doesn't mean they won't have an accident in the future.
Those using pirated Tinysoft signatures(TM) are a real threat to society and should all be thrown in jail.
I can't believe these people! What's so "fun" about text messages? Why the aversion to real communication? I'd much rather talk to someone than exchange emoticons while risking the lives of those on the road around me.
This space intentionally left blank.
Why not simply have a law where you must drive with "due care and attention". This covers everything from texting to putting on your make-up. No need to mention everything specifically. No need to create new laws for new technology.
Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
This is an interesting issue to discuss, but TFA seems to have virtually no content.
What a moron!
With a bluetooth headset, I say the person's name, my cellphone dials the number, I say what I have to say, and never have to fumble around with the phone.
Any bets on how long before this guy gets his darwin?
Kevin Smith on Prince
I'd like a phone that would let me talk my text messages in and read the response to me.
"B their in 5". HTH. HAND.
I also hope her insurance company reads time.com.
the more one engages in a potentially risky activity, the more likely it is they will suffer negative results.
the really effective way to make people drive more careful is to replace the airbag in all cars with a big pointy spike aimed at the driver's head.
Sure people are dumb. But how can anyone be so mind-boggling stupid that they would think that texting while driving is a good idea? I mean, why not just go to the next step and drive blindfolded? There shouldn't even need to be a law because no one should be dumb enough to do this. But I guess I have too much faith in humanity.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
...it doesn't mean that you're not more likely to have one while operating any device that takes your eyes off the road.
Mobile phones are still so new that proper statistics don't really exist. (Ever here in Finland, where most in my generation had a mobile in high school, pre Y2K.) But I still don't think it can ever be safer to drive while doing anything else at the same time.
Sometimes it makes the most sense to simply find a place to pull over for a moment, if you really need to do something which will take your attention off the road. As for calling, there's this thing called a "hands free device" which works pretty darn well these days...
.: Max Romantschuk
I am starting another group:
"I am drunk While Driving and I Haven't Crashed Yet!"
It sucks that we have to make laws to compensate for commonsense.
How can it be easier? A voice call distracts you for a few seconds, tops- with speeddial, voice dialing, and other options, it takes little to no time.
Even if you're texting proficient, you still have to look at the screen to check your output multiple times, distracting you from the road.
While I'm normally a person that is against the "nanny state", idiots who get distracted while driving are not only a danger to themselves, they are a danger to every other person around them.
I would like to make organ donation compulsory for these people. At least they can be of some use after they crash.
I've lost two people in pointless car crashes.
Please use your goddamn head and pay attention to the goddamn road.
"I only speak the truth"
Karma: null(Mostly affected by an unassigned variable)
when society looks down on physical violence. A solid punch to the chin and that guy may see the error of his ways.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
We can all remember this thread when the asshat wins a Darwin Award. I've been near clipped many times by people fumbling with their phones. Usually they are gabbing, but more and more it's young kids texting. Youth tends to think it's invincible anyways.
They even reference 'near accidents'. All it takes is for one other person around you to also have a lapse of attention to turn that 'near accident' into a real accident.
If you need to say 'be there in 5' then pull over, or just make them wait 5 minutes. Duh.
Yeah, you're joking, but I wouldn't be surprised if someone actually tried that. Sigh.
Given that at some point the rate of new members signing up will equal the rate that existing members die, calculate the maximum number of members of 'I Text Message People While Driving and I Haven't Crashed Yet!'
Never shake hands with a man you meet in a fertility clinic.
It's thrilling to think of driving south on I-95 in the left lane and see someone driving five feet behind me staring at a phone than my bumper. Isn't that how road-rage gets started? It's more than an accident waiting to happen.
Just because you haven't crashed doesn't mean the extra few seconds it takes you to catch on to what's going on around you doesn't irritate the shit out of everyone else on the road an cause roadrage.
Don't get mad when I smash out your car window with a tire iron and take your phone at a green light, if you were paying attention it wouldn't have happened.
Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
I ride a Motorcycle, and I can truly say that I am sick and tired of almost being hit by idiots that are text messaging or chatting on their cell phones... ... well, I am building an EMP cannon, it should have an effective range of about 20 feet, and should be able to destroy small electronics, possibly an ECU...
I have seen people read books, news papers, work papers, shave, eat cereal out of a bowl, put on makeup, etc...and texting or talking on the cell both rank up there with "extremely stupid" behaviors while behind the wheel...
The next person who nearly hits me
600? In facebook-land that's a relatively small group...
-1 not first post
Virginia resident Leming is still happily texting away while driving despite some near-accidents. 'Sometimes it just seems easier to text 'Be there in 5' instead of calling,' explains Taylor."
Thats funny, I was just thinking how sometimes it just seems easier to ignore the traffic lights and stop signs. I mean, I get to where I am going so much faster! And haven't had an accident yet, which is of course 100% proof that I never will. /sarcasm
What a selfish _dangerous_ jerk
All I can hope for is she only wraps herself around a tree or lamp post, and not another car or pedestrian.
600 members.. wow.. that's a lot.. and TIME is interviewing him
By the way.. What's with the new logo?
I'm now in Poland: http://williamwnek
there would be a screen instead of a speedometer, and the steering wheel would have a keyboard.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
Darwin, is that you?
Life starts at the end of your comfort zone.
Actually the group is only 594 people.. 6 must have crashed Maybe while surfing TIME.com from their iPhone
I'm now in Poland: http://williamwnek
I nearly got killed a few years ago by a "distracted" driver who was happily chatting on his cell phone while running a traffic light. It took me over a year to recover and be able to work again and I'll feel the secondary effects of this accident for the rest of my life (definitely NOT a nice thing, trust me).
In most European countries, using a cell phone while driving is considered impaired driving and you basically face the same consequences as if you were drunk in case of an accident, meaning your insurance will happily run away from you and you'll be declared responsible for the accident even if it's not initially your fault.
I'm looking forward to the day it'll be the same here in Ontario as a lot of people don't seem to be able to distract themselves from their crackberries while driving. Maybe a $1000 ticket and a license suspension will teach them a lesson before they get to injure or kill someone.
I for one hope this moron eliminates himself from the human gene pool without injuring or killing someone first.
-- It's always darker before it goes pitch black.
'Sometimes it just seems easier to text 'Be there in 5' instead of calling,' explains Taylor."
Followed by "Mr. Taylor kills family of 5, 5 minutes from home" News at 11.
While I am generally against violence, there are some people who are just begging for a good ass kicking. Clearly this person is one of them.
I'm posting this wile drivi
And I haven't got shot yet!
...and I wholeheartedly agree with that sentiment — texting behind the wheel is a symptom of dick-headdery — remember that this is a group on Facebook, OK?
Do they make people quit once they have been in a crash while texting?
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
to use any device behind the wheel is a distraction .
eventually there luck will run out
Wow, TIME Magazine must be running short on good content. They interviewed the creator of a 600-member facebook group? There's more members in the National Chipotle Day group. Come on.
Its = possessive. It's = "it is"
In most places they have laws against not paying attention while drive. Negligence behind the wheel is not a charge you want.
Either way, if you kill someone because you you where typing that Bobby was DUI after he was AAK and you professed that you DUNA but then you saw someone and said DURS and tried to give her DWPKOTL all while driving 120km/hr you will most likely be charged.
No need for new laws just charge people with the existing ones. Then someone will text you WTFGDA.
---- aut viam inveniam aut faciam
I, too, prefer to text over calling for quick messages. But, in the (rare) instances when I feel the need to text while driving, I just pull off the road. At the very least, I wait until I'm at a stop light-- and if the light changes before I can send the message, I toss my phone to the side and proceed to the next place I can pull over. What could possibly be so urgent that it needs to be sent while the vehicle is in motion?
Oh dear lord why is this story posted on /.?
I've been guilty of this. Tapping out one word, watching traffic, then another. Dangerous mix, and I know one day I'll not be so lucky.
What we need is better voice recognition so we can speak our answers - that's the lesser evil ;-)
how am I going to communicate with people while riding my motorcycle now?!
...to the spouse, children, parents, and other loved ones that their son/daughter/husband/wife/father/mother was killed by a texting driver who had never actually killed anyone before, but only had been in near-accidents.
Just outlaw automatic transmissions. It's hard to do other crap while driving when you need both hands and both feet most of the time. People just might start paying attention to heir driving.
=Smidge=
A number of comments here have asked questions like "how hard is it to pull over" or "why not just call them". Here's another one...
Why not RTFA and discover that its a joke group and its creator is not trying to condone texting while driving.
I want a new quote. One that won't spill. One that don't cost too much. Or come in a pill.
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while driving should be nailed to a wall by their balls. And if Taylor is a female, she should be nailed by whatever is equally painful. Sheesh.
Am I the only one to have read Lemming instead of Leming. I guess the suicidal traits were already obvious to his parents when they chose the name.
I'm just hoping for a cool videogame!
As I recall, this is already illegal countrywide in the UK.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
...to "I want to have my arse caned in Changi prison like there's no tomorrow".
Using the phone behind the wheel is one thing. However, texting, however, distracts much more and takes your eyes off the road.
Those Asians, while having some problems with human rights, have found some working measures with completely braindead idiots - and caning for repeat traffic offenders is one of them, especially when causing an accident (with other persons involved, we're talking about "causing grievous injunry", and that's, to my knowledge, caning and jail).
Oh, yeah, one more hint - just using the phone while behind the wheel for the first time will set you back 1500 SGD, which is about 1200 US-$.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3FgMLROTqJ0
between shit like this and the countless pictures I've seen of girls on facebook taking pictures of themselves while they're driving, remind me again why auto insurance is higher for males?
Many people have commented on how stupid this behavior is, and a few seem to have RTFA and realised that the group is a joke. The girl in the article claims that she supports a law against texting while driving, something she has my respect for.
However, her reason for supporting the law is "I [...] would feel pretty horrible if something happened because of me breaking a law."
What The Fuck?
Have people so completely lost fate in their own ability to deduce what's right and wrong that they need laws to tell them what is OK and not. Would you not feel bad if something happened because you were just careless, as opposed to breaking the law?
Laws are there to make your life easier. They are not a fucking replacement for good judgement.
May we live long and die out
Text used to be a noun, now it's used both interchangeably as a verb and a noun. So many words in modern English are starting to be used like this.
Verbing weirds language.
I am not a crackpot.
Higher cognitive load.
Carrying on a conversation is more mentally taxing than turning a radio dial, and isn't as interruptable, since you're only in control of half of it. See, for example, this research:
"the Carnegie Mellon study, for the first time, used brain imaging to document that listening alone reduces by 37 percent the amount of brain activity associated with driving. This can cause drivers to weave out of their lane, based on the performance of subjects using a driving simulator."
I, and many people I know, can text message using one hand without seeing the phone at all while driving. The distraction is far far less. People should learn to do that if they really really have to text.
If you delay pleasure infinitely, the pleasure will be infinite. (YM)
Y'see... laws like this are just getting to the point of ridiculous. They're extremely specific, so someone caught video-messaging while driving will get away, while a text-messager would be fined.
Oh, if only society as a whole weren't as dumb as gravel. Then we could just have a law saying "don't be stupid" and be done with it.
Planet Zebeth - Metroid with a twist
How many people tune their radio more than once? I mean, really, this comparison is just silly. The majority of us set our stations early on and rarely go back and change it. Combined with on wheel controls you can flip through your channels and CDs without ever moving your eye. If you don't have enough coordination to do that then why are you driving?
Talking with someone in the car isn't the same as texting. I bet many drivers out there are quite capable of keeping their eyes on the road while chatting with someone in their car, I doubt the same could be said about texting. Plus texting requires at least one hand to do, something talking doesn't (Well unless your one of those people who flag down planes while talking or look like your swatting spider webs). There isn't a real comparison.
You could compare talking on the phone to talking to others in your car. Texting is just to interactive to not be a distraction from driving.
The use of phones in cars, for voice or texting, really needs to be limited if not prohibited. If anything prohibited on some roads or at certain times where any distraction isn't going to help - like rush hour.
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
I drive a motorcycle in NYC, which is already really dangerous even when people are running only one machine, their car. It's even worse now that people are in their SUVs, sealed from the rest of the world and throwing their weight around in traffic - especially when they're not really NYC residents, but drive those trucks mostly in the suburbs where there's room for them to drive like fools. It's even worse than that with them talking to their phones pressed to their heads, distracted by what's in their hands rather than concentrating with their hands on the wheel. The worst are the SUV drivers with phones in their hands, and of course the very worst are the ones with both hands on a phone, looking at it while they text someone. It's totally insane, though they don't care since they feel like their giant truck will protect them in a collision.
A month ago, one of these assholes cut me off downtown, almost driving me into a parked car (except I'm a very good driver, so I barely recovered to save my life). They raced to the next red light, which was only a block away anyway. I drove up next to their window and waved at them. I wanted to tell them to watch out, as most of them just aren't aware of motorcycles at all, which don't register in their vision like cars do. They were busy texting someone, as they'd clearly been while they cut me off, and they ignored me. So I knocked on their window. They ignored me. I knocked harder, angrily now. They glanced up at me, obviously having seen me the entire time, and waved one hand, mockingly making an "oh, I'm scared" face (even though I wasn't threatening them or anything). They laughed silently inside their big truck, and bent back down to resume texting.
So I bashed off their side rearview mirror. I ripped it from the truck, and smashed at their truck over and over again while they watched in shock.
Then I drove away and got lost among NYC's millions of other cars. Fixing that mirror's got to cost hundreds of dollars and days off the road. If only I could have smashed their window and grabbed their phone, I'd call to check in on how it's going. Maybe next time. If they haven't learned to just shut up and drive already.
--
make install -not war
In a few days, I won't be allowed to talk on my phone while driving. While I may not be allowed to avert my mouth and ears, I can still distract both hands and eyes (much less important) while texting.
I can even dial a number, hold the phone up by my ear, and talk to someone in the car (My New Hobby). If I want, I can text at the same time.
It is my opinion that we will all feel much safer knowing that those dangerous non-hands free cell phone talkers will now be focusing solely on the road.
My preferred name is frazz, but someone keeps taking it. If you see him, tell him I said hi.
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I drive a motorcycle and it was already bad enough with people not paying attention, and not seeing you in the mirror and about taking you out, and lately about 90% of the time when someone pulls into the lane and about hits me I notice they are on their phones usually texting. they need to just drive off a bridge already and rid the world of some more morons.
Fucking morons like this are making cellphone use more and more restrictive for the rest of us who have a brain.
"Yet"
Quidquid Latine dictum sit, altum videtur (anything said in Latin sounds important)
It exists and it's pretty d@mned good. www.jott.com Send your texts while you drive and don't look down. Everyone happy?
First, I agree that texting and using phones in general while driving is a bad idea. But it's not that bad in small doses. It seems that lots of Baby Boomers seem to think it's one of the most dangerous things ever. Let me help you understand - it's not.
Multitasking is a learned behavior. Depending on how often you do it, unless you're incredibly dumb, you get better the more often you do it. Things like talking while jogging - you can't do it when you first start out because you can't control your breathing. It takes a while to learn how to do it. Same with multitasking while driving. Yes, it does distract you. But as long as your not inept, it shouldn't distract you any more then reading billboards and streetsigns that you pass, changing stations on a radio, talking to passengers, drumming on your steering wheel when your jam comes on the radio, etc.
Yes, I text while driving. But on a blackberry, not a cell phone. Blackberry's are different - one button per letter. Since I've been using blackberry's for so long, I can pretty much type without looking at the screen, and I just have to glance at it every once in a while to make sure the last sentence was correct. I don't glance away any more then I do to look in the sideview mirrors or look at my center console to check my speed.
I agree it's bad, but I disagree that it is always dangerous. I think there is a small percentage of people who happen to be bad at multitasking who try to talk/text and drive at the same time. Same as there's a small percentage of semi-truck drivers who are dangerous and cut small cars off at the last second, but we all watch out when we're around any truck because they have a bad reputation. Some people can compartmentalize and do multiple things at the same time, and some people can't handle it.
I don't understand legislating the use of a phone while driving, because it's already covered under reckless driving laws. If you're sending a quick message, or having a few sentence conversation I don't see a problem with it at all. If you're having a heated argument, that's going to take a lot more attention away from you, and you should know better then to do that while driving.
"a 2006 study concluded that talking on a cell phone while driving is as dangerous as driving drunk, even if the phone is a hands-free model."
The problem isn't the phone occupying your hands; the problem is the phone occupying your brain.
Apparently.
Last week, near my hometown a neighbour of my father died because one of these text-while-drive-guys. The guy didn't respect a stop and crashed into the men's car. His wife is critical and both kids saw their father die...
Darwin was not so good this time.
Jail these guys for a couple of days and remove their permits!
Math is beautiful... e^(pi*i)+1=0
Text messaging is for wussies who don't want a response to what they say. (usually because what they say sucks)
Text messagers assume that other people will be happy to text them back.
Text messagers think that they can yap away via text and the person on the receiving end wants to read all of their crap, and respond in text.
Girls are typically text messagers, since it is a manipulative way to communicate.
Text messagers suck.
In ATHF they coined the term "instant pestering" and that is exactly what this is.
Text messagers are wankers!
(yes I know messagers is not in the dictionary yet)
Dj fuQ [url="http://djfuq.org"]djfuq urges you to listen to the beats[/url] [url="http://djfuq.org"]http://djfuq.org[
There's a reason they have higher insurance premiums.
It's really difficult to text message when you're on a motorcycle. But with practice I'm sure you'll get it down.
I mean, really, folks. If you've constantly got that phone in your hand pushing buttons, how the hell are you supposed to hold on to your beer?
There's another group on Facebook called 'I've had unprotected sex with 258 crack whores I've picked up at homeless shelters and I haven't caught any life threatening STD's yet'. I think that group and the text messaging while driving group should join forces. They could rename the groups 'we're a gaggle of stupid morons who're really pushing it'
I have nothing compelling to say
I was driving home last week and rounded a corner at an intersection with a light. I was turning right slowly and noticed the second car waiting for the light to go on the new lane I was entering a women was applying eye liner. I have never done this before but I was so curious I couldn't help it. I'm still in the middle of turning right so the front of my truck is pointing directly at this car by this point. I hit my horn a few times, and keep my eye on eye-liner women. Next thing I know she's poked herself in the eye with the liner and is visible spooked/blinded. After I am in the lane and going I see her scrunched up face visible verbalizing how thankful she is I made her aware of her lack of attention.
I've seen people doing this _while_ driving before, and this lady, while parked, was unable to even remotely react to the possibly of an accident. If it had been someone paying attention they'd have surely just looked to see what was going on, but this lady was too busy concentrating on her head rest mirror and face to even realize what was going on. I think text messages are just another form of makeup that distracts us from the road, but there are some of us who can pull it off without causing accidents. I am not, I have a touch screen phone, and I admit I'd probably hit a pole/car before I'd ever be able to send one off. That's common sense to me that I shouldn't do it. What we're dealing with as a whole is a complete lack of typical common-sense generations. We have to do the greatest good, and if I means I don't text while drive then I won't.
Seriously.
For years I have had a shortwave transceiver in my car and since I don't like voice communication, I had a morse code key between the seats. I am quite proficient at the code, doing something like 40 WPM easily while driving on the Autobahn and I found that concentration was more difficult when I had an actual person to talk to in the car.
I wish there was a mobile phone with twoe keys, one for dots, one for dashes to let me input text messages. Anything less than a full size keyboard is a PITA for text input; morse code would be a fine alternative, but i realize it's not for everyone. I look forward to a new generation of mobile phones that is open enough to make something like this possible.
Please no hint at Darwin: I am an experienced driver and listening to music is just as distracting as watching parts of the landscape and in fact when doing morse code at 120 mpH I never need to take my eyes from the road. I would agree, however, that any input interface that requires a look at the input device is an invitation to cleanse the gene pool.
My youngest sister used to text message while driving. Then she had an accident, while texting. So now she doesn't do that anymore. Fortunately nobody was seriously hurt, but her car was totalled.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
But what about those who can successfully text without looking at their phone? Using one thumb to text, while looking at the road with your eyes, and holding the wheel with the other hand isn't that hard...
please post a link here... I'll feel safer!
That is just crazy, if you need to text, pull over and then send your message
SQLDenis
http://www.lessthandot.com/
I just hope bikers pay attention to news reports.. If a biker dies because of being hit by a "distracted" driver who only gets a pittance of a sentence, they should read the court records, find out the killer's address, and exact vengeance on them.
There is no excuse for distracted driving leading to the death of anyone. If you can't control your kids, have your spouse/partner do it, and if you don't have a spouse/partner, don't drive with your unruly spawn.
Everyone else, pay some goddamn attention for Xenu's sake..
Is already illegal to drive impaired. Why do we need another law to say the same thing is illegal?
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I think that this kind of stupidity resides on a level with manslaughther and that a slap on the wrist is not enough. Operating dangerous machinery in a way that endangers the lives of others and continueing to do so after having been made aware of the problem constitutes nothing else but disregard for the lieves of others. I think a few years in prison are adequate to express societies displeasure with this psychopath behaviour. And if he kills somebody, he should go a way for a long time as murderer.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
1st, how much more difficult is it to make a call. Are you that lazy?
2nd, and more importantly, I assume you are at minimum an Ambassador, or Senator. Doctor? Otherwise, how often could you find scenarios in which it is vital that someone can't wait five minutes to see you show up.
This self-important, easy-is-best attitude so prevalent now diminishes my hope for our future.
I text and talk to people while I drive... Although I'm on the highway most of the time. I usually get in the slow lane and slow down before I attempt anything, but I just had my cd player jacked so I need something to do. I have a blackberry, I don't attempt the internet or anything like that, but I'm not going to give up talking and texting just to sit there in silence.
but I don't want you to crash into me or for my "tax dollar" to pay for your rescue.
On your private road, you can do whatever you want.
PS : I don't pay taxes in the states but will be driving there in a few month with my baby daughter. So stop texting while driving.
Switching to a Blackberry stopped it. For simple messages, even as a low-volume text message user I could type on the keypad with one hand and without looking at it - predictive text was usually correct, and when it wasn't I could make corrections at a stoplight before actually sending. Of course, the fact that I can spell helped with the predictive text bit.
Doing the same thing on the "full" keyboard on the Blackberry? No thanks. It can be faster to enter things on, but would be very hazardous to use while actually driving.
fencepost
just a little off
To be honest, I text while I'm behind the wheel (I do it all the time). I've never been in any near accidents because of it, so I never saw any kind of danger.
Here are some things to keep in mind:
First of all, you have to have the discipline to give the driving first priority over texting. That means you have to be patient enough to have long delays in the composition of your message, which might include stopping the process completely while you drive.
Second, you have to avoid looking at the phone as much as possible. This means you have to memorize the position of the letters and push them without looking if you can, or glance at the keys for only a moment to confirm the position. That means you're watching the road 98% of the time, and the other 2% is spent glancing at the phone. If this seems weird, consider that we often glance around while driving, usually for reasons not directly related to the task of safe driving (eg you see something on the side of the road, you're reading street signs). Using T9 is worse for this purpose since you have to check every word--try getting a QWERTY phone. Another note about this is that you should be holding your phone in front of you so that it's in your field of vision and the glancing takes as little time as possible (you can also still see the road with your peripheral vision).
There are plenty of opportunities to optimizing your texting, like sitting idly at stoplights, stuck in near 0 mph traffic jams, etc. You can also text important things immediately before you depart and right after you arrive at your destination.
TEXT WITH ONE HAND ONLY
If you practice safe text, everything should turn out OK in the end, and it's not nearly as dangerous as it sounds. Remember that when you are talking on the phone with someone, the act DEMANDS your attention since it feels wrong/rude to ignore the other person for a length of time or put them on hold constantly while you have to focus on driving. Texting demands no retention of your attention, so you can feel comfortable setting it aside whenever necessary.
Yeah! But why stop there? We should ban all risk of any kind. Make abortions mandatory, it's the only way to save us from ourselves!
I see no reason why nobody has yet tied basic speech recognition software into an interface to text messaging systems. If you have a sufficiently powerful phone, there should be a "texting mode" or something that allows you to either say something like "respond to text" and then say your message, or hit a single button and then speak the message. You should be able to have it read to you on command as well.
All of these technologies are already there - it's not magic.
You may counter that speech recognition software sucks, but have you ever tried to read a text message? It's a mess of abbreviations that is barely intelligible to begin with. Who cares if the recognition isn't perfect, it'll be just as effective.
Cynthia driving home on her way back from a successful serial shopping spree, decides to give boyfriend Brendan a quick txt message,
"HI HUN HAV SUMTNG SPEC 4YA! CU IN 5 K B REDY 4 ME ;) LUV U XOX".
Although Cynthia had time to send the SMS, tragically while placing the phone in her handbag, didn't have time to avoid the stationary dumpster-truck ahead. Cynthia didn't make it back in 5, or at all for that matter. RIP.
However, there is an upside: Had Cynthia made it back in 5, not long after arriving home she would've fallen pregnant to her lil love muffin. And so it could've been; Although Brendan ended their three-year relationship soon after Cynthia gave birth to Timothy, there was nothing fundamentally wrong with Cynthia's solo parenting skills. But Tim the little bugger, turned out to be a successful Hannibal-esque serial killer...
Read the article?
What the fuck is an Article?
An SQL query goes to a bar, walks up to a table and asks, "Mind if I join you?"
Here is an accident where a driver who was texting killed someone because he was not paying attention to the road.
-- I ignore anonymous replies to my comments and postings.
I ride a motorcycle. It is MY LIFE these idiots are playing with out there. It is bad enough I have almost been killed numerous times by people on their cell phones, but TEXTING??? I see anyone texting near me they are gonna get a fender kicked in!
Open Source: Eroding the Digital Divide
Here's a great new gadget for this!
According to the WHO, 1.2 million people die from car accidents each year in the entire word (about 670,000 in developed countries and 43,000 in the USA alone), and 50 million are injured (more than there are people in Canada).
Just like the myth of the frog that won't jump out of slowly boiling water, didn't we get too slowly used to the reality of the dangers of driving to realise and conclude that maybe we aren't fit to drive? Why do we still find the risk acceptable? Is it because most of the people who could learn from experience that driving is dangerous cannot drive anymore? Why do we accept so easily to see 43,000 people (14 times 9/11) die every year and not look for a solution for it and get really upset when a hundred of people die from firearm accidents? Why don't we look more actively for a more radical solution that won't reduce casualties by just a very few percents but make us orders of magnitude safer? Can't we see that there's something fundamentally flawed about letting mostly anyone drive a vehicle close to other vehicles at deadly speeds? Why do we seem to worry more about the gases that our cars emit than the lives they take?
And more importantly, where's my fully automated flying car?
You just got troll'd!
There, fixed that for you.
Definitely an inductive reasoning problem.
But also a "my rights trump yours" problem.
Sounds a lot like the war on terra. My rights not to be spied on (even if the chances of that happening are 1/1000000000) outweigh the other guy's right not to be nuked. Oh, wait, that's different...
Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
My ex was like this. I drove in the car with her dad once, and he drove like a complete moron. Too fast, short stops, close-cut-corners, etc. And all in bad weather with a car that didn't exactly have spectacular tires.
The saddest part was that my ex would rant about how he managed to do all that and had never had an accident, so he was an "excellent driver" (she would say this with stars in her eyes).
My reply that he was a shitty driver, and just lucky so far, tended to result in fights. One day a short stop or tight turn during winter seasons is going to surprise him with a little bit of black ice on the road, and so far the only thing that has kept him from crashing is luck.
As obviously it's already suffered some form of damage.
Drivers like these are the reason I can't wait for cars to drive themselves. Their need for instant gratification and communication put all of our lives in danger, not just those who are comfortable risking their lives in their metal cages. There is no respect and little awareness for the other people on the road, much less the pedestrians and bikers. I'd much sooner trust a tested computer system with multiple environmental sensors to drive everyone around. They won't get distracted by conversation, food, drugs or the dead people at the side of the road.
Truth is a matter of perspective. Wear the other guy's shoes before you dismiss him.
What about alternative modes of transport?
More than 40,000 people die every year in America due to vehicle accidents.
http://www-fars.nhtsa.dot.gov/Main/index.aspx
Banning cell phone use while driving might prevent a few accidents, but I bet we would continue to see more than 40,000 people die each year.
Alternative modes of transport would prevent not only these types of accidents (crash while using cell phone), but several others as well.
On a bus or subway or light rail, you can text, talk, be tipsy, sleep, read, let your mind wander, listen to music, roam through various emotional states, what have you.
Of course, this would involve a massive re-think of how our cities and suburbs and exurbs are laid out, which everyone will say is too expensive, blah blah blah. So, 40,000 dead people/year is an acceptable price?
And don't forget all the non-fatal accidents that occur each year, and the associated medical, repair, and property damage expenses. The estimated cost for all traffic crashes is $230.6 billion.
http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/TSF2006FE.PDF
Not sure if that factors in the economic costs of disabilities that victims have to live with for the rest of their lives, to say nothing of the emotional cost.
I find interesting how everyone cries out against distractions while driving, yet most of us do it every day. I have done all of these things while driving and I bet that most of you have too.
Eaten a sandwich
Consumed a beverage
Talked on the phone
Talked to a passenger
Tried to grab something from the back seat
Tried to restrain a toddler / dog / cat in the backseat
Changed the CD / radio station / tape
Tried to catch a spilled drink / fallen cigarette
Sent a text message
Watched a movie
Tried to learn a foreign language
Maybe you've even done some nerd sniping where you were so lost in thought that you don't remember getting home.
Unless, you ride that bus I would imagine that all of us have done at least four of those things and that most of us have done all of them.
The point is that we all have different personal boundaries and we have to acknowledge our own limits and hold ourselves to them. The honest truth is that some people are better at multi-tasking and driving than others. My mother in-law is so bad at multi-tasking and driving that I can't drive when she's in the car. I'm not condoning any of these things while driving, I'm just saying that they are going to happen and we must all make the personal judgment call of what is appropriate and encourage those around us to make responsible decisions.
The cell phones are not the only things that distract us in the car, they are just the newest. If we try and legislate the problem away we'll wind up with something equally ridiculous as requiring all beverages in the car to be consumed through a straw.
As long as we are in control of our own transportation, we will have distractions and in the end the only people that we can be responsible for is ourselves.
A coworker once told me that everyone should ride a motorcycle, because then everyone would be that much more aware of their surroundings when they drive.
I don't trust myself even to talk on a handsfree set, never mind texting while I drive. It would be even worse since you have to take your eyes off the road. I know I'd get in an accident, so I'd only do it at a red light.
I charge forward recklessly, leaving chaos in my wake.