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Nearly 1 In 4 Adults Surf the Web While Driving
cartechboy writes "A new survey out this week says that the number of motorists who surf the Web has nearly doubled over the past four years. In 2009, 13 percent of motorists admitted that they'd accessed the Internet while driving. In 2013, that figure had jumped to 24 percent. Smartphones are the primary culprit, making the unsafe task even easier. Other distracted driving behavior is on the rise, too, and younger drivers are the biggest issue — 76 percent of motorists 18 to 29 said that they talked on a hand-held cell phone while driving. 70 percent said they were texting. Keep in mind we have states legislating smartphone use task by task, which clearly doesn't help."
All the more reason why we need to get autonomous cars on the road.
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
As many as 1 in 4 adults should never have made it to adulthood, with the clearly disabled mental faculties. To bad driving is a case where the dumb shit you do is as likely to kill an innocent person on the road as yourself. It's like vaccines really, there aren't enough consequences on the people doing the harm.
...Since when does "accessing the internet" equate to "surfing the web"? They gave checking emails and surfing the web as examples of accessing the internet, but I'd like to see if "accessing the internet" was the actual question or not. Every single time I drive my phone "accesses the internet". Google play on an android smartphone? Hell yeah that's accessing the internet. Sending a text at a stop light? That's google voice for me, so accessing the internet. Fucking GPS? Yep, accessing the internet once again to get all that sweet, sweet map data. I don't know of anyone who owns a smartphone but doesn't use it for GPS in the car. The only exceptions are those with a dedicated GPS, which, again, accesses the actual internet to download map data, and get routing information.
First post while driving down Interstate 49#`%dAq{%&dkj19Z{`%.NO CARRIER
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
24 percent? More like 50 percent. Both of the guys I just passed were staring at their little gadget in zombie-like trance.
Posted from my iPhone.
Saying that "Nearly 1 in 4 adults SURF the web while driving" is very different from the actual results of the survey: "Nearly 1 in 4 adults SURFED the web while driving AT LEAST ONCE IN THE LAST YEAR".
Frankly, I'm surprised the number is so low since they include checking email.
Pick a random left turn light in the Bay Area, and look at the driver waiting third or fourth in line. Some of them are very slow to move off when the light goes green, because they are reading or even typing on their smartphone. Then they play catch-up after a cursory look at the road ahead. They rate their entertainment above the safety of pedestrians, cyclists and other drivers. It's unbelievably selfish.
.... the fact that the light is red does not negate your responsibility to pay attention to your surroundings. From a legal and moral point of view you're operating a motor vehicle on a public roadway regardless of the color of the light, and you have an obligation to give that task your full attention.
The same goes for touching up your cosmetics, reading your snail mail, drinking your coffee, or any of the other items on the huge list of things people do when they're supposed to be devoting their full attention to the safe piloting of a ton or more of steel.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Great, you're only a nuisance instead of a threat. God forbid you spend a single moment of your life not feeling entertained.
the number of motorists who access the internet (e.g. check email, surf websites, etc.) has nearly doubled over the past four years
This statement implies these people access the internet regularly. However, that's not the question they asked.
13 percent of motorists admitted that they'd accessed the internet while driving
This statement says motorists have accessed the internet at all, meaning at least one time ever in your life, not on a regular basis.
This is a very important distinction that the article glosses over. If I accessed the internet on my phone once 5 years ago, then this survey would call me "one who accesses the internet while driving," which is very misleading. I don't access the internet while driving. The survey should ask something like "have you accessed the internet while driving in the last month." Then the data would be reasonable and give a much better representation of what people do.
end yourself
He probably will, sooner or later - hopefully without taking someone else with him.
#DeleteChrome
If you're on a road, you're driving. If you're in a parking lot or in your driveway, sure. But if you're sitting at an intersection and believe you're not driving, you've lost the plot.
Show of hands, how many of us have had to honk at the motorist in front of us when the light changes because they're still fiddling with their phone? I have to at least 2-3 times a week, and I don't drive more than 5-6 times in an average week.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Hand your licence back and fucking walk you irresponsible dickhead
Well, I wasn't driving at the same time.
We had outfitted our chase van for the 1995 SunRayce, and had gotten Bell Atlantic (might've been Bell Atlantic-NYNEX at that point) to donate a car phone plus some coverage ... and we got a phone that had an RJ11 plug on it.
So ... we did some tests in the DC area before heading out to the race. The only place we could hold a decent connection (9600 baud ... that was pretty good for the days of 33.6k modems, considering we were on an analog cell phone) was along the BW Parkway ... near the NSA.
Which is retrospect seems kinda strange, now that they don't want any portable electronic devices going into secured places. (unless of course it was a rogue cell tower trying to specifically get people from the NSA to route through them)
You also get lots of strange looks from people when driving through Georgetown in a large white van w/ tinted windows and a half dozen antennas on the roof. (GPS, cell phone, 2 xUHF,2 x CB, radio modem (to talk to the solar car), etc.)
ps. by 'browsed the internet' I mean 'FTPed some files'. We might've used gopher, too.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Just wait till you get there. Seriously. You never need to send a text while driving, you just have such amazingly low willpower that you recklessly endanger others, and don't even get anything out of it.
It is simply not acceptable, and you should stop doing this immediately, and feel shame that you ever did.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
I think you are being misled by the Slashdot headline. Notice the headline says:
"Nearly 1 In 4 Adults Surf the Web While Driving"
But then below it is says:
"In 2009, 13 percent of motorists admitted that they'd accessed the Internet while driving. In 2013, that figure had jumped to 24 percent."
Finally, note that "surfing the web" and "accessing the Internet" are not the same thing. Surfing the web means viewing websites. But accessing the internet while driving can occur automatically by your car, when your phone is in your pocket, by listening to Internet-streamed music or by using GPS. All of these are perfectly reasonable to use in your car.
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
If I can prove by experiment that can drive more safely while masturbating furiously while brandishing a shoulder-fired grenade launcher than most people with their attention fully focused on the road will I be exempt from these kinds of laws that preemptively punish innocent people for harm they might potentially cause to someone in the future?
Did I do a good job pointing out what a terrible, terrible idea that is? Or do I need to go with something more ridiculous?
Statistically, you're playing Russian Roulette when you do that. Not just with your own life, but the lives of every single other person sharing the road with you.
So no, you don't get an exemption. For reasons obvious to those of us who aren't completely self-focused.
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
If I can prove by experiment that can drive more safely while texting than most people with their attention fully focused on the road
I wish more people would actually try that. The reality check would probably shock some of them out of this kind of reckless behaviour, making us all safer.
How about a deal? You take that test, and if you really are safer while texting than most people when they're fully concentrating, you get to keep doing it, completely legally. However, if it turns out that you're actually more dangerous, and we also then know that you're deluded about your own abilities and therefore unable to properly judge how to drive safely within those abilities, you have to give up your licence and never drive again. Fair?
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
This should be put into categories apparently.
One is navigation. Looking at your built in navigation and hitting a few buttons or zooming on the map is not all that bad at an intersection. I find that I am at an intersection for at least 15-30 seconds, if not a lot more during traffic. Taking 5 seconds to review the map should not lead to a distraction where you create a delay in traffic. You really have to not be paying attention to stop picking things up in your peripheral vision while stopped.
Two is communications. This is just evidence of how bad the addiction is to information technology today. I see plenty of people who cannot go more than 5 minutes without checking FaceFuck or Twatter. That near constant need for connection and feedback is based on the same psychological principles that keep people at slot machines for hours on end.
What makes it worse is that these people are creating the STANDARD for communication in the future. When I tell people that I did not respond to them since I was driving and on my way back to the office I actually get the response back, "That's no excuse. You could have just sent a text message. You need to work on your communication skills".
I think these people would literally go insane if you transported them back to say around 1719. "What the fuck do you mean I have to wait 5 months to get a letter back!", and "You mean I have to walk all the way across town, knock on a door, be welcomed into the house, BEFORE I can talk to my friend?"
Not sure that I can call where we are headed progress. It seems that attention span is at a historically low level for humanity.
If I can prove by experiment that can drive more safely while texting than most people with their attention fully focused on the road will I be exempt from these kinds of laws
Major math fail. Accidents are driven by statistics. What you do and what other people do is not related. If you are more dangerous today than yesterday, the average also rises.
Note that if you are such an excellent driver, you still may need that last bit of skill if an idiot decides to something idiotic in your path. You will not get that last bit of skill if you are distracted.