Slashdot Mirror
Are Phone-Addicted Drivers More Dangerous Than Drunk Drivers? (axios.com)
After crunching data on 4.5 billion miles of driving, road-safety analytics company Zendrive concludes there's a new threat which just last year claimed the lives of 6,227 pedestrians: drivers "under the influence of a smartphone."
The study points out that drunk driving fatalities peak after midnight, while distracted driving happens all day, conluding that distracted driving is now a bigger threat than drunk driving. schwit1 shares this report from Axios: "Phone addicts are the new drunk drivers," Zendrive concludes bluntly in its annual distracted driving study. The big picture: The continued increase in unsafe driving comes despite stricter laws in many states, as well as years of massive ad campaigns from groups ranging from cell phone carriers to orthopedic surgeons. "They hide in plain sight, blatantly staring at their phones while driving down the road," Zendrive says in the study.
And it's a growing problem. Over just the past year, Zendrive, which analyzes driver behavior for fleets and insurers, said the number of hardcore phone addicts doubled, now accounting for one in 12 drivers. If the current trend continues, that number will be one in five by 2022.
The report concludes drivers are 10 percent more distracted this year than last -- and that phone addicts have their eyes off the road for 28% of their drive. Yet when asked to describe their driving, 93% of phone addicts said they believed they were "safe" -- or "extremely safe" -- drivers.
One even insisted that they never texted while driving, "but I like to FaceTime my friends while driving since it makes time go by faster."
The study points out that drunk driving fatalities peak after midnight, while distracted driving happens all day, conluding that distracted driving is now a bigger threat than drunk driving. schwit1 shares this report from Axios: "Phone addicts are the new drunk drivers," Zendrive concludes bluntly in its annual distracted driving study. The big picture: The continued increase in unsafe driving comes despite stricter laws in many states, as well as years of massive ad campaigns from groups ranging from cell phone carriers to orthopedic surgeons. "They hide in plain sight, blatantly staring at their phones while driving down the road," Zendrive says in the study.
And it's a growing problem. Over just the past year, Zendrive, which analyzes driver behavior for fleets and insurers, said the number of hardcore phone addicts doubled, now accounting for one in 12 drivers. If the current trend continues, that number will be one in five by 2022.
The report concludes drivers are 10 percent more distracted this year than last -- and that phone addicts have their eyes off the road for 28% of their drive. Yet when asked to describe their driving, 93% of phone addicts said they believed they were "safe" -- or "extremely safe" -- drivers.
One even insisted that they never texted while driving, "but I like to FaceTime my friends while driving since it makes time go by faster."
At lease the drunk drivers are doing their best to look at where they are going
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
In fact I'm driving to the grocery store as I type this. One thing people fail to reali
Myself, I never write texts or respond to emails while driving, I only read them
You are part of the problem
"When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
Pedestrians with their eyes and mind in their phones are mostly a danger to themselves.
Drivers with their eyes and minds in their phones are a danger to also everyone around them: passengers, other drivers and pedestrians alike.
"We mustn't be caught by surprise by our own advancing technology" -- Aldous Huxley
Considering how often during my MERE 10 minute commute from home to work and back again, and I see people screwing with their phones at nearly every light.
It's a major problem. Enforcement of laws needs to take it up a notch and the fines need to be severe. People are not learning a goddamn thing.
Maybe a truly devastating fine of some ferocious amount will get people to think twice. They're not right not.
Since 1995, if you factor out the 2008-09 recession, there's been a continued slow decline in fatality rate. The dip during the 2008-09 recession also seems disproportionately large compared to past recession-linked dips. The 1973-75 recession happened at nearly 2x the fatality rate, so you would expect its dip to be 2x as large. But the 2008-09 dip is nearly the same absolute size. (The post-recession rebound after 1973-75 is nearly 2x as large.)
NHTSA has been claiming credit for this decrease, citing improved crash safety testing and standards. But I wonder if it's more the effect of GPS becoming commonplace to where it's now ubiquitous in all new cars, and people whose cars don't have GPS navigation just use their phones. In the days before GPS, it was common to drive with a folded map on your steering wheel, trying to figure out where you were and how to get to your destination. Way more dangerous than texting while driving IMHO.
Except instead of willful ignorance on drunk driving ("Get off our backs - everybody does it, and it's not that dangerous,"), it's the selfish "phone drunks".
Like drunk drivers, they're really easy to spot. They subconsciously drive a little slower while (in any lane). They fade in and out of their lanes - especially on freeway curves. They do it with extra good posture (perhaps they think that helps them navigate safely?) The worst ones are the ones holding their phones up in front of their faces and talking at them, trying to watch the road with peripheral vision - with no shame.
After a few more high profile deaths and political pressure, and a few of those "after school special" movies about cell phone driving killing children, we'll see an overly strict set of punitive laws that nail cellphone users while they drive (by the 2030s).
Maybe driverless technology will finally be the real solution for those who have to be able to "to FaceTime my friends while driving since it makes time go by faster." (Oh man... And least she was honest. And yeah, $100 says it was a she (under 25). Most dudes would never admit to that, and only someone that young would be that vain and foolish about life...)
Sometimes dangerous, but frequently "in the way". I can tell a phone user as I approach from behind before I can directly see them using it: He's the one who's driving slower than everyone else, weaving out of the lane, or who doesn't see that the light has turned green, causing others to get caught by the red light - basically wasting everyone's time due to their selfish habit.
Fed up one day, I held the horn at one before she finally looked up at me (ignoring horns, really?). I pretended to text in midair so she could see me - she flipped me off... At least I know she can use more than her thumbs.
You are wrong about this, sorry. There's a huge difference between a hands-free phone and someone in the vehicle, whose own life is at stake and who has at least a little situational awareness. A sales droid pretending to be in his office while actually at a dangerous intersection can't say "hold on a sec" - while with a passenger, there is simply no need for that. When driving around with some of my employees, they even developed a system to help the driver at dangerous spots, say turning left across traffic at a nearly blind intersection. The person in the passenger set would monitor traffic coming from that direction and say "green, green green" or "red red red" - idea borrowed from one of the hotshots movies - as it was his own butt on the line if the driver missed a suddenly appearing car from that direction while trying to also look the other way.
I have a car with a built in hands-free phone. I learned this quickly, the person on the other end can't see you and doesn't know when to shut up, at the very least, or why you might suddenly need to pay full attention. I quit using it other than to order pizza from a custom place I'd be passing on my way home.
Why guess when you can know? Measure!
I won't even cross when there are cars in the right-hand lane at a corner unless the driver has fully stopped at the corner and looked right at me (so I know they know I am there). This even applies to when I have the signal light to cross (as opposed to no traffic lights), because I could be stepping out into the street and still have someone speed up to the corner, slow a little, then turn and pass right in front of me.
Plenty of people slow down as they reach the corner, while looking at the phone by their lap, glance up to the left to ensure there's no oncoming traffic, then look back down and make their right-turn without looking for pedestrians. Since I don't drive, I get in a lot of walking, and see this all the time.
What is there to gain by "briefly looking" that just can't wait until later? What's the likelihood of reading a text that requires immediate action on your part? And if it does, then the 'look' isn't so brief anymore. Isn't it better to just remain alert and observant at intersections even if it's extremely boring; what's the harm in that?
in most of USA drivers are crucified (sometimes literally) for hitting a pedestrian.
Can you show a single instance where a driver was literally crucified for hitting a pedestrian?
Enigma