Texting while driving?

[Pat Barry]

Texting has it's place but not while driving!

On the down side of texting.......... in Mattoon, IL yesterday, a 7 year old boy was hit by a car and died after being transported to the Carle Clinic in Champaign. The 17 year old driver was cited as it is believed by police she was texting when she struck the child......

Texting while driving is already illegal in Minnesota. Is it legal in Illinois? What else can we do except make it illegal everywhere? By the way, I do not like Kev's idea (above). If I'm a passenger I better be able to use my phone or tablet and ALL of its functionality. Making the thing not work at speeds over 8 mph is purely ludicrous

[Marvin Hasenak]

I haven't driven in over 11 years, medical reasons I am blind in one eye and have limited use of my legs. I can verify the hands free phone is not much safer than holding ot to your ear or a Bluetooth. In the last 11 years I have rode with 100's of people, the phone is a distraction, regardless of whether it s hands free or not. Texting, not when I am in the car, I always have my walker with me, I will get out and walk if they attempt to text. All I have to do is scream STOP, then I get my walker and get out. It only takes once and they get the message. By now all of the people I ride with know it, and they sure won't test me on whether I have changed my mind.

As the passenger, I get to see the idiots in the next car, taking on a phone, texting, eating, putting on makeup, you name it and I have seen it. If you ride passenger in a pickup long enough you might even see porn, been there and saw that. I am like a copilot telling my regular driver which is my wife about the idiots to look out for. 2 weeks ago I watched a person rear end the car in front of them, they were texting, we made the block and waited for the police to show up. When the cop asked what I saw, I said, she was texting and ran into the back of the car in front of her. The lady screamed at me she was not texting, the LEO told her the texting record stays on the phone, she admitted she was texting. Justice served.

[Phil Thien]

Texting while driving is already illegal in Minnesota. Is it legal in Illinois? What else can we do except make it illegal everywhere? By the way, I do not like Kev's idea (above). If I'm a passenger I better be able to use my phone or tablet and ALL of its functionality. Making the thing not work at speeds over 8 mph is purely ludicrous

I have pondered the dilemma of how to disable texting for a phone belonging to a driver.

The idea I came up with was that, if the responsiveness/accuracy of the user was a certain percentage under overall average, and if the phone was travelling at speed (the phone can detect this already), that the phone would disable texting until the trip was over.

But the funny thing is, people might try to circumvent my technique by focusing ALL their attention on the phone, and none on the road.

[mike mcilroy]

You can make it illegal but selfish people don't care about laws or rules that's for the unimportant people. Probably not going to be enforced much anyway I've seen cops texting while driving their cruisers.

[Chris Parks]

This is how the police in Western Australia deal with mobile phone use. Note near the end the woman who does not even realise there is a flashing light on a police bike beside her car...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8a249J9KYY

Hands free is just as bad as hand held phone use, it is a distraction pure and simple. I defy anyone who has been on a hands free phone call to tell me any details of what happened in the traffic or what they did in their own driving whilst they have been on the phone.

[Dick Latshaw]

You can make it illegal but selfish people don't care about laws or rules that's for the unimportant people.

You are correct, sir. See it all the time down here. Both in and out of State car tags. (But we like to blame the turistas.)

[Ole Anderson]

Am I the only one that on more than one occasion all of a sudden realized, that my driving has been on cruise control for at least a minute at a time? Then I realize I had been so distracted with my own thoughts of solving a problem I don't remember getting from point A to point B. Distracted only by my own thoughts. But like breathing while you sleep, years of driving keeps you in your lane, spaces you from cars around you and unconsciously obeys traffic lights. All the time with your eyes on the road, unlike looking at your phone to call up a phone number or to read or compose a text. And answering a hands free phone, or even saying "call wife" isn't anywhere as distracting as picking up your phone and making or receiving a call, I don't care that others say differently. My in car phone use is at most a couple of times a week, and it is now hands free thanks to auto manufacturer use of Bluetooth.

I am not defending texting while driving, but different people have varying abilities to multi-task and experience driving plays a huge difference. Remember how you had to concentrate without distraction to just stay in a lane when you first started driving and now you don't? So combine kids having little driving experience with their propensity to overuse their phone and you have a recipe for double trouble.

[Phil Thien]

I am not defending texting while driving, but different people have varying abilities to multi-task and experience driving plays a huge difference. Remember how you had to concentrate without distraction to just stay in a lane when you first started driving and now you don't? So combine kids having little driving experience with their propensity to overuse their phone and you have a recipe for double trouble.

People can't multitask, they just think they can (and they're counting on no sudden changes in traffic):

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=95256794

I'm not militant about drivers using phones. A quick call here and there seems like it could be done safely.

But talking on the phone non-stop (while driving) is akin to having an elevated blood alcohol level.

[mike mcilroy]

When others lives are at stake multi tasking is understating this problem. Once again selfish actions by those who see only their instant gratification.

[Scott Shepherd]

People can't multitask, they just think they can (and they're counting on no sudden changes in traffic):

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...oryId=95256794

I'm not militant about drivers using phones. A quick call here and there seems like it could be done safely.

But talking on the phone non-stop (while driving) is akin to having an elevated blood alcohol level.

Some show did a program on that in the UK. I don't remember if it was one of those Brain Games shows or what (I think it was). A guy spent his days on the road, "multitasking" with all the gear to allow him to be hands free. He told friends and family how good he was at multitasking. Then they put him to the test and actually measured his awareness and reaction times in various conditions, with and without the phone, etc, and they found that no matter how great he thought he was, it severely impacted his driving ability.

[Pat Barry]

Am I the only one that on more than one occasion all of a sudden realized, that my driving has been on cruise control for at least a minute at a time? Then I realize I had been so distracted with my own thoughts of solving a problem I don't remember getting from point A to point B. Distracted only by my own thoughts. But like breathing while you sleep, years of driving keeps you in your lane, spaces you from cars around you and unconsciously obeys traffic lights. All the time with your eyes on the road, unlike looking at your phone to call up a phone number or to read or compose a text. And answering a hands free phone, or even saying "call wife" isn't anywhere as distracting as picking up your phone and making or receiving a call, I don't care that others say differently. My in car phone use is at most a couple of times a week, and it is now hands free thanks to auto manufacturer use of Bluetooth.

I am not defending texting while driving, but different people have varying abilities to multi-task and experience driving plays a huge difference. Remember how you had to concentrate without distraction to just stay in a lane when you first started driving and now you don't? So combine kids having little driving experience with their propensity to overuse their phone and you have a recipe for double trouble.

As you are saying Ole, we all do multi-task in this way ALL THE TIME. Driving is a skill, much like walking, that we all learn to do without cognizant thinking - you know, we aren't fully engaged in every decision made while driving. Only a real beginner has to to think about every single move. I like you have driven miles and miles and never thought about it consciously once. But, once you mind picks up on a problem (bird flying across the road in front of you for example, or encountering an inattentive driver ahead of you), your focus quickly goes to the issue at hand and you become instantly oblivious to your previous thoughts. People can't multitask wherein they have to simultaneously think about two discrete problems at one time, even a computer can't do that (OK - not a single processor - a multiprocessor could with the right software). Good drivers also recognize their surroundings and adapt their attentiveness as required, for example driving on a city street with kids present you just know sooner or later one of them or their dog is going to run into the road ahead of you, so you look for trouble like that. Is it possible that you can be oblivious, just because you happen to be talking on the phone at that time? Probably or possibly, it depends on who we are talking about.

[Chris Padilla]

But it is still so incredibly impersonal.

Each to their own in defining 'impersonal' but how does this one strike you?

I send out Christmas cards every year. I missed 2014 and it was the first time in a very long time. We just never got it together to take a picture for the card so we said, forget it. My wife and even had the whole month of December off...didn't happen for some reason.

Anyway, my Christmas cards are this: family photo, printed at Costco, printed with some message and the year. The address and return labels are all pre-printed, too. Then we stuff 'em in an envelope...no signing...no other message...no nothing...stamp...shove 'em in the mailbox...hope they get there on time. So you get a family pic once a year...except for 2014.

I love texting...fun stuff. Adding pics and funny things is nice. I like it because it is not intrusive if you let it be not intrusive. You answer it in your own time and there are usually no sounds associated with it so it is usually quiet. It is great for lists of things like groceries. Great to send pics of "Do you like this shirt...it is on sale." My wife texts my daughter pics of clothes all the time when she is shopping since my daughter rarely goes shopping with her mother any more. It works.

However, I fully agree about driving. Driving requires full attention or people die. We are already too distracted in the car. While technology has made things worse, technology will also make things better.

[Neal Clayton]

Awhile back there was an incident in Africa involving a 747 (I think?) pilot texting while taxiing that ended in him plowing the wing into a hangar, can't find the video for the life of me, though.