Poll: Texting while Driving

[zen5887]

I've done it a couple of times.. Its not really very smart I know but if it makes you feel any better I allways do it when theres no other cars around ^^

I also go very slow

 

[Stammer]

now, i'm as phone-phobic as they come, i use an old nokia brick and groove out to retro-snake, my ringtone uses 3 notes and i have to use a knuckle to get one button to register, and even then while pressing hard.

But even with my 5 message a week, under 5 words a pop habit, i can text without a glance at the screen.

Its like typing, do it enough and you don't actually need to look down, try it, seriously. Right now, do it in response to this.

Are you doing it? im willing to bet your making mistakes.

Give it a week, you'll be a pro.

I turned my monitor off and I'm not looking at the keyboard. I can type pretty fast, though I'm not really sure how this is like texting. Actually, I gotta concentrate pretty hard to try and figure out any mistakes I make so I can hit backspace, which has only actually happened as many times as it usually does by now. Now, I'm not going to edit this (did I already say that?). Um. Okay. Ending the offscreen monitor thing now.

Dayam. I have to get a hobby. Seriously though. You have to concentrate. I couldn't imagine for one second doing that while driving. But hey, this is an opinion thread and we're each entitled to our own opinions. And while you and a few other people can text while they drive, the other 99% of people who do it every second of every day can't. That's like saying they can legalize drinking and driving because it's been done before without any accidents.

 

[Ultrajoe]

now, i'm as phone-phobic as they come, i use an old nokia brick and groove out to retro-snake, my ringtone uses 3 notes and i have to use a knuckle to get one button to register, and even then while pressing hard.

But even with my 5 message a week, under 5 words a pop habit, i can text without a glance at the screen.

Its like typing, do it enough and you don't actually need to look down, try it, seriously. Right now, do it in response to this.

Are you doing it? im willing to bet your making mistakes.

Give it a week, you'll be a pro.

I turned my monitor off and I'm not looking at the keyboard. I can type pretty fast, though I'm not really sure how this is like texting. Actually, I gotta concentrate pretty hard to try and figure out any mistakes I make so I can hit backspace, which has only actually happened as many times as it usually does by now. Now, I'm not going to edit this (did I already say that?). Um. Okay. Ending the offscreen monitor thing now.

Dayam. I have to get a hobby. Seriously though. You have to concentrate. I couldn't imagine for one second doing that while driving. But hey, this is an opinion thread and we're each entitled to our own opinions. And while you and a few other people can text while they drive, the other 99% of people who do it every second of every day can't. That's like saying they can legalize drinking and driving because it's been done before without any accidents.

i didn't say it should be legal, i just don't think its the impossibility its being made out as.... and give the typing thing the whole week, you'll be doing it perfectly soon enough.

But it would seem i am superhuman... well... i always knew that... but now i have proof...

Cut me off from money dad? well whose looking stupid now! i DO have superpowers! dropping out of university was the right thing after all!

 

[Logan Westbrook]

Mythbusters did an experiment on how much talking on a mobile phone affects your driving and found it was the equivalent of having a couple of drinks before you got behind the wheel. Text, with its additional visual element and necessitating the use of one of your hands, must be comparable.

 

[GeeDave]

I honestly wouldn't have a problem with it if only the people texting were wiped off the face of this earth, but unfortunately, as pointed out by TheNecroswanson it's usually innocent folk following the rules that get killed because of it.

I'm pretty sure it is illegal where I am, though I'd have to check that. I still see it all the time though, people texting or chatting away on their phones. Accident waiting to happen, what could anyone possibly have to say in a text while driving that could be that important?

And to go against the argument of texting without looking at the phone. You'd (not anyone specifically) have to be an absolute dick head to just start texting on a whim while driving. And the only other situation that would involve you doing it would be if you were replying to someone elses text, which by the way... you would've had to of read first.

 

[Stammer]

But it would seem i am superhuman... well... i always knew that... but now i have proof...

Cut me off from money dad? well whose looking stupid now! i DO have superpowers! dropping out of university was the right thing after all!

haha! That's awesome.

And to go against the argument of texting without looking at the phone. You'd (not anyone specifically) have to be an absolute dick head to just start texting on a whim while driving. And the only other situation that would involve you doing it would be if you were replying to someone elses text, which by the way... you would've had to of read first.

Damn fine point. There's no reason to just start texting out of no where. I mean, damn, can't you wait until you stop somewhere to text if the need arises? Or ask someone else in the vehicle to do it like my dad always does? The only time you'd ever text is if you were already in conversation before you started driving, which means that you would have to read what the other person texted to you. And if it's long or hard to read (which a lot are in most cases), you actually spend a fair chunk of time looking down at your cell.

 

[fix-the-spade]

Wow, and I thought talking on the phone was bad, but TEXTING!? Damn. Darwinism will deal with it tho.

Unfortunately Darwinism will more likely deal with someone else with the texter's aid. Which is why it should be illegal (in the UK it is).

 

[Stammer]

I've always wanted to construct a message board on top of my car telling people off if they suck at driving. I know it's hypocritical to the whole "I hate texting" thing, but it'd still be nice to call a person "jackass!" after they cut you off.

 

[ElArabDeMagnifico]

I can't believe we have to even consider this, I mean, we make people go through tests to see if they are able to drive, then they qualify for a license, AND NOW THEY ARE TEXTING WILE DRIVING?!

It's common sense that texting while driving = BAD FUCKING IDEA - even at a stop light with T9 word, use your damn voice for gods sake, get a bluetooth or just put the phone on speaker, or hell if you HAVE to, put the phone to your ear, but don't text.

 

[JDLY]

It cannot be done. Don't give me that look for all of you who do it. It cannot be done. It is entirely impossible to be concentrating on the road and all four hundred vehicles within the proximity of your own and also thinking of where the letters are on your cell phone.

I can't do it but my sister has no need to concentrate on where the letters are.
She could text with her hands behind her back while watching t.v. and listening to music.

Some people have just done it so long they just think of what they want to say and their fingers start tapping.

Edit: Still I think it's bad.

 

[wordsmith]

Nope. Don't do it. Even when I get a phone call in my car I put it on speaker, say (regardless of who it is) "I'm driving, with you in a sec", pull over and then take the call. As for texting, just stupid...

 

[WlknCntrdiction]

It's stupid and the people who do it are stupid, I see so many people doing it over here and I wish they have an accident which makes them think about how stupid it is, an accident that hurts them bad(both physically and mentally)but leaves the other party(who weren't stupidly texting or talking whilst driving)alive and unscathed.

And for those questioning the doability of it, are you serious? It shouldn't even be about how it's possible, I'd like to think a smart person would think that you shouldn't do it because it breaks your concentration, not just because it isn't possible.

Wow, and I thought talking on the phone was bad, but TEXTING!? Damn. Darwinism will deal with it tho.

Unfortunately Darwinism will more likely deal with someone else with the texter's aid. Which is why it should be illegal (in the UK it is).

Yeah it is illegal here but with the amount of people using their phones whilst driving you would think that the law wasn't actually in force, or that the police are a couple of blind douchebags.

Is it really that hard for people to just pull over and reply to a text? And not even that, can you seriously not wait until you're in a safe place away from a car to reply to the text? The text isn't going to disappear, you can always read it and reply to it later. Makes me think you forget that you're driving, you have to have full concentration, not half of it on your fucking phone. You can tell I don't like the idea, it's fucking stupid and I wish unexcusable and incomprehensible amounts of pain on the people who do do it.

 

[SteinFaust]

who are all these people doing this? i've never seen a crash or pile-up due to this 'phenomenon'. but yes, i think it's stupid and should be illegal because that process of texting AND driving just sounds idiotic.

 

[Stammer]

It's common sense that texting while driving = BAD FUCKING IDEA - even at a stop light with T9 word, use your damn voice for gods sake, get a bluetooth or just put the phone on speaker, or hell if you HAVE to, put the phone to your ear, but don't text.

Yeah... I really don't see why people have to text. Chat is faster, safer, and just plainly better in pretty much every sense. My dad says that with his bluetooth it's like talking to the person next to you so it doesn't interrupt his concentration at all.

Now you might be saying that texting can be done more efficiently to several people instead of talking on the phone to 50 other people. But really, at the end of the day, talking is much faster, so if you have to converse, it's far better to do it like that.

Mythbusters is sweet. Pringles man and Gordon Freeman make a surprisingly good cast.

That's one of the funniest things I've heard in a while.

 

[Lazzi]

It shold be banned for the safety of others. I dont care if you are the most responcibel law abiding driver to ever grace this planet, it there even on idiot on the road all of you skill and precoutions is for nothing.

I think you should be allowed to text aslong as your not there driver.

 

[mitsoxfan]

I have a Blackberry, so I don't text and drive, I email and drive. It's much saf.... *CAR CRASH SOUNDS*

 

[Doggabone]

Mythbusters did an experiment on how much talking on a mobile phone affects your driving and found it was the equivalent of having a couple of drinks before you got behind the wheel. Text, with its additional visual element and necessitating the use of one of your hands, must be comparable.

The Applied Cognition Lab at the University of Utah has done a number of studies: http://www.psych.utah.edu/AppliedCognitionLab/ (I think that they mentioned other studies during the Mythbusters wrap-up.) The overall conclusion was, regardless of driver's style, cell phone = drunk for driving. And these aren't the only formal studies to make such findings. Some hint that drunk drivers may be marginally less dangerous than cell phone users.

"Fortunately, the percentage of drunk drivers at any time is much lower," Drews says. "So it means the risk of talking on a cell phone and driving is probably much higher than driving intoxicated because more people are talking on cell phones while driving than are driving drunk." The main reason there are not more accidents is that "92 percent of drivers are not on a cell phone and are compensating for drivers on cell phones," he adds.

Cell phone use is far from the only distraction for motorists. The researchers cite talking to passengers, eating, drinking, lighting cigarettes, applying makeup and listening to the radio as the "old standards" of driver distraction.

"However, over the last decade many new electronic devices have been developed, and they are making their way into the vehicle," the researchers write. "Drivers can now surf the Internet, send and receive e-mail or faxes, communicate via a cellular device and even watch television. There is good reason to believe that some of these new multitasking activities may be substantially more distracting than the old standards because they are more cognitively engaging and because they are performed over longer periods of time."

It would be interesting to see a study comparing cell phone use with in-car conversations. My girlfriend can't focus on the telephone if anyone speaks or there is any noise in the room with her, but she has no issues "live" - and if she needs to switch from split focus to targetted focus, she does in a blink. It seems to me that people really zero in on a phone call, giving it precedence over their immediate surroundings. (Ever had to board a bus behind someone counting change while talking on the phone? A handsfree headset seems to make little difference.) It's as if they're projecting their consciousness to the other end of the line - and I think that's where the real risk is, not the distraction per se but the division of awareness between "here" and "over there". I've no citation for that, it's just an assumption I've made after watching so many doughheads demonstrate the premise.

 

[fat american]

In my drivers ed class he showed us a slide show of a man that was texting and he crashed into the front end of a semi. The entire front half of the car was reduced to about four feet high. They pulled him out, torso first, put that onto a black trash bag then went back to get the legs out of the back seat even though the torso was in the front. It was one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen. You could see the man's spine sticking out from his legs. If it was taken near where I live the interstate speed is 75 mph which I think is close to 100 km and everybody speeds and goes like 90 so the crash was extremely violent.