Distracted driving--texting is the real danger

[ronburgundy]

Dicking around on their phone while driving is dangerous.

Sure it is. But dicking around on the phone while stopped at a red light is not dangerous. It's a nuisance but it's not dangerous.

Fucking over and aggravating other drivers by violating driving rules and norms almost certainly does wind up resulting in more accidents. The proximal cause may not be the phone use at the red light, but it is still ultimately causing an increase in accidents. Also, those people typically react to realizing the light is green by suddenly accelerating at higher speed than typical, which also increases odds of an accident.

As to your "it can't be that dangerous comment", you could say the same thing about people driving with a .15 BAC. You don't personally see most of them getting into accidents, yet controlled experiments show that level greatly increases the odds of an accident. In fact, the same would apply to people with no license or driving training. your personal observations wouldn't show clear evidence of the danger they pose, but that doesn't mean it isn't dangerous and shouldn't be illegal.

BTW, just yesterday two different people at different intersections walked obliviously and illegally into the street in front of my car, because they were texting. The only reason they aren't dead is because I wasn't texting and was watching the road, ready to react to dangerous idiots like them.

 

[TSwizzle]

Fucking over and aggravating other drivers by violating driving rules and norms almost certainly does wind up resulting in more accidents. The proximal cause may not be the phone use at the red light, but it is still ultimately causing an increase in accidents.

Sitting stationary at a red light, dicking about on your phone is no more dangerous than picking your nose while looking out the window at a jogger going by or reading a billboard sign.

Also, those people typically react to realizing the light is green by suddenly accelerating at higher speed than typical, which also increases odds of an accident.

I can't say that has been my observation. People just take off normally.

As to your "it can't be that dangerous comment", you could say the same thing about people driving with a .15 BAC. You don't personally see most of them getting into accidents, yet controlled experiments show that level greatly increases the odds of an accident. In fact, the same would apply to people with no license or driving training. your personal observations wouldn't show clear evidence of the danger they pose, but that doesn't mean it isn't dangerous and shouldn't be illegal.

Well you could say a whole lot of unrelated things are dangerous but that's beside my point and irrelevant.

BTW, just yesterday two different people at different intersections walked obliviously and illegally into the street in front of my car, because they were texting. The only reason they aren't dead is because I wasn't texting and was watching the road, ready to react to dangerous idiots like them.

Do you want a medal or something ?

 

[bleubird]

http://www.cellphonesafety.org/vehicular/era.htm
Again,mobile phones and driving safe are not a thing.

 

[TSwizzle]

Again,mobile phones and driving safe are not a thing.

I think we are all agreed on that.

 

[ronburgundy]

Sitting stationary at a red light, dicking about on your phone is no more dangerous than picking your nose while looking out the window at a jogger going by or reading a billboard sign.

You would notice the light change far quicker in all those other instances, because the intersection would be in your line of sight. Also, it is a matter of frequency. Many people do it at almost every light. Sure, there are other distracting things people occasionally do at stop lights and they have negative impacts too. That doesn't change the fact that dicking around on your phone at stoplights is not a harmless behavior.

As to your "it can't be that dangerous comment", you could say the same thing about people driving with a .15 BAC. You don't personally see most of them getting into accidents, yet controlled experiments show that level greatly increases the odds of an accident. In fact, the same would apply to people with no license or driving training. your personal observations wouldn't show clear evidence of the danger they pose, but that doesn't mean it isn't dangerous and shouldn't be illegal.

Well you could say a whole lot of unrelated things are dangerous but that's beside my point and irrelevant.

It is highly relevant to showing the complete irrelevance of your post to the dangers of phoning while driving. If phones caused a 1000% increase in accidents, one could still be "surprised there are not more accidents", so your use of the observation to conclude "it can't be that dangerous" is invalid.

BTW, just yesterday two different people at different intersections walked obliviously and illegally into the street in front of my car, because they were texting. The only reason they aren't dead is because I wasn't texting and was watching the road, ready to react to dangerous idiots like them.

Do you want a medal or something ?

No, I want people to recognize the extreme cognitive distraction that using their phone entails, and that they are endangering other people almost anytime they use their phone while moving through public spaces, whether driving, on bike (see this more and more), or on foot. I also want such acts to be codified as illegal and people to get fined for it, and phone use records to be automatically made available to police and insurance companies anytime a person is involved in an accident, and use of phones to equal being at fault for an accident, unless proven otherwise (as is done for DUI).

Again,mobile phones and driving safe are not a thing.

I think we are all agreed on that.

It's doesn't seem we all agreed on that, given you just defended your claim that "it can't be that dangerous" just because you don't see every person on a phone immediately slamming into a wall.

 

[TSwizzle]

You would notice the light change far quicker in all those other instances, because the intersection would be in your line of sight. Also, it is a matter of frequency. Many people do it at almost every light. Sure, there are other distracting things people occasionally do at stop lights and they have negative impacts too. That doesn't change the fact that dicking around on your phone at stoplights is not a harmless behavior.

It's a nuisance but I don't see it as being dangerous.

It is highly relevant to showing the complete irrelevance of your post to the dangers of phoning while driving. If phones caused a 1000% increase in accidents, one could still be "surprised there are not more accidents", so your use of the observation to conclude "it can't be that dangerous" is invalid.

You talk about phoning while driving. That is not what I am talking about. I am talking about dicking around on your phone while stoppedat a signal is not dangerous.

No, I want people to recognize the extreme cognitive distraction that using their phone entails, and that they are endangering other people almost anytime they use their phone while moving through public spaces, whether driving, on bike (see this more and more), or on foot. I also want such acts to be codified as illegal and people to get fined for it, and phone use records to be automatically made available to police and insurance companies anytime a person is involved in an accident, and use of phones to equal being at fault for an accident, unless proven otherwise (as is done for DUI).

Some people can't walk and chew gum at the same time, do you want these people before the courts too ?

It's doesn't seem we all agreed on that, given you just defended your claim that "it can't be that dangerous" just because you don't see every person on a phone immediately slamming into a wall.

Here is the statement in full;

"For all the use of phones I see daily, I'm surprised there are not more accidents so it can't be that dangerous."

Really, I acknowledge it must be somewhat dangerous but I am questioning just how dangerous is it ? The impression I get from you is that it is very dangerous. It's probably more dangerous under certain conditions but for the most part, it doesn't seem to be causing a crash very frequently. Texting while driving, I think that is very dangerous, talking on the phone, less so.