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This is taken as an obvious truth, but when you look at actual collision data, there seems to be no effect whatsoever. In fact, our roads have continued to become safer in the 10 or so years since the release of the iPhone.
Car fatalities are down because the passenger compartment has become safer. Pedestrian fatalities are up because idiots are still plowing into them [0] [0] https://www.npr.org/2017/03/30/522085503/2016-saw-a-record-i...
This is "old man yells at cloud" area, but seriously - why can we not just leave our phones in our pocket until we get to our destination? What's that important?
I totally agree with you and don't think that you are an old man yelling at clouds. Then again maybe we both are. I am a zealot about driving mindfully, actively and defensively. When I am driving, I am driving. I go the second the light turns green, I scan ahead constantly to change lanes a hundred yards before a slow car or obstacle. A lot of other folks do this, it is not unique or special. But... I think the vast…
The reality is most people go about their days doing their business, not analyzing what they've done that day or thinking on how it can be improved the next. This is a phenomenon (to me) since it's considered a positive cultural trait (改善 Kaizen) in other cultures.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's trivial to mandate a phone be designed so that it can't be used in a moving car or for a certain amount of time since it has experienced significant acceleration. In fact you could ban certain apps like txting and calling during these times. I guess you could even mandate tech to help the phone figure out where in the car the person is sitting and only disable their phone.
It would be hard to filter out the false positives. I'm almost always a passenger or riding a train. Locking out my phone during either of those situations would be a problem.
This is taken as an obvious truth, but when you look at actual collision data, there seems to be no effect whatsoever. In fact, our roads have continued to become safer in the 10 or so years since the release of the iPhone.
A scary game: when in stop and go traffic, have a look at the person behind you. Are their eyes on the road, or their lap? In my experience, 7 out of 10 are looking at their lap, with a quick glance up every 5 seconds or so.
I spend plenty of time on my phone, but geez, have some phone free moments every now and then.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Could you supply said data? Also, in what way is it safer? Less collisions? Less damage? Less fatalities?
Small nit you may not be aware of: use 'fewer' for nouns which can be counted (collisions, fatalities), and 'less' for nouns which can't (damage).
This is extremely bad. In Portugal I don't cross the road if the person is using a phone, unless they fully stop of course. Yet this is a problem so big that even people walking cross roads with their faces glued to their phones. It happened to me more than once almost getting into an accident, both while walking or driving because the other party is distracted by a smartphone instead of paying attention to driving o…
I see this comparison a lot, and I just want to clarify: when you are distracted as a pedestrian, you're risking your life. When you are distracted as a driver, you're risking other people's lives.
Getting behind a wheel drunk is considerably more dangerous to society than going home on foot. Phone use equivalently so.
I have far more patience with people risking their own lives, rather than those of others.
I'm a cyclist. Over the past 5 years or so I've learned to check inside of people's cars to see if they have a phone in their hands. If they do, I try to keep as much distance between myself and them as possible. Until we change the incentives, distracted driving is very likely to remain a problem. Right now there's a lot of talk but very little action. I live in Austin, and I've spoken with the police about distract…
I'm a cyclist. Over the past 5 years or so I've learned to check inside of people's cars to see if they have a phone in their hands. If they do, I try to keep as much distance between myself and them as possible. Until we change the incentives, distracted driving is very likely to remain a problem. Right now there's a lot of talk but very little action. I live in Austin, and I've spoken with the police about distract…
Which is odd, considering that they made a big hoopla about buying a bus to get an angle down on cars, to check. https://www.kut.org/post/battle-texting-and-driving-austin-p...
I think there's a legitimate difference between a quick glance at a mobile and actually trying to //compose// something on it. Even speech to text can be poor enough that if it isn't dead simple it should wait until stopped. Edit: If you disagree maybe you would like to reply with how and thus form an actual discussion? I'm suggesting the split second shift of focus equivalent to changing a radio-station or disc trac…
Around here you get a fine and a slowly-decaying record of doing something dangerous for any usage of a phone while in a car with the engine running. That might seem too harsh, but I really think it isn't. If you've endangered someone or damaged something while doing so it's also an immediate ban from driving for a month. The only sad thing is that police has to catch you doing this and that's rare.