Today's Boston Globe reports that the Boston City council is developing a measure to ban texting while driving in the City of Boston.
This is great. As far as I can tell, no one doubts that texting and driving are incompatible activities, and, yet, many people combine them. I will admit that, although I very rarely drive, I have texted while driving.
I know it's unsafe, that it distracts me from the road, and that people like me are exactly the problem. I imagine that other people are in the same position. In the moment, I feel like, if I can just get the text sent, some important piece of information will have been exchanged and then I'll be back at my normal capacity for safe driving. It only takes a moment! This makes it feel more okay than drunk driving, even though studies indicate that it makes you a worse driver than someone who's slightly drunk. That, combined with the inevitable "but I'm a better driver than most people" belief leads to people texting while driving, even though they (we) know better.
As with so many choice is life, I think it's okay for people to make bad choices if the consequences land squarely on their own shoulders. Unfortunately, choices that make people less safe drivers frequently injure and kill people who are not involved in the decision-making process. Given that, I'm in support of policies that encourage people to make the right choice, and this is one of them. I hope the City council is right that this move will spur Massachusetts to finally adopt a similar policy state-wide.
Less texting while driving will make our roads safer for everyone, and that's better.
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Although it pales in comparison to the obvious danger posed by texting while driving (which as you noted seems to be nigh-universally recognized as dangerous), I've lately been thinking about the less obvious impacts of not just texting, but mobile computing in general, while behind the wheel.
I've noticed an apparent correlation between an increasing number of drivers who don't notice when the light has turned green and the proliferation of smartphones in the past year or so. When I see a driver who's still sitting at the light with their brake on after the light's been green for several seconds, they're usually looking down at something. I'm willing to bet it's often their mobile phone/computer, and they've been browsing the internet, playing with an app, or texting someone while idling at the red light.
Statistically, that means more delays in traffic overall, and a higher likelihood of annoyed/angry drivers doing something reckless to get around a pokey driver. So this trend has a hidden danger associated with it, even if it's not "texting while driving" or even "driving" in many people's minds, because the car is not moving.
I'm not too hopeful that this will get better anytime soon - it seems much more likely to get worse before it gets better (I also expect to see more text-to-speech apps for this kind of use in the future). The upside is that the same technology could also entice more drivers out of their cars and into trains and buses for their commutes. Maybe. Hopefully.
Earlier I was texting while driving. Now I do not text, I am not distracted when I drive. I use http://www.drivesafe.ly/ mobile application to drive without distraction.
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