This Texting While Driving is really starting to get to me!

[bdgyeah]

So I went on vacation recently. I drove my family from Austin to Dallas to fly in and out of Love Field. On our way back we were nearly run off the road, twice, by idiots on their cell phones. Clearly texting and driving. And I'm not counting the people you come up from behind and can clearly assume they are on their phones by the way they are driving. I know all of you who are reading this know what I'm talking about. It's probably happened to all of you...... numerous times. I know it has me. These idiots ride their brake, don't go the speed limit, constantly swerve and can't hold their lane. Honestly it scares the crap out of me. More has to be done!

What is more dangerous? Driving 5-10 mph over the speed limit, or texting and driving. That's rhetorical. I saw multiple squad cars sitting on the side of the road waiting for that one speeder going 11 mph over the speed limit, meanwhile, 200 people passed them on their cell phones. These nickel and dime first offense warning tickets are garbage. If you can get a $500.00 ticket for parking in a handicapped spot, surely driving while texting can be stiffer than that. The first offense needs to be a gut punch that will be remembered.

[warnmar10]

There ought to be a law!

[The Annoyed Man]

There ought to be a law!

Beginning September 1st.......
https://phys.org/news/2017-06-texas-gov ... g-law.html

[treadlightly]

For a nicely focused view of drivers who text, ride a motorcycle. There you are, in a state of elevated awareness because second by second you're actively involved with your fate. The tragic comedy of drivers and cell phones is crystal clear.

And very personal.

[Oldgringo]

So I went on vacation recently. I drove my family from Austin to Dallas to fly in and out of Love Field. On our way back we were nearly run off the road, twice, by idiots on their cell phones. Clearly texting and driving. And I'm not counting the people you come up from behind and can clearly assume they are on their phones by the way they are driving. I know all of you who are reading this know what I'm talking about. It's probably happened to all of you...... numerous times. I know it has me. These idiots ride their brake, don't go the speed limit, constantly swerve and can't hold their lane. Honestly it scares the crap out of me. More has to be done!

What is more dangerous? Driving 5-10 mph over the speed limit, or texting and driving. That's rhetorical. I saw multiple squad cars sitting on the side of the road waiting for that one speeder going 11 mph over the speed limit, meanwhile, 200 people passed them on their cell phones. These nickel and dime first offense warning tickets are garbage. If you can get a $500.00 ticket for parking in a handicapped spot, surely driving while texting can be stiffer than that. The first offense needs to be a gut punch that will be remembered.

FWIW, !

That selfish, irresponsible misuse of cell phones ranks right up there with idiots videoing a person drowning/falling/burning, etc. rather than jumping in to help them.

[bdgyeah]

There ought to be a law!

Beginning September 1st.......
https://phys.org/news/2017-06-texas-gov ... g-law.html

Thanks for the article. But 100/200 dollar fine will not deter this behavior.

[WTR]

Some of the most agregious offenders I have seen are Police Officers along with kids.

[carlson1]

Some of the most agregious offenders I have seen are Police Officers along with kids.

Along with their MDT's.

[Liberty]

Some of the most agregious offenders I have seen are Police Officers along with kids.

Looking inside a typical cruiser, they have a multitude of radio's each capable of multiple channels. Multiple Computers screens radar, lidar, GPS, and cameras. Their heads were on a swivel before all this technology. There is hardly any room in the passenger's seat anymore.

[flechero]

I drove my family from Austin to Dallas to fly in and out of Love Field.

Yes, texting is horrible but, I can't imagine why you didn't fly out of Austin?

[nimravus01]

For a nicely focused view of drivers who text, ride a motorcycle. There you are, in a state of elevated awareness because second by second you're actively involved with your fate. The tragic comedy of drivers and cell phones is crystal clear.

And very personal.

I was going to say something like that, but, you said it so eloquently. I'm just going to say ditto.

[RPBrown]

For a nicely focused view of drivers who text, ride a motorcycle. There you are, in a state of elevated awareness because second by second you're actively involved with your fate. The tragic comedy of drivers and cell phones is crystal clear.

And very personal.

I do ride a motorcycle and constantly seem to have my head on a swivel watching for these idiots. Its almost to the point that I am thinking of selling my bike because it's not as relaxing as it once was.

[Abraham]

People who are dangerous enough to text while driving should go to prison.

Too harsh?

Nope...

[The Annoyed Man]

There ought to be a law!

Beginning September 1st.......
https://phys.org/news/2017-06-texas-gov ... g-law.html

Thanks for the article. But 100/200 dollar fine will not deter this behavior.

Not at first, you're right.......but there will be a small cumulative effect as a few people catch on. But in the main, it isn't going to deter those who would not be deterred by a $500 fine either (or a $1000 fine or a $10,000 fine). People who do this a lot for the most part don't care, and they're either too stupid to change, or they are literally addicted to the behavior. My parallel is drunk driving laws. Drunk driving laws don't stop people from driving drunk.

I want to be clear that I am not against this new anti-texting law (or drunk driving laws either). I actually share your opinion about it. At best, these drivers are annoying; but at worst, they have come close to killing me any number of times, and they were totally oblivious to the effect they were having on the surrounding traffic. It's both frightening and angering. So I am NOT unsympathetic to what you're saying.

It's just that only a percentage of those who text and drive are what I would call "sentient people", who will wake up and smell the coffee after their first or second fine. The rest are addicted, and are like drunk drivers who never learn regardless of how severe are the potential punishments for getting caught at it. You could make it $1000 for the fist offense and $2000 for subsequent offenses, and they simply won't learn because they are at that shallow part of the gene pool that nature previously eliminated before the advent of societies which try to protect the lives of their weaker members.....including their mentally weaker members. Before societies happened, these people ended up as mastodon toe-jam, or wolf scat. Then human behavior acquired the notion that it is better to protect fellow humans from mastodons and wolves than it is to let them be eliminated, based on the concept that they are potential breeders, and the corollary notion that there is safety in numbers.

Unfortunately, the Constitution forbids punishments like horse-whipping, dunking, tarring-and-feathering; and modern culture forbids public shaming .....unless the object of shaming is a conservative, liberals having no shame......so we no longer put people in stocks in the public square and hold them up for their justly deserved ridicule. In a day and age when people will spend $500 for a pair of running shoes, will anybody be deterred by a $500 fine for texting? In a day and age when people accused of multiple vehicular homicides are cut loose because they had "affluenza", does anyone think that a judge is going to actually throw the book at a texter who kills a family on the way home from church?

My answer is that yes, there is a small percentage of people who will be deterred from texting while driving by the threat of a $100/$200 fine. There is an additional small percentage who will reform their behaviors after having to actually pay a fine. But I submit that the vast majority will be no more deterred OR reformed by ANY amount of fine than are drunk drivers, because they are splashing around in the shallowest part of the gene pool. Sadly, they will take some of the rest of us with them when they go down in flames on the highway. And because we have a liberal judiciary, they will be let go mulitple times with either minimal or no punishment, before their own folly gets them killed on the highway.

I agree that the fines should be higher, purely out of moral outrage. I'm just very pessimistic that the law will actually do that much to deter or eliminate the behavior.

[Pawpaw]

For a nicely focused view of drivers who text, ride a motorcycle. There you are, in a state of elevated awareness because second by second you're actively involved with your fate. The tragic comedy of drivers and cell phones is crystal clear.

And very personal.

I do ride a motorcycle and constantly seem to have my head on a swivel watching for these idiots. Its almost to the point that I am thinking of selling my bike because it's not as relaxing as it once was.

I did all of my motorcycle riding before texting, cell phones, and even pagers. Still, there were days I got off my motorcycle and walked all the way around it looking for the bulls-eye I was sure someone had painted on it.

I'm not cutting texting drivers any slack. Just pointing out that cage drivers have always found ways to be distracted.