An end to texting and driving?

[Recycle]

I mean, it's not like drink driving, where you could safely guess that most people never do it

Drink driving underwent a social change because of a concerted propaganda campaign. It morphed from something that drivers bragged about - "my car went home on autopilot last night" - to something to be ashamed of. That helps but shame is different from guilt (guilt in the personal rather than legal sense) in that shame is the result of a social misdemeanor and something that you would still do if there is a reasonable chance of not being found out, whereas guilt is the consequence of doing something that troubles your own conscience regardless of being found out. Drink driving unfortunately still accounts for far too many casualties.

 

[jonesy]

As it is so easy to spot examples of this sort of thing every day, it really shouldn't be hard for the police to catch lots of offenders every day. Some proper sentences and publicity would send the message that this is taken seriously and you have a good chance of being caught. Depressingly, lorry drivers seem to be regular mobile offenders, much of which must be happening with the knowledge of their employer. But if offending drivers had to take their vehicle to a police compound, leave it there and then make their own way home, so the haulier's customers got inconvenienced, it might focus their minds a bit.

 

[Sharky]

Rather than inventing ways of stopping people from texting, perhaps a little lateral thinking can come up with a solution to alow texting whilst driving.

By this, I mean something that is completely hands free, a built in docking station in the glove box so there is no temptation to use the device and full use of automatic text to speech and voice recognition and full control via the latter.

Make it safe and desirable, then people will want it and everybody will be safer.

 

[palinurus]

Thick people will always behave in a thick way.

Technology cannot fix thickness.

Can confirm; am thick.

 

[w00hoo_kent]

As it is so easy to spot examples of this sort of thing every day, it really shouldn't be hard for the police to catch lots of offenders every day. Some proper sentences and publicity would send the message that this is taken seriously and you have a good chance of being caught. Depressingly, lorry drivers seem to be regular mobile offenders, much of which must be happening with the knowledge of their employer. But if offending drivers had to take their vehicle to a police compound, leave it there and then make their own way home, so the haulier's customers got inconvenienced, it might focus their minds a bit.

Yup, I'd guess any of us that commute daily see regular occurrences of it. Every night I cycle in to Swanley and pass on average 5 drivers on mobile devices (texting/facebook/worse) stuck in slow moving traffic.

I presume they don't because they don't want the 'why aren't you catching real criminals' whining.

 

[Recycle]

Rather than inventing ways of stopping people from texting, perhaps a little lateral thinking can come up with a solution to alow texting whilst driving.

There are two things that make the use of any hand held device dangerous.
1. The loss of manual dexterity from driving.
2. The diversion of mental resources from driving.

The two are lethal together but most often 2 has a greater influence on driving than 1. Hands-free is a con from a safety perspective, you can be distracted as much by a talkative passenger as by a phone. The difference is that the passenger is generally sensitive to your driving demands and will back off when driving gets complex. The person on the other end of a phone is blind to your concentration needs.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Y'day, as a pedestrian, TLH banged on the window of a car, that slowly rolled through a red pedestrian crossing light, in a queue of traffic, because the driver was texting. The driver was furious and got out of the car to confront TLH. She was well ahead on points when he scuttled off.

Every streetlight and traffic light in the country needs a camera on it, do not pass go, do not collect £200.

 

[glasgowcyclist]

Could people be persuaded to check if the other party is driving and, if so, end the call?

It seems to me that the first question every mobile call starts with is "Where are you?". If we could change this to "Are you driving?", and encourage people to hang up when the answer is yes, it might begin to have an effect.

But then again..

GC

 

[winjim]

There are two things that make the use of any hand held device dangerous.
1. The loss of manual dexterity from driving.
2. The diversion of mental resources from driving.

The two are lethal together but most often 2 has a greater influence on driving than 1. Hands-free is a con from a safety perspective, you can be distracted as much by a talkative passenger as by a phone. The difference is that the passenger is generally sensitive to your driving demands and will back off when driving gets complex. The person on the other end of a phone is blind to your concentration needs.

I also think that it diverts more of your mental resources talking to a disembodied voice than to an actual person who is present in the car. The only person I ever talk to on the phone whilst driving is my wife, because I know at any point I can tell her to STFU so I can concentrate. But essentially yes, hands free is a red herring.

 

[andyfraser]

I also think that it diverts more of your mental resources talking to a disembodied voice than to an actual person who is present in the car. The only person I ever talk to on the phone whilst driving is my wife, because I know at any point I can tell her to STFU so I can concentrate. But essentially yes, hands free is a red herring.

I tried sending a text on an iPhone by talking to it while cycling once, just to see how it went. Never again, it's too distracting when the phone doesn't understand and gets things wrong.

 

[GrumpyGregry]

Could people be persuaded to check if the other party is driving and, if so, end the call?

It seems to me that the first question every mobile call starts with is "Where are you?". If we could change this to "Are you driving?", and encourage people to hang up when the answer is yes, it might begin to have an effect.

But then again..

View attachment 63262

GC

I once worked for an employer who took an interesting line

"I call you, and you answer your mobile, and you are driving? Even with a hands-free kit, you don't work here any more."

One of our colleagues had been in a nasty crash, with life-changing injuries, on the M25, whilst on her hands-free mobile.

 

[mustang1]

If I have a car that doesn't veer off a lane, slows and goes and stops and starts automatically,then why shouldn't I text?

 

[KneesUp]

There are two things that make the use of any hand held device dangerous.
1. The loss of manual dexterity from driving.
2. The diversion of mental resources from driving.

The two are lethal together but most often 2 has a greater influence on driving than 1. Hands-free is a con from a safety perspective, you can be distracted as much by a talkative passenger as by a phone. The difference is that the passenger is generally sensitive to your driving demands and will back off when driving gets complex. The person on the other end of a phone is blind to your concentration needs.

The logical conclusion here is that a genius - or just a driving genius - should be able to text and drive as they have more spare mental resources.

I don't get many texts, but if I get one when I'm driving I read them at traffic lights, when the car is in neutral and the handbrake is on. I guess it's illegal to do so, but my judgement is it causes no danger to do so. This system would prevent that, which would be annoying. And as others have said, it relies on plugging your phone into the OBD )on board diagnostics) port on your car i.e. the driver taking action to prevent them doing something. If they have the inclination to do that, why not just have the inclination not to use your phone when driving, or putting your phone on silent, or in flight mode? On a practical note, my car is French, so the OBD port is, I think, on the passenger side. Either way it's under the dash and not readily accessible.

 

[Recycle]

The logical conclusion here is that a genius - or just a driving genius - should be able to text and drive as they have more spare mental resources.

No. Conversation is generally made up of intuitive thought and this places low demands on the brain. Non intuitive topics that place high demand on the brain will come up from time to time and these are the dangerous moments. If for example we took a walk together together and I asked you to multiply two 2 digit numbers together (eg 16 x 41) the mental demands would almost certainly stop you from walking while you solve the problem. Your brain shuts down all other processes to devote its resources to the difficult task. A genius may well be a worse driver than Mr Average because (s)he may spend more mental time resolving complex problems.

 

[KneesUp]

No. Conversation is generally made up of intuitive thought and this places low demands on the brain. Non intuitive topics that place high demand on the brain will come up from time to time and these are the dangerous moments. If for example we took a walk together together and I asked you to multiply two 2 digit numbers together (eg 16 x 41) the mental demands would almost certainly stop you from walking while you solve the problem. Your brain shuts down all other processes to devote its resources to the difficult task. A genius may well be a worse driver than Mr Average because (s)he may spend more mental time resolving complex problems.

But a driving 'genius' brought up with texting would have no problem. I'd expect someone like Lewis Hamilton would be a better driver whilst texting than, for example, the old bloke who lives at the end of our road is when he's fully concentrating.

Why is it ok for one to drive and not the other?