We Haven't This Argument in a While

[pdub]

What in this great whole world that we are given to live in does it take to make folks (teens or otherwise) just lay the phone down and drive? What proof does it take? Goshalmighty. Dang.

Geez.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/46627015/ns/today-today_people/

[Jimbo17]

I saw a bumper sticker that said the following,

If you want to meet the Lord Pray
and below it said If you want to be with the Lord text while driving

I see people texting, talking on the phone, putting lip stick and make up and even reading the newspaper on their way to work.

Jimbo

[dulcich]

Peewee, I use the phone and drive all the time. I have stuff to get done and there is no reason not to. I really resent that I can get a ticket for it. I will, however, pull over sometimes if I'm driving a vehicle that is just too loud to hear the conversation on the other end. I will also say that texting and reading E-mail can be distracting, as is looking up a location on a map function.
-dulcich

[JOES66FURY]

I wont text or look at a map while I drive but I will use the phone, hands free. I know my limitations. I have almost been wiped out 3 times in the last month by some dumb shit on their phone...

[studemax]

Peewee, I use the phone and drive all the time. I have stuff to get done and there is no reason not to. I really resent that I can get a ticket for it. I will, however, pull over sometimes if I'm driving a vehicle that is just too loud to hear the conversation on the other end. I will also say that texting and reading E-mail can be distracting, as is looking up a location on a map function.
-dulcich

You'll be dead soon (or kill someone), and we'll all be saying "told ya so".

[studemax]

I saw some moron folding laundry while driving... no lie.

[moparmaniac07]

I'll talk on the phone and drive too, but I try not to because I usually don't pay attention to the conversation anyway.

[JOES66FURY]

I saw some moron folding laundry while driving... no lie.

You have got to be shitting me?

Saw a guy a few weeks back reading a newspaper while driving down the road...in town no less. constant stop and go traffic.

There was a woman a few days back putting on makeup...eye shadow or some such crap...looking in the rearview...not one look to wahts in front off her...

It weeds out the weak links in the gean pool but its sad that they take someone else with them more often than not.

[DanStokes]

I've posted this before but there have been studies that clearly show that only 3% of the US population is capable of driving and talking on the phone. The studies were done with high-end driving simulators and were repeated enough that the results are definitive. The actual evidence shows that hands free or holding the phone makes no difference. BTW - It's the same 3% that the military looks for to be jet fighter pilots and helicopter pilots (Keith is among the 3%).

When fighter pilots were tested, not even they could text and drive - NOBODY can do it. I keep thinking about a bumper sticker with a pic of a cell phone and the words "No You Can't".

Steve D - I'm hoping that was meant to be sarcastic. If you were serious then you're convinced that you are in the 3% and the odds are 97% against you. Doesn't mean that you haven't gotten away with it so far - just that, over time, you'll pay the price. And maybe you ARE in the 3% - I have no way to know that.

I'm wondering if this isn't an indictment of "multi-tasking" in general. I think people think they can multi-task but in reality they sequentially uni-task. All attention goes on one task for (fill in the time span, say 0.05 second) then on to the next task for some period, then to a third and so on, then back to the first task. Every time you switch tasks it takes some amount of time to switch gears so that gets added to the time you're off task. People think it's more efficient but I challenge that. Besides, folks get burned out in a hurry as I don't think we're structured to make those rapid task switches. When our primitive ancestors were hunting that's ALL they were doing so we evolved to do one thing at a time and do it well. Like driving, which has enough task saturation in its own right.

Dan

[A/Fuel]

There are people out there that can't operate a steering wheel and a gas peddle at the same time. Common sence isn't so common.

[dulcich]

I've posted this before but there have been studies that clearly show that only 3% of the US population is capable of driving and talking on the phone. The studies were done with high-end driving simulators and were repeated enough that the results are definitive. The actual evidence shows that hands free or holding the phone makes no difference. BTW - It's the same 3% that the military looks for to be jet fighter pilots and helicopter pilots (Keith is among the 3%).

When fighter pilots were tested, not even they could text and drive - NOBODY can do it. I keep thinking about a bumper sticker with a pic of a cell phone and the words "No You Can't".

Steve D - I'm hoping that was meant to be sarcastic. If you were serious then you're convinced that you are in the 3% and the odds are 97% against you. Doesn't mean that you haven't gotten away with it so far - just that, over time, you'll pay the price. And maybe you ARE in the 3% - I have no way to know that.

I'm wondering if this isn't an indictment of "multi-tasking" in general. I think people think they can multi-task but in reality they sequentially uni-task. All attention goes on one task for (fill in the time span, say 0.05 second) then on to the next task for some period, then to a third and so on, then back to the first task. Every time you switch tasks it takes some amount of time to switch gears so that gets added to the time you're off task. People think it's more efficient but I challenge that. Besides, folks get burned out in a hurry as I don't think we're structured to make those rapid task switches. When our primitive ancestors were hunting that's ALL they were doing so we evolved to do one thing at a time and do it well. Like driving, which has enough task saturation in its own right.

Dan

Dan, I'm not going to get into a debate on this one, but I also fly a plane while talking on the radio headset while dropping it for a landing. I can also sip a soft drink while driving legally, have a conversation with a passenger legally, tune the radio legally, and even wolf down a Big Mac while driving right past a cop without worrying about a fine. And Studemax, I find the tone of your response way out of line.
-dulcich

[SuperBuickGuy]

I know I can't dial and drive, so texting is well beyond my capabilities. And if I need a reminder of why not, I simply have to remember my brother's bent phone (from where his last act was slamming it against the steering wheel) to remember why not.

Yet, no law will ever stop someone from breaking it if that is what is in their mind to do.

[A/Fuel]

There has to be a few people here that know what it's like to have two screaming kids in the back seat....Thats way more distracting than a cell phone.

[TC]

If you can't drive and use a cell phone at the same time you have no reason having a drivers license..........Period...

I'm getting sick and tired of being penalized because some dipshit can't do more than one thing at a time....it's pure BS that the rest of us have to be lowered to your level of incompetency, when we are more than capable of doing more than one thing at a time.....

Put it this way when I was in SD a couple of weeks ago, I ran a stop sign, not because I was on the phone, or rolling a joint, or changing the radio or messing with the GPS, it was because the other people in the car were talking to me and I got distracted for a few seconds......To my defense it was late at night in the middle of corn fields and who would think that they would put a stop sign in the middle of nowhere.......But the fact is, it was the other people in the car that distracted me, so maybe we should have a law that says no one else is allowed to travel in a vehicle because they can be a distraction.........

[TC]

There has to be a few people here that know what it's like to have two screaming kids in the back seat....Thats way more distracting than a cell phone.

Don't even get me started on that........I had to deal with that on the trip to SD that we just took........