Texting while driving

jgido759

George Grand wrote: »

Good luck. People are selfish **** that don't give a damn what you think. This texting or talking on the phone **** while driving will NEVER go away. Get used to it and some of the stories that will accompany it.

George is 1000% right as usual. This "all about ME" attitude really sucks. :mad:

BeRad

This thread got very entertaining with all the unwarranted ball-busting.

mdaudioguy

It won't be long before texting as we know it is a thing of the past anyway.

hearingimpared

Talking on the phone or texting while driving is just plain selfish and irresponsible.

I can only think of one human on this earth who can text with both eyes on the road and one hand on wheel and that's my buddy Mr. Nightly. He's proven it can be done safely you just need to be good at it.

cristo

mdaudioguy wrote: »

It won't be long before texting as we know it is a thing of the past anyway.

Maybe Darwin will take care of that.

mudwrx

Here ya go, another 16,000 reasons not to text and drive:

http://www.aolnews.com/health/article/texting-and-driving-is-growing-american-killer-study-reports/19650470?test=latestnews

vlam

A lot of this texting and talking on the phone while driving can go away easily. Put a high tax on those unlimited voice and text plan an see what happens. I bet it's going to end a lot of those nonsense text and voice conversations on the road.

bobman1235

vlam wrote: »

A lot of this texting and talking on the phone while driving can go away easily. Put a high tax on those unlimited voice and text plan an see what happens. I bet it's going to end a lot of those nonsense text and voice conversations on the road.

In a thread full of stupid comments, this one's pretty high up there.

hearingimpared

vlam wrote: »

A lot of this texting and talking on the phone while driving can go away easily. Put a high tax on those unlimited voice and text plan an see what happens. I bet it's going to end a lot of those nonsense text and voice conversations on the road.

Hey bro, why punish the several million who don't text or talk on the phone while driving? I don't own a cell phone but my wife does and I take it with me on longer trips as an emergency device. It is an extreme rarity for me to use it while driving . . . it had to be something of utmost importance for me to use it while driving. Most of the time I just pull over if I need to use it.

vc69

George Grand wrote: »

Good luck. People are selfish **** that don't give a damn what you think. This texting or talking on the phone **** while driving will NEVER go away. Get used to it and some of the stories that will accompany it.

Yep...


http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/09/28/5193951-texting-while-driving-bans-dont-reduce-crashes-institute-says

It could be that drivers who continue to text while driving are doing it more surreptitiously, hiding their phones from view of other drivers and law enforcement, increasing the risk of an accident even more, the institute says.

Text messaging while driving has been banned in 30 states now, with 11 of those bans enacted this year.

mdaudioguy

I'm sure it's a tough one to enforce when a cop can't actually see the phone, so unless someone's stupid enough to allow their phone to be visible, most citations will only occur after an incident has occurred.

quadzilla

vlam wrote: »

A lot of this texting and talking on the phone while driving can go away easily. Put a high tax on those unlimited voice and text plan an see what happens. I bet it's going to end a lot of those nonsense text and voice conversations on the road.

And why? Better idea, make every car cost at least 1 gazillion dollars. I bet that puts a complete end to it. It's no dumber than what you're suggesting.

Polkersince85

Most states outlawed speeding years ago along with implementing large fines for drivers caught violating the law. The newer laws on cell use will work the same way. Most drivers won't quit doing it until they get burned a time or two by the law and severe insurance penalties.

Speeding kills and distracted driving kills. You can't fix stupid, you just have to make it hurt.

bobman1235

By the way, despite the fact that I find texting while driving deplorable, I find the laws against it stupid, only because the way they're written they're unenforcable, and often WAY too specific (why texting but not doing other things on a smartphone?)

The laws should be against distracted driving, whatever that entails, but I still don't know how it gets enforced. It's easy to hide a phone from view of a policeman by putting it in your lap.

tonyb

bobman1235 wrote: »

By the way, despite the fact that I find texting while driving deplorable, I find the laws against it stupid, only because the way they're written they're unenforcable, and often WAY too specific (why texting but not doing other things on a smartphone?)

The laws should be against distracted driving, whatever that entails, but I still don't know how it gets enforced. It's easy to hide a phone from view of a policeman by putting it in your lap.

We don't need more invasive laws on the books, but when you run someone over or cause property damage because of neglagent driving practices, the penalty and fines should be outragious. One sure way to teach a lesson is through the wallet. Now if you kill someone, thats a whole nutha story. You can't keep creating laws to force resposibility, but you can sure make them pay when they don't act responsible. Police have enough to do than to chase down drivers for texting, cell phones, seat belts, blah,blah. I much rather them actually catch criminals,drug dealers, gang bangers,and those sorts. Too many take driving too lightly. I speak from experience as I myself was involved in an accident that took a young kids life. Though not my fault, the look on this kids face as I t-boned his car and pushed him across the intersection with a big stake body truck,and crushed him against a pole, will stay with me forever. Don't take driving so lightly, anything can happen even when you are paying attention,let alone when your not. So please, if any of you text while driving, stop, think about the possible outcome, your not superman, and having the unnessasary death of another person on your conscience everytime you lay your head down on the pillow isn't worth it.

ViperZ

$155 fine in Ontario for talking on the phone or texting while driving, but people still do it all over the place. Nice revenue stream for the city/province. But on the other hand, there are tons of accidents because of these texting clowns.

mdaudioguy

bobman1235 wrote: »

By the way, despite the fact that I find texting while driving deplorable, I find the laws against it stupid, only because the way they're written they're unenforcable, and often WAY too specific (why texting but not doing other things on a smartphone?)

The laws should be against distracted driving, whatever that entails, but I still don't know how it gets enforced. It's easy to hide a phone from view of a policeman by putting it in your lap.

Yes, negligent driving is the perfect catch-all, but my guess is that it's not worth the effort to prove it, unless it leads to an incident. Specific laws drive me crazy - legislative rubbish and usually the result of grandstanding by politicians.

(If I don't point at any particular political view, that doesn't make this political, right?)

inspiredsports

I had a pretty decent speech to text program on an IBM 486 based PC back in ???

I'm sure it's being worked on or actually already out there on a cell phone somewhere, but now is the time for the big cellular carriers to get a hands free version of this rolled out.

And when I say hands free I mean it has to understand verbal commands for caps, punctuation, line breaks, Send, End, etc. so you don't have to touch a button.

bobman1235

inspiredsports wrote: »

I had a pretty decent speech to text program on an IBM 486 based PC back in ???

I'm sure it's being worked on or actually already out there on a cell phone somewhere, but now is the time for the big cellular carriers to get a hands free version of this rolled out.

And when I say hands free I mean it has to understand verbal commands for caps, punctuation, line breaks, Send, End, etc. so you don't have to touch a button.

Android phones all have a built-in speech-to-text capability, and other smartphones for the most part have apps for it. The Android one (my buddy has an Incredible) are actually surprisingly accurate (compared to the ones we had on our 486's, which were nothing but entertainment as far as I'm concerned)

vc69

How the hell did we ever survive the years before mobile communication devices?

inspiredsports

Great, it's encouraging that Android is getting the ball rolling! It should be standard fare on all phones by all carriers.

My point was just that the technology has been around forever, and now it's time to get it into our cell phones. I have 4 young drivers here I worry about and I'm afraid they text, and are certainly around other drivers who text while driving.

I want to be able to touch one large button on the phone to open the app and put the phone in text to speech mode. The phone should speak, "Now in text to speech mode" so you don't even have to look at it to know. Any incoming texts should be read aloud by the phone when in this mode.

I want to then be able proceed by saying "text bobman1235", "content", "Thanks for the heads up about Android", "period", "send", have the app tell me "message sent", and have you receive the message (verbally if you are driving).

vlam

hearingimpared wrote: »

Hey bro, why punish the several million who don't text or talk on the phone while driving? I don't own a cell phone but my wife does and I take it with me on longer trips as an emergency device. It is an extreme rarity for me to use it while driving . . . it had to be something of utmost importance for me to use it while driving. Most of the time I just pull over if I need to use it.

Noticed I said high tax only on those UNLIMITED plans. This is no different than what your utility company is doing. Go beyond a certain usage and there is a different rate.

bobman1235

vlam wrote: »

Noticed I said high tax only on those UNLIMITED plans. This is no different than what your utility company is doing. Go beyond a certain usage and there is a different rate.

Yup, no different.

There's a saying in the software world that goes something like "the solution set should fit the problem set." It basically means to make sure whatever solution you end up on actually solves your problem without any added nonsense.

Your "solution" could not be more full of fail. The utility companies charge more when you go beyond a certain usage because there's a limited amount of what they're giving out, and they're trying to curtail overuse. The problem being talked about here isn't overuse (that may be a problem, but it's not THIS problem), but WHERE said use is being used. I have a pretty limited plan as far as voice and text (the cheapest available) but I could STILL spend every moment that I'm in the car talking and texting and not go over, so how the frig does your solution fit?

vlam

bobman1235 wrote: »

In a thread full of stupid comments, this one's pretty high up there.

Why stupid if you may be able to deter someone from having a cell phone glued to their ear?

steveinaz

Enough people haven't died yet to make this idiotic practice illegal.

They can use existing technology to stop this--include GPS in all phones, and anytime the phone is "moving" more than 15mph, it could automatically disable texting.

bobman1235

steveinaz wrote: »

They can use existing technology to stop this--include GPS in all phones, and anytime the phone is "moving" more than 15mph, it could automatically disable texting.

What about passengers? People in buses? In taxis? On trains? People who dont' want a smartphone and thus don't want GPS?

vc69

Bobman beat me to it.

steveinaz

Hell, they tax (and surcharge) me to the max on health and life insurance for being a smoker, the same thing should be done with cell phone users. Tell me how it's any different? You're creating a hazard to others, and yourself for something that is not necessary nor needed; and don't try to tell me it is--I don't own a cell phone, I get by just fine.

vc69

Well Steve, I DO own one and I get by just fine too. Being a Luddite is not the solution. The genie is out of the bottle. Without my phone, my QOL goes spiraling downward.

The fact that you don't use one removes any credibility you may have when discussing a suitable solution.

bobman1235

steveinaz wrote: »

Hell, they tax (and surcharge) me to the max on health and life insurance for being a smoker, the same thing should be done with cell phone users. Tell me how it's any different? You're creating a hazard to others, and yourself for something that is not necessary nor needed; and don't try to tell me it is--I don't own a cell phone, I get by just fine.

Hey, I don't agree with the heavy taxes on cigarettes either.

Cell phones used at the right times / circumstances are not harmful in any way. Maybe they should tax blowjobs, because getting road head is also dangerous.