ElArabDeMagnifico:
It's common sense that texting while driving = BAD FUCKING IDEA - even at a stop light with T9 word, use your damn voice for gods sake, get a bluetooth or just put the phone on speaker, or hell if you HAVE to, put the phone to your ear, but don't text.

Yeah... I really don't see why people have to text. Chat is faster, safer, and just plainly better in pretty much every sense. My dad says that with his bluetooth it's like talking to the person next to you so it doesn't interrupt his concentration at all.

Now you might be saying that texting can be done more efficiently to several people instead of talking on the phone to 50 other people. But really, at the end of the day, talking is much faster, so if you have to converse, it's far better to do it like that.

TheNecroswanson:
Mythbusters is sweet. Pringles man and Gordon Freeman make a surprisingly good cast.

That's one of the funniest things I've heard in a while.

It shold be banned for the safety of others. I dont care if you are the most responcibel law abiding driver to ever grace this planet, it there even on idiot on the road all of you skill and precoutions is for nothing.

I think you should be allowed to text aslong as your not there driver.

I have a Blackberry, so I don't text and drive, I email and drive. It's much saf.... *CAR CRASH SOUNDS*

nilcypher:
Mythbusters did an experiment on how much talking on a mobile phone affects your driving and found it was the equivalent of having a couple of drinks before you got behind the wheel. Text, with its additional visual element and necessitating the use of one of your hands, must be comparable.

The Applied Cognition Lab at the University of Utah has done a number of studies: http://www.psych.utah.edu/AppliedCognitionLab/ (I think that they mentioned other studies during the Mythbusters wrap-up.) The overall conclusion was, regardless of driver's style, cell phone = drunk for driving. And these aren't the only formal studies to make such findings. Some hint that drunk drivers may be marginally less dangerous than cell phone users.

"Fortunately, the percentage of drunk drivers at any time is much lower," Drews says. "So it means the risk of talking on a cell phone and driving is probably much higher than driving intoxicated because more people are talking on cell phones while driving than are driving drunk." The main reason there are not more accidents is that "92 percent of drivers are not on a cell phone and are compensating for drivers on cell phones," he adds.

Cell phone use is far from the only distraction for motorists. The researchers cite talking to passengers, eating, drinking, lighting cigarettes, applying makeup and listening to the radio as the "old standards" of driver distraction.

"However, over the last decade many new electronic devices have been developed, and they are making their way into the vehicle," the researchers write. "Drivers can now surf the Internet, send and receive e-mail or faxes, communicate via a cellular device and even watch television. There is good reason to believe that some of these new multitasking activities may be substantially more distracting than the old standards because they are more cognitively engaging and because they are performed over longer periods of time."

It would be interesting to see a study comparing cell phone use with in-car conversations. My girlfriend can't focus on the telephone if anyone speaks or there is any noise in the room with her, but she has no issues "live" - and if she needs to switch from split focus to targetted focus, she does in a blink. It seems to me that people really zero in on a phone call, giving it precedence over their immediate surroundings. (Ever had to board a bus behind someone counting change while talking on the phone? A handsfree headset seems to make little difference.) It's as if they're projecting their consciousness to the other end of the line - and I think that's where the real risk is, not the distraction per se but the division of awareness between "here" and "over there". I've no citation for that, it's just an assumption I've made after watching so many doughheads demonstrate the premise.

In my drivers ed class he showed us a slide show of a man that was texting and he crashed into the front end of a semi. The entire front half of the car was reduced to about four feet high. They pulled him out, torso first, put that onto a black trash bag then went back to get the legs out of the back seat even though the torso was in the front. It was one of the most horrifying things I've ever seen. You could see the man's spine sticking out from his legs. If it was taken near where I live the interstate speed is 75 mph which I think is close to 100 km and everybody speeds and goes like 90 so the crash was extremely violent.

California, my state, just made it illegal to talk on a cellphone! Unless it's hands free.

Well I know here in Nova Scotia (east coast Canada) we made it illegal to talk on the phone while driving unless it's hands free. Yet, I know a lot of people who are new drivers or are going to be new drivers that are never not texting. With all of them hitting the roads and texting I am debating finding walking routes that avoid the road to stay away from them. Until it becomes illegal to text and drive I think the amount of younger drivers having accidents is going to increase dramatically.

TBH if you need to send a text THAT badly, just pull over.

PS3fanboy:

Stammer:
It cannot be done. Don't give me that look for all of you who do it. It cannot be done. It is entirely impossible to be concentrating on the road and all four hundred vehicles within the proximity of your own and also thinking of where the letters are on your cell phone.

I can't do it but my sister has no need to concentrate on where the letters are.
She could text with her hands behind her back while watching t.v. and listening to music.

Some people have just done it so long they just think of what they want to say and their fingers start tapping.

Edit: Still I think it's bad.

So where do I go to see your sister driving with her tits? That must be a pretty good show.

Or is your sister endowed with an unusual number of hands?

It is already illegal where I live, but I think it is STUPID anyway, so I am GLAD it is illegal.

the monopoly guy:
Dawrinism, the fit and the smart survive.
Reverse Dawrinism, the dumb and the weak survive
Texting whilst driving, the dumbest idea ever.

ever.

There is one detail that's left out in your otherwise fitting statement.
People who text while driving are more prone to accidents, and let's say a lot of these are lethal, for the sake of argument.
Who will be the victims? a) the driver, who deserves it, b) the real victim, who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time

These lousy retards will take down other people with them.

TheNecroswanson:
So, I'm totally against cell phones in cars as a whole.

Back in November a seventeen year old girl decided to get drunk. Not only that, but she decided to get behind the wheel. There was ice on the road. She was driving down a slightly winding road near the waterfront. She decided to start text messaging on her phone. And here is where it gets serious, but I kid you not.
She moved into oncomming traffic, hit a car head on, spun sideways, off the road, down a thirty foot fall, and into the water.
The driver she hit died in the crash, the passenger broke both legs before drowning, the passenger in the back nearly died of hypothermia. The dumbass drunk girl texting on her cell phone, came out with barely a scratch.... She was never charged, with anything. The driver she killed had recently applied for the state college and was accepted. She herself, was failing out of highschool.

Darwinism: The fit and the smart, are killed by the ignorant.

Where I come from, even the best lawyers cant save you, when you decided to go drive with alchohol.

What about using SatNav's while driving?

I know it sounds stupid, but some of those are pretty complicated to use & apart from it's automated mode, everything else, like adjusting your route, changing the view, navigating the menus etc, requires even more attention than texting.

I know the manuals tell you to pull over before changing anything, but I wonder how many people actually follow those instructions.

Maybe they should be banned altogether. I know it's pretty scary for me when travelling with my Mum, every time the SatNav makes a noise she looks at it for too long, taking her eyes off the road. Partly I think because she's short sighted & wears glasses to drive, so it takes precious seconds for her eyes to adjust for looking at the near distance SatNav screen.

Then you get those idiots who follow the SatNav religiously & drive into rivers or fields because it told them to.

I think they should bring back the stocks as punishment for anyone caught texting while driving, or anything else stupid which endangers the lives of others.

Public humiliation & mild corporal punishment at the hands of those who's lives you potentially endangered, would be a better deterrent than fines, in my opinion.

Obviously people could only be allowed to throw rotten fruit & vegetables, not anything which could cause a serious injury or pose a serious health risk, so no excrement.

Texting is illegal while driving in the UK, and I think this Illustrates why.

Jamash:
What about using SatNav's while driving?

I know it sounds stupid, but some of those are pretty complicated to use & apart from it's automated mode, everything else, like adjusting your route, changing the view, navigating the menus etc, requires even more attention than texting.

I know the manuals tell you to pull over before changing anything, but I wonder how many people actually follow those instructions.

You can set up a route before you set off. If I need to change destination or I have set it up wrong I stop. It's impossible to drive and set up one of those things so I don't. They shouldn't be banned though. In places like London the road network is so complex that I actually think it makes driving safer.

I think if you decide to edit a sat nav's settings while you are driving and not having the common sense to stop then you shouldn't be surprised if you end up in an accident.
Also if you have trouble focussing on one because of your eyesight, firstly should you be driving at all, and secondly you should just leave it at home.

I cant even begin to describe the terror of watching my sister slowly swerve into the other lane, WITH ONCOMING TRAFFIC!!, if I were a cat i'd only have 1 life left, luckily, I insult her and breaks her texting fopa to see she is in the other lane and quickly move into the right lane. she then insits on beating me when I try to explain how I just saved our lives, its a never-ending cycle

werepossum:

PS3fanboy:

Stammer:
It cannot be done. Don't give me that look for all of you who do it. It cannot be done. It is entirely impossible to be concentrating on the road and all four hundred vehicles within the proximity of your own and also thinking of where the letters are on your cell phone.

I can't do it but my sister has no need to concentrate on where the letters are.
She could text with her hands behind her back while watching t.v. and listening to music.

Some people have just done it so long they just think of what they want to say and their fingers start tapping.

Edit: Still I think it's bad.

So where do I go to see your sister driving with her tits? That must be a pretty good show.

Or is your sister endowed with an unusual number of hands?

Most people who've been driving a long time can drive with one hand. I'm not saying thats good but a lot of people do it.

But the fact is that she can use the other hand to make a paragraph long message while looking at the road, glance at it for half a second to see if she screwed up, then look back at the road and send the message.

Edit: and you can always just PUT DOWN THE PHONE if you need all your attention on driving.
That is, you could do that if you were smart.

All I can say is that the four people who actually voted "No, it's fine" to this poll are very "shortbus" special. I really don't even know why people spam text messages as often as they do, especially when they're at home. I mean, yeah, texting is cheaper than phoning. But look at it this way- MSN, Yahoo!, AIM, Skype, and literally anything else along those lines is cheaper than that- it's FREE!!

So that's at home. Why text in the car? I mean,
A, you're putting your life in danger,
B, you're putting others' lives in danger,
C, hearing the person's voice is a lot better, faster, and safer,
D, where the hell are you driving to that you can't wait 5 minutes to send a message?

You are DRIVING. You are not supposed to take your eyes off the road for even a tenth of a second. Driving while texting, even when not looking at the phone (although you have to read the incoming text before you can reply, so you have to at least glance) makes you impaired. No matter how you look at it, you aren't fully conscious of your surroundings. Whether you're reading the incoming text, looking at the phone to type, or simply thinking about what to type and where the buttons are, you aren't paying attention. Vehicles are very dangerous and should only be in the hands of those capable of using them properly.

Properly as in being fully conscious to your surroundings. Properly as in having no distractions. Properly as in not being impaired in any way, be it alcohol, drugs, or texting. Properly as in your license is a powerful privilege, not a right in any way. If you suck at driving, which you do if you text while you do it, then it should be confiscated, torn up, and shoved down your throat. And then, your keys should be confiscated and thrown into a nearby manhole. After that, you should be beaten unconscious with your own cellular telephone (or Blackberry or iPhone).

I want those who chose "No" to actually read this and comment on it so I can convince you otherwise. Stop being [shortbus special]!!

PS3fanboy:

werepossum:

PS3fanboy:

Stammer:
It cannot be done. Don't give me that look for all of you who do it. It cannot be done. It is entirely impossible to be concentrating on the road and all four hundred vehicles within the proximity of your own and also thinking of where the letters are on your cell phone.

I can't do it but my sister has no need to concentrate on where the letters are.
She could text with her hands behind her back while watching t.v. and listening to music.

Some people have just done it so long they just think of what they want to say and their fingers start tapping.

Edit: Still I think it's bad.

So where do I go to see your sister driving with her tits? That must be a pretty good show.

Or is your sister endowed with an unusual number of hands?

Most people who've been driving a long time can drive with one hand. I'm not saying thats good but a lot of people do it.

But the fact is that she can use the other hand to make a paragraph long message while looking at the road, glance at it for half a second to see if she screwed up, then look back at the road and send the message.

Edit: and you can always just PUT DOWN THE PHONE if you need all your attention on driving.
That is, you could do that if you were smart.

Ah. I thought texting took both hands, specifically, both thumbs.

I still hope to not be sharing a road with your sister.

werepossum:
Ah. I thought texting took both hands, specifically, both thumbs.

I still hope to not be sharing a road with your sister.

Everybody I know can text with one hand.

My sister has never been in a crash or even gone 1 inch into the other lane while texting. If you've been texting long enough then it takes less concentration then talking.

I'm not saying everyone should do it. I'm just saying some people have found a way to do it safetly. The people who take their eyes off the road for seconds at a time are the ones who are dangerous.

P.S. I voted it should be illegal.

Anyone not concentrating whilst in control of a weapon should be charged with attempted manslaughter imho. And a car is a big weapon.

The_root_of_all_evil:
Anyone not concentrating whilst in control of a weapon should be charged with attempted manslaughter imho. And a car is a big weapon.

Nicely put.

A friend of mine explained the legality of texting while driving. There currently exist laws that state the in spite of the posted speedlimit the actual speedlimit is dictated by the safest speed to drive in current conditions. Such as you must drive slowly in fog or ice. So what is the safest speed to drive while texting?

Already illegal in the UK. It's also officially, legally stupid.

hamster mk 4:
A friend of mine explained the legality of texting while driving. There currently exist laws that state the in spite of the posted speedlimit the actual speedlimit is dictated by the safest speed to drive in current conditions. Such as you must drive slowly in fog or ice. So what is the safest speed to drive while texting?

Either zero or a negative number. If you want to text, pull over and text. Otherwise, hit reverse and back up into your driveway right now.

I think a lot of texting drivers are under this impression too, because I notice that when they text, they decide to not only swerve all over the road, but go about 20 kilometres per hour (something like 10 mph for all you Americans).