Texting and Driving Attitude

Really interesting point @ around 1:20 in this video: texters spent 10% more time outside of their lane. When you drive, your hands tend to follow your focus. If you look down and away at your phone, your steering hand (there should be two!) is compelled to follow.

Bans on cell phone use are one way to attempt to reduce this behavior. Even if people think they can get away with it, or that it’s difficult to monitor, the attitude is out there in the world now. To be honest, my dislike for distracted driving grew by being immersed in news articles and statistics repeatedly while researching uses for driving simulation. I’m not sure that I would have the same attitude towards it without constant reminders. I adopted the attitude – I don’t think many people have the environment that encourages adopting this attitude. So in addition to bans on cell phone use, anything we can do to foster anti-distracted-driving sentiments should be in the game plan. Get it into people’s heads that the better kind of human being is the one that manages to admit that they’re not immune to hazardous driving. You might think you can handle texting and driving, but it’s really better if you don’t do it.