Texting and Driving, Do you do it? Why?

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

 

This is what I'm talking about.. thank you for putting forward a sensible valid theory.

 

I agree 100% too. I think societies morals have degenerated to a tipping point. We (I) have become exceptionally selfish. There becomes very little incentive to do or be good any more. It just need certain moments in your life to reset and re-wake up from this mindset time to time.

 

 

 

I love this. I internally debate it every day.

I personally don't find that society degenerating as a whole diminishes my internal drive to do / be good, but that may just be me. Yeah, there may not be as much incentive to act as such, but it shouldn't detract from your moral fibre / ethical standards.

 

Sadly, I fear I (we?) Are the few.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

That's why talking about these issues is so so important. Society as a whole is leaving us disengaged.

 

BikeHub (or any other online forum you frequent on a regular basis) can become a place for meaningful discussion with people who's opinion you value. I have maybe met 3 Hubbers in person in total, but there are at least 10x that many posters with thoughts and opinions I enjoy reading and interacting with.

 

Open, frank interactions can lead to those reset moments that you speak about. The ones where we reflect on our historic choices and behavior. Aspects of our lives that could change and more importantly, why they should. We can and should hold each other up to a higher standard.

Yes.

 

I've gone through an immense amount of introspection these last few months. Some uncomfortable truths came to light, but I owned them and am trying to improve (my psych actually congratulated me, again, just last week for how I've seemed to stay "grounded" during this time)

 

We all have that choice. To look inwards and assess what we are. The big choice comes in deciding what to do once we find out we're not exactly as "good" as we thought we were.

 

Ignore, or improve.

[pe3nguin]

Snip

 

Love it. Congratulations. I believe it is incredibly difficult to assess yourself in an honest manner and come to terms with aspects of your persona or behaviour which is less than desirable. Doing so however, is an incredibly cathartic experience (or at least it has been so for me in the past).

 

Your improvements as a decent well-meaning human being just have to rub off on one other soul and the knock-on effect has the ability to multiply beyond comprehension. I hope you continue to seek reflective introspection and do what is best for you in the long run.

 

Improve <3

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Love it. Congratulations. I believe it is incredibly difficult to assess yourself in an honest manner and come to terms with aspects of your persona or behaviour which is less than desirable. Doing so however, is an incredibly cathartic experience (or at least it has been so for me in the past).

 

Your improvements as a decent well-meaning human being just have to rub off on one other soul and the knock-on effect has the ability to multiply beyond comprehension. I hope you continue to seek reflective introspection and do what is best for you in the long run.

 

Improve <3

2 mantras.

 

Don't be a dick

 

The difficult conversations are the most rewarding (whether with yourself or someone else)

 

Busy having a wrestle with myself over the whole weight loss and reasons for thing. It's not easy. But it sure is rewarding.

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

The more I read this thread, the more despondent I become with mankind as a whole.

 

The fact that people seem to be going out of their what to defend the indefensible in the face of overwhelming evidence is insanity. Then when they seem to be losing the debate they resort to trying to shift the attention to other ills like speeding, drunk driving, etc. These weren't even part of the OP's initial question but I understand topics evolve. I just don't see how you can say one is better than the other. Is shooting somebody better than stabbing them to death because the one could be perceived as being less personal and violent??? The end result is still the same!!

 

Anyway, this just affirms my belief that the world is in need a good old plague to thin the herd. If this plague could target stupid people somehow, all the better.

 

Like Patch says, nowadays we seem to all be in our own little bubble and don't give a crap about the person right next to us which is why we need these ridiculous laws for cellphone use, smoking etiquette, etc when it should be common sense. Alas, common sense seems to be in short supply these days...........

[Quagga]

SNIP

 

BUT what attracted me to this thread was the level of outrage for texting, and using a phone in general. I don't think I've seen people get as upset about extremely hammered drink driving, excessive speeding. Things that I (In my humble opinion) think are much more dangerous and more prevalent in causing fatal accidents. 

 

Snip

 

 

 

Latest research has shown that texting is MORE dangerous than drunk driving and is responsible for MORE devastating accidents when compared to drunk driving.

 

And said researchers is saying that they don’t have the complete picture as many accidents cause is "unknown" but texting is the main suspect.

 

They said that is more difficult to Prove someone was texting, than to prove drunk driving.

 

BTW on my commute this very morning, I was almost taken out by someone driving like a granny and being on the phone. He even put on his indicator and pulled out, I was coming down the road at about 28km/h when he appeared in the road, his texting is more important than to check his mirror and blind spot.

 

Maybe that is why so many people get angry about this behaviour, it is something that most of us see. Rather than what we hear about wrt drunk driving that happens mostly when I am asleep, very few drunk drivers in morning traffic but LOTS of texter’s who then cause fender benders, higher insurance for us all and wasting your and my time. 

[Steven Knoetze (sk27)]

Latest research has shown that texting is MORE dangerous than drunk driving and is responsible for MORE devastating accidents when compared to drunk driving.

 

And said researchers is saying that they don’t have the complete picture as many accidents cause is "unknown" but texting is the main suspect.

 

They said that is more difficult to Prove someone was texting, than to prove drunk driving.

 

BTW on my commute this very morning, I was almost taken out by someone driving like a granny and being on the phone. He even put on his indicator and pulled out, I was coming down the road at about 28km/h when he appeared in the road, his texting is more important than to check his mirror and blind spot.

 

Maybe that is why so many people get angry about this behaviour, it is something that most of us see. Rather than what we hear about wrt drunk driving that happens mostly when I am asleep, very few drunk drivers in morning traffic but LOTS of texter’s who then cause fender benders, higher insurance for us all and wasting your and my time. 

 

Fully agree with you.

How many of the little bumper bashings on highways are because of texters. It holds people up for hours costing the economy millions!!!

[Quagga]

Fully agree with you.

How many of the little bumper bashings on highways are because of texters. It holds people up for hours costing the economy millions!!!

And tehy will be the 1st to shout at you when you hoot or say something "It has nothing to do with you"

hmmm yes it has, you text where I am dring there is VERY chance you are going to disrupt my life either directly or indirectly.

 

Edit

To all these Pro-texters who voted here, and since we have gone off topic a bit......do you okes stop at red lights when you ride your bike ?

[Patchelicious]

It's occurred to me that some of the posters here may have lost friends and/or family to drivers who were on their phones. If that is the case then I can totally sympathise with your view on this.

 

For me, I drive like a granny.

I see the "laundry list" of offences on our roads all the time. CT traffic has got mad recently and people are just more agro(late) on the road.

 

BUT what attracted me to this thread was the level of outrage for texting, and using a phone in general. I don't think I've seen people get as upset about extremely hammered drink driving, excessive speeding. Things that I (In my humble opinion) think are much more dangerous and more prevalent in causing fatal accidents. That being said it is getting way worse, and way more 'popular'. Despite the actions in place to sort it out

 

now I'm going to go drive home and listen to a podcast using my phone whilst I drive. The tour has finished so I'm not sure what will be my go to now that Lionel, Richard and Francois have handed back the Skoda and have little to talk about.

 

 

 

Maybe that is why so many people get angry about this behaviour, it is something that most of us see.

 

 

That.

 

We see it often, remember this is a cycling forum and the people participating in it are mostly cyclists.

 

As cyclists we are extremely vulnerable and aware of drivers who text, and I think that explains the outrage here.

[Skubarra]

I get the point of the thread. But surely we can simultaneously debate the topic and change our behaviour to not engager peoples lives?

 

If we are to apply the "stick exactly to the thread title" logic to all threads, where will we end up.

 

I also cringe everytime someone is blase about using their phones while driving, but crapping on their heads with righteous outrage is going to turn this thread into an echo chamber rather than a meaningful discussion so in this instance I disagree that we can do both.

 

Anyway, I saw Savage retweeted a story about Elon Musk looking for interaction games for the touch screens of his Tesla cars.

 

Got me thinking about the double standards we apply to our car "multimedia" systems - these things can be even more distracting than phones but seems as long as the distraction is attached to your dashboard nobody has an issue with it...

[Patchelicious]

I also cringe everytime someone is blase about using their phones while driving, but crapping on their heads with righteous outrage is going to turn this thread into an echo chamber rather than a meaningful discussion so in this instance I disagree that we can do both.

 

Anyway, I saw Savage retweeted a story about Elon Musk looking for interaction games for the touch screens of his Tesla cars.

 

Got me thinking about the double standards we apply to our car "multimedia" systems - these things can be even more distracting than phones but seems as long as the distraction is attached to your dashboard nobody has an issue with it...

 

I think we managed

[ChrisF]

....

 

They said that is more difficult to Prove someone was texting, than to prove drunk driving.

 

....

 

Ironically, factually incorrect.

 

Every call, SMS and WhattsApp is time stamped .... VERY easy to prove if somebody was busy texting ..... if one could get around the privacy issues ....

 

 

Imagine the following option :  25% discount on your insurance premium .. subject to disclosing your phone activity list when claiming .....  I can already hear the excuses coming in ....

[Quagga]

Ironically, factually incorrect.

 

Every call, SMS and WhattsApp is time stamped .... VERY easy to prove if somebody was busy texting ..... if one could get around the privacy issues ....

 

 

Imagine the following option :  25% discount on your insurance premium .. subject to disclosing your phone activity list when claiming .....  I can already hear the excuses coming in ....

If someone is writing a text and has and accident there is no proof, since the text was NOT sent yet and hence not timestamped.

 

Reading a whatsapp or text also has no proof, that you were looking at your phone at the time of impact

[Patchelicious]

Ironically, factually incorrect.

 

Every call, SMS and WhattsApp is time stamped .... VERY easy to prove if somebody was busy texting ..... if one could get around the privacy issues ....

 

 

Imagine the following option :  25% discount on your insurance premium .. subject to disclosing your phone activity list when claiming .....  I can already hear the excuses coming in ....

Some telematix devices linked to phones apps have similar functions. We are working closely with some insurers on launching on this initiative. Cant say too much as its has not been launched yet.

[Patchelicious]

Just had a meeting with one of our Account Managers, while taking her daughter to the doctor yesterday, a guy drove into them as he was texting and didnt see that traffic had come to a stop.

 

Luckily they are both ok.

[BigDL]

If someone is writing a text and has and accident there is no proof, since the text was NOT sent yet and hence not timestamped.

 

Reading a whatsapp or text also has no proof, that you were looking at your phone at the time of impact

In the UK there have been a number of convictions for causing Death by Dangerous Driving, where they have demonstrated that there were texts sent during the time leading up to the accident.

 

An example below :

 

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/jan/19/football-agent-peter-morrison-jailed-death-dangerous-driving