FFS! Stop texting and driving!
Last edited Thu Aug 28, 2014, 08:06 PM - Edit history (2)
And while you are at it, get off the phone, stop eating that happy meal, turning around and yelling at your kids, browsing the internet, updating your Facebook status, tying your shoes, leave early enough to reach your destination on time, etc...
But let's just look at that phone for now. 23% of collisions involve a phone. That's about 1.3 million or so. No biggie, right?
If you think that you can safely drive while yapping on the phone or texting away, you should just do everyone a favor and sell your car. You are a danger to the general public.
3 times, in the past 3 days, I have had a near death experience (just about all close calls on a motorcycle are near death). All 3 times, the other driver was not paying attention. 2 were texting, and the other was having a phone conversation. They should have their licenses taken away. I don't care if they were calling the hospital to see if their child was ok, or texting a free cure for cancer and world hunger. It is reckless, and the penalty is nowhere near as severe as it should be. $200 - First violation, $400 - Second violation, $800 and a "maybe suspended license" - Third violation. Bullshit! License should be suspended on the first offense. Period.
It's not safe at a red light, it's not safe at a stop sign, I don't care how good of a driver you think you are... You're not.
Sorry... Rant over...
On edit for the non-motorcyclist: If you happen to catch one of us coming the other direction and we are tapping the top of our helmet (pictured) then there is a police car ahead of you... Or a spider got in our helmet and we are freaking the f#%k out.
= new reply since forum marked as read
on I-25. Granted the traffic along that route is pretty sporadic and not anything like that south from Fort Collins to Denver.
Still, going 75 MPH.... But, all in all I think the newspaper was safer especially if they have "over 40" eyes.
Nothing irritates me more than texting while driving and it is not limited to teens--at all. 
Seems to be the go-to bike these days. Wouldn't mind having a civilian RT someday.
It was strange to see
In heavy traffic that drives to fast and stops regularly at red lights... 
So, yes, it is. 
However, it's not legal to lane split at 80mph while popping a wheelie on your crotch rocket.
Then again I don't ride much at all for the same reason.
I'm currently riding a motorized bicycle, which oddly enough drivers seem to take notice of more than a typical motorcycle. I've been watching people's reaction and they're completely baffled by what they see.
While driving? I have. 
Doesn't it take both hands to sign? 
and she complains while in the hospital "It's my left hand, how am I going to drive?" 
HIGH POINT — Police confirmed a Clemmons woman killed when her car veered into the path of an oncoming heavy-duty truck was texting on her phone a minute before the wreck.
Courtney Ann Sanford, 32, posted a message Thursday about "how the 'Happy' song makes her happy," High Point police Lt. Charles Lanier said Saturday. The message was posted at 8:33 a.m., he said.
Police were called to Business Interstate 85 in High Point at 8:34 a.m., Lanier said.
"She was posting to Facebook right before the accident," Lanier said. "She was also posting 'selfies' to Facebook while driving."
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According to Distraction.gov, North Carolina drivers are banned from texting and driving.
to your daughter 
I don't know what db train horns are at, but I'd say the one you want is damn close. I hope you do get it 
I don't ride, but I always thought it was pitiful that a motorcycle horn never sounded much better than a bicycle bell...
I have my bike up for sale. About 6 years ago someone on a cell phone made a right on red right in front of me as I was doing about 50mph. I tried to swerve to avoid them, but my front tire washed out in a grease spot and I hit the pavement hard. I spent about a week in the hospital and 7 weeks out of work. I crushed my right elbow, broke the bone in my left hand that goes between the wrist and thumb. I broke my right collar bone, and blew out my left knee. I was basically slammed to the pavement at about 35-40mph. The person who ran the red light got away and no one including myself got their tag number. The first person to stop was a doctor and he waited with me for the ambulance. When I drive I use my phone as a GPS device. I don't answer texts or calls. Everyone can wait. I had to have ACL surgery on my left knee, and my bones still hurt even after all this time. Thank you for your post. This cannot be stated enough.
I wish they would do it again, because there was a huge drop in people doing this shit, at least for several months.
Rumor has it that the cops are reluctant to do it again, because they think it will increase the accident rate 
because motorists will try to hide the fact that they are texting/talking. 
I can sort of understand their reasoning, but I can easily tell when someone is texting. They look at their lap, then maybe remember to look at the road, then back at their lap...and like another poster pointed out their crappy driving is a dead give-away to what they are doing.
I wish the state would suspend the driving licenses of people who text/talk on their cell while driving, and would revoke the licenses of people who are repeat violators. I think that would put a large dent in the problem.
I think people who insist on their right to text/talk while driving are a bunch of egotists who think their blabbing is more important than the lives and safety of the rest of us.
They have no idea what life was like before cell phones became wide spread.
I also remember that we coped just fine without cell phones at all back in those ancient times.
The tragic part, is that too many people believe that they could not possibly be involved in a serious or fatal accident while texting/talking on their phone while driving. Humans are too prone to believe that bad things only happen to other people.
And, I agree with you about music. It is easy to tune out, and devices can be set up so that the music can play without the driver needing to mess with it. That does not hold true for cell phones.
Just watch any of those "Kids React to Old Technology" videos for a clue
And the truly mind-numbing part about people being on cell-phones while driving that always befuddled me was when they first became small enough (and cheap enough) for pretty much everyone to have one (or more.) Suddenly, I saw people my age, 30s-40s, all on the phone almost all the time. And I thought, "What did you do before cell-phones? You weren't on the landline all the time then, were you? I think not."
It's like some kind of weird "cell-phone addiction gene" was triggered and it's been in the ON position ever since.
I can't imagine what people find to blab about all the time. I like peace and quiet.
An old job that I had left me with the opposite problem of the 'cell-phone addiction gene". I hate a ringing phone, so I leave all my phones on voice messaging. I even tend to put off making calls that I need to make, because I have such an aversion to talking on the phone.
So, it is no surprise that I can't quite understand how so many people seem to have theirs either implanted in their ear, or glued to their hand.
I do wish, however, that people would decide that safety while driving was more important than messing with their cell. 
The idea of people deciding to be safer while driving by not using their phone isn't likely to happen. I'm being pessimistic about that due to the fact that most people don't take driving skills seriously to begin with, and basically never have.
These days, I call my "fellow" motorists MVOs, short for "Motor Vehicle Operators." If they had any sense of driving skill, they wouldn't ever even think of using their phone while driving.
Really, the British show Top Gear should be required viewing for most American drivers so they can get a sense of how people with true driving skills behave while driving
(And yes, they do talk on one device while driving, but it's a walkie-talkie, and not a cell)
I think they would see it as encouragement to engage in risky driving, which most people do not have the skill level needed to pull off safely. Each day I see people do dangerous actions which they would not do if they really understood the potential consequences for failure.
I am impressed by the narrow street on the show. I drive a bus, so I can really sympathize with feeling tense in tight quarters, especially when having to navigate roads that were not engineered for large vehicles. Yikes. Not fun, especially in heavy traffic.
I agree that "most people don't take driving skills seriously to begin with, and basically never have." The defensive driving course that my employer makes us take, and then repeat every other year, the information is shared that surveys have shown that most drivers believe they are above average in their driving skills. So, they don't believe that they need to do anything to improve their safety. Too many people get quite defensive and nasty when the quality of their driving skills is questioned. 
I wish my state could do more like Germany, which I have been told has much more stringent standards for getting a driver's license than anywhere in the U.S.
What bothers me is that too many people seem not to realize that taking the kind of risks that they do can result in them going to the emergency ward or the morgue instead of where they were trying to get to.
I know that anytime I venture out into traffic, I am basically 'on-duty' and 'working', because my CDL is my paycheck, so I have to avoid collisions and obey the traffic laws (much to the annoyance of over-aggressive drivers behind me). On my time off, I tend to not want to drive anywhere, in an effort to reduce the amount of stress I have to deal with in traffic.
Thank you for the return posts and continuing conversation. I wish more people 'got' the fact that driving is a huge responsibility, and a privilege, not a right. 
Lucky you, for getting to travel over there.
I have to admit, if it were me going, I would probably try to afford hiring someone else to do the driving.
This is a regional road, speed limit was 80 km/h (50mph). There was no way to safely go that fast. When a friend went to Ireland, he commented on the way too fast speed limits, the host at the B&B he was staying at remarked (in her very thick accent) - "It's a target not a requirement"
Too-high speed limits on narrow roads just leads to tragedy.
Looks like Ireland is beautiful.
or simply be unable to observe the much better driving skills of the three hosts. I'm in awe of their skill, and that they're so lucky to be able to drive cars that are "toys for the wealthy." And while that's a no-no on DU to want such a vehicle, I'd still love to have the chance to drive one on a track somewhere
I know my driving skills are lax in some areas and better in others. Don't know if I could list them, other than not being afraid of the curb. There's one road here I use frequently that has some pot-holes at the junction of asphalt and the concrete strip before the curb. That strip is about a foot wide. To avoid having to veer into the next lane to the left, I hug the curb. I figure I'm just a few inches from it, yet haven't hit it.
And then I watch people that are so paranoid of hitting the curb, that they'll hug the stripe to oncoming traffic, while being at least three feet away from that evil curb!
Don't know what Germany's driving training is like, but there was one episode on TG where James May went to Finland. Part of the segment pointed out that kids have a three-year driver's education course! And that includes a skid track. I've had to learn about skids on my own 
If driver's ed was as extensive, and as expensive, as those found elsewhere in the world, we'd probably only see about ten percent of the populace on the roads. Of course, we could only do that if we also had an extensive, and working, mass-transit system. Instead, we have it flipped, making it insanely easy and inexpensive for pretty much anyone to get a driver's license, while mass-transit either doesn't exist, or is horribly designed. That's probably why where so much "nanny-tech" in new cars these days...
This has been a great conversation, love_katz, and I'm glad glassunion started it 
I will admit that I'm 'addicted' to the Internet, though lately, it's been boring me more and more. Not DU, though
only that for some people that "method" of exiting has been the way they always drove. I can remember seeing people do it ever since I started driving, back in 1977
...who won't get a cell phone with a virtual keyboard because she wouldn't be able to text while driving if she had to look at the keys all the time.
She's 39, and an otherwise reasonably intelligent and considerate person. I'm not at all convinced she'll make it to 40 with the texting while driving, though.
I agree with all the posts here, especially the one by Lilyhoney: "Driving is serious business..." and should be treated as such.
My phone is set up to accept voice messages, so I do NOT answer it when driving, even if I forget to shut it off. I keep it closed up in my bag, which is also usually secured by a seat belt.
I have a CDL, and spend my work day on the road. Distracted drivers scare the cr@p out of me and make me furious! 
There is NO call or text message that is so important that it justifies endangering other people's lives.
the phone immediately after entering their car in the parking lot, and then begin backing out of their space as they're jabbering away!
To me, backing out of a parking space in a crowded lot is one of the most nerve-wracking experiences I have as a driver, and I've had a license for well over 30 years. You're dealing with vehicles moving around from all directions, not to mention all of the pedestrians, including little kids that might not be paying attention.
I have a low-profile car, so if there's a minivan, pickup, or SUV next to me, there's a big blind spot I have to contend with as well. I guess I'm fine with someone using a phone in light traffic on the interstate or something like that, but put that shit down when you're in a parking lot!
I was walking him through the parking lot and a woman - with children in her car - was backing out and yapping on her phone. I screamed, "HEY!!!" very loudly and nothing. So I pounded with my fist on her windows and that got her attention. She looked at me like I was nuts, but I laid into her, Philly style, about nearly steamrolling me and my kid. She still doesn't make eye contact with me whenever I see her.
Hold it up in front of you, with the weave facing the inattentive one. Let them run into that, or, if you like, swat them with it when they pass
A walking staff would work well, too.
I'm just brainstorming, especially in ways to wake up the offender. Any bit of public, in-the-moment shaming tends to work, at least for a while.
Maybe get a big and burly friend to walk point in front of you. Then the offenders can run into him or her and get glared at. The friend could then bark "Eyes front!" as the offender stumbles and fumbles with their device just to get out of the way. If only Andre the Giant ("You ARE the Brute Squad!" was still around...
Stay safe, now!
it was sex while driving. Not that I ever participated in that, but would guess that could top a card game while driving
on a busy street, not a highway but busy business district street. A young college age girl riding her bicycle with no hands and texting. I just watched, from a red light, in wonder. Then as I got downtown a guy on a cafe racer weaving in and out of traffic at a high rate of speed. This where there was rush hour traffic and traffic lights every block. So it's not always the drivers of cars who are being stupid. Stupidity does not discriminate!
both of them. I told my daughter they are of the age where they think they are "10 feet tall and bullet proof" as the song goes.
are driving it can be really scary.
Like you said, they think they are invincible at a certain age. They also think they can multi-task, which studies show most people can't do at all.
We used to have a speedometer. Now we have a speedometer, gps, cellular phone and a dozen other gadgets going on at the same time.