As a keen road cyclist in the UK I actually have bought an off-road bike because I simply don't trust US drivers.
In fact, the standard of driving here is frankly appalling. Tailgating and speeding is rampant. Lane surfing is rife. Couple that with just generally less safety street furniture at intersections and the laughably easy driving tests it's frightening really.
People say self driving cars are a danger, frequently the media report every Autopilot crash but what about the hundreds every day caused by some idiot texting? IMHO the sooner we take the distracted meatbag out of the driving equation, the better. I'm a car guy who just did a 2000 mile roadtrip to the Tail of the Dragon but this has to stop.
More enforcement and stricter penalties. Social stigma might be more powerful than this though.
Yes it’s pretty common, I see phones in driver’s hands about 25-40% in my local area.
A better voice input so I don’t have to type.
The biggest distraction is a notification comes and you want to see what it is.
But you are right. The best soln is not to use your phone.
To help you put it in perspective though, simply ask yourself if you'll stop caring about the notifications the day after running into a pedestrian or a cyclist.
To be honest, I want a self lane following car. Reliably keep distance from car in front, keep the current lane, don’t exceed speed limit. Don’t bumps into objects, stop on traffic lights
5 simple things. I feel like this should be doable reliably in the next decade.
I don’t want to drive. I don’t have another more convenient option.
Social stigma is great; but I write to my state and federal representatives every quarter of the year about this specific issue. I want distracted driving to be treated as an equal offense to driving drunk.
At the very least, real enforcement and stiffer fines need to happen in order for any changes to take place.
I think it's actually really quite dangerous to have cars passing you on both sides when you're already going 5 over to "fit in". It'd be much better if like in Europe people pulled out to overtake and back in when done and that lane surfers had a little a patience now and again. A few seconds really does not matter. Especially when you overtake them 5 mins later as they're texting anyway!!
Lane surfing happens in the US because people here don't understand how to drive on freeways. It is non-existent in Germany because drivers there know how to drive.
I used to live in Seattle, a perfect example of a city that has enough freeway but still has traffic jams because people drive cluelessly. Not just my opinion, but the opinion of traffic enforcement in Washington.
And people on their phones while driving just make the situation worse.
On the other hand, some cities (such as LA) have off-ramps on both the left and right sides, not to mention many multi-lane freeway interchanges located on both sides... combined with Google Maps telling you at the last minute that you need to be in the left 3 lanes, followed by immediately being in the right-most lane in order to get on the right freeway. Almost every visit to LA requires 1 or 2 retries on a few of these freeways. When I'm not constrained for time, I often opt for much slower side streets to avoid the utter insanity of some interchanges.
I believe it varies state to state.
Agree that the US test is laughably easy to pass compared to the UK, though.
It wouldn't be possible to undertake if folks had proper lane discipline in the first place, although the UK also has it's fair share of Middle Lane Morons
I've heard speak of 'the orbit game' - legally pass the MLM on the left, then pull across into the right lane, slow down so they pass you, then pull into the right lane and pass them again, see how many times you can 'orbit' them
No ticket though. They probably use it as an excuse to pull people over to try and ding them for other stuff
Now, the worst part: about a month ago I got pulled over for texting and driving. I wasn't even thinking about it. The cop said, "were you texting?" And I said, "I don't think so, let me check"... pulled up my phone.. yeah a half-written text to a friend. I got a ticket and have kept my phone in my pocket since then.
Something funny happens. I would think, "ah I'll just check that message, maybe it's important?" Or, "I've got to tell someone something" and out comes the phone. Mindless. Or maybe I think I can drive and text, it's those other clowns that are the dangerous ones. I'm glad I got the ticket. I deserved it. I think it helped me connect my actions to real life consequences. Glad it was just a ticket and not a wreck.
Sometimes I'll get so fed up with people that, at a stoplight, I'll actually get off my bike and knock on their windows and tell them to put the phone down. All black visor and gear makes one intimidating enough for them to stop for a few hundred yards. Better than nothing, I suppose.
I used to be on a white R1200RS and I'd get mistaken for CHP in California. It was amusing to see them try to hide their phones when I'd honk at them.
A lot less amusing when they'd wander into my lane, oblivious. Every single close call I've had in the last year of riding has been from a motorist operating a cell phone.
I'm nearly of a mind to roll a helmet cam and start a Twitter account with footage of these people, along with their plates and a CHP tag. I haven't done it yet because that would take my riding focus away from steering the safest path. But it seems like it's gotten worse lately, and there doesn't seem to be much enforcement.
The helmet cam also has been quite useful for "post-mortems" of close calls. I can replay the video and think about what I should have done differently.
I would love it if you started that account, but safety first. I'm about to splurge on a helmet cam, myself.
It __does__ seem to have gotten worse lately. The only cops I've ever seen enforce it are... you guessed it, motorcycle cops. Cops in cruisers don't do shit in my area.
(Hebrew)
Even if you’re hammered enough to have 5% of your normal driving ability, not looking at the road at all is a straight 0% driving ability. It’s essentially driving with your eyes closed every time you look down.
It might cause more deaths/accidents, but how many more people are driving distracted compared to driving intoxicated?
I see it literally hundreds of times a day. People are driving their cars at over 70mph while texting. They use instagram and facebook at stoplights. They text or call while driving too fast down residential roads. They cause traffic delays because they don't accelerate at a green light for many seconds after the car in front of them has.
I have seen them hit other cars and narrowly miss pedestrians in crosswalks, completely oblivious half the time that they nearly murdered someone.
If I pull up next to them and tell them to put their phone down by pantomime, half the time they flip me off, laugh, or lay on their horn. They do not think they are doing anything wrong and that I am the asshole for telling them to put the phone down.
Distracted drivers are murderers. Distracted drivers are guilty of reckless endangerment. Distracted drivers need to be punished with prejudice. It is statistically more dangerous than driving intoxicated.