I saw a facebook post this morning that really cooks my grits. Someone on my news feed posted a meme making light of people who text, eat, etc. while driving. She appeared to think her friends' reactions to her multitasking behind the wheel were funny. It's as though the current generation of drivers think it's perfectly acceptable...

As a motorcyclist, and as the father of two young kids, this worries me a lot. I don't claim to be perfect, and I pick up my phone while driving far more often than I should (which is never). So what do we do about it? I saw yesterday in a news article that there are apps available with a "driving mode" to automatically respond to incoming texts while you're moving 10+ MPH. I think that's an interesting solution, and I'm going to look into them a little further - does anyone have experience with any of them?

More importantly, though, I think it's important that we teach our kids that whoever/whatever is on the phone can wait until we get to our destination. I also think it's important that we lead by example. When I think about it, I'm sure that by the time my kids are driving or riding with friends, someone will have created a solution. Until then, though, I worry about it every time I hop on my GS, and whenever I load my kids into the car.

The only solution that will work is aggressive enforcement of distracted driving laws. The only way that it will ever become a priority for law enforcement is for the fines to be very, very high, on par with drunk driving. And actually I think it'd be a great idea to simply make distracted driving have the same punishment schedule as drunk driving, including loss of license, etc.

But the reality is that the police will never enforce this. No way. They have never enforced other distracted driving like reading, putting on makeup, messing with your kids or eating in the car, which I have seen every day I have been driving since 1987. Why would they enforce this?

The other problem with enforcement is it's hard to make a state law that requires severe punishment for texting or using a computer/tablet/etc. while driving on par with drunk driving, and then carve out an exception for the police themselves. Far and away the worst offenders for distracted driving are cops, even worse than teenagers. So until they remove the tablet mounts from patrol cars and go back to the good old days of using the radio then how are they to expect us to go back to the good old days of waiting until we get to where we are going before communicating with friends? That's way too much of a double standard, and they will just never do it. Once a bunch of 19 year olds wind up in jail for their third offense of distracted driving there will be a serious outcry of "why do the police get to do it but we don't", and they will have a point.

IMHO of course.

There's an ordinance in Austin against texting while driving and it has virtually zero enforcement. I seen no evidence that it will ever change. Your kids are going to have to not do it either because it's passé to do so, or because they legitimately fear they will kill someone because some friend of theirs did. It'll take a grass-roots or cultural change, because the police will never give up their dash-mounted touch screens.

I truly hope that you're wrong, but I do agree that it will get worse before it gets better. There have been significant advances in technology in an effort to combat the problem -- voice to text, hands free answering, etc. -- but I'm not sure if those things make it better or worse. They almost create an excuse to use your devices while driving. That being said, I look back to when I was a kid before cell phones were even commonplace, and I think that there must be some way to fix this by the time my kids get to be my age. Unfortunately, I think the answer will be self-driving vehicles. Fiat-Chrysler says they'll be mass producing them within 10 years.

Ha...I just realized that the article I remembered reading was actually a post on here...

I just said in the post in General, I think the choice to install and actually use one of those driving apps requires around the same amount of forethought as just putting the phone down.  So I have doubts of it's real life usefulness.



In Chicago all cell-phone use, excepting hands-free, was made illegal.  People do get pulled over and cited for it.  I've seen it first hand, I've heard it second hand.  It's not zero tolerance, but they DO enforce it.
The only thing that will get you out of it is having a dash-mount and using your phone as a GPS/MP3.  In that case it's about as hands-free as an iPod or Garmin...

Each day I wonder where our (and by our I mean most human beings) self-discipline has gone. Really I mean... if people would just try hard enough,  they can resist the urges to be distracted by the radio, GPS, phone, reading, etc etc. Seems that the common mentality any more is "what can I find to do something FOR me" rather than taking care of our problems on our own.

I totally get that there are things that happen when driving that we can't predict but having enough self-awareness and self-control to say no to picking up a phone is something we as humans should do easily with just a small amount of effort. I made the decision long ago to keep my flip phone in my pocket while I'm driving so I know I'm not gonna be tempted to look at it. And if I get a phone call, it reads it out to me so I even know who it is. If it's someone who I think is gonna be important, I'll pull over or wait til I get to where I'm going and call 'em back.

Like user said in that other thread... we all have brains... we need to use them... not rely on MORE technology to do what we are just too lazy to train ourselves or stop ourselves from doing.

Scott I would have gotten mad just like you did. For sure. It's not funny at all.

i do see some needd for LEO use of it. to find destination info etc. BUT there is a hands free option out there. the rest of it can be done upon arrival or before setting out upon their trip. not during. if it cant wait you DO have the option of pulling off the road to answer text. or call. which is why i do have a slight objection to cell phone earbuds for moto helmets. bikers MUST be that much more aware of whats going on. the stakes are that much higher.
Aaron