Texting and Driving

Originally Posted by akane

That's why I do all the long distance driving and just make him drive in town where he doesn't use his phone much because he's dealing with stoplights and turns. On the flip side I don't drive well in strange cities. I won't answer my phone at all then without pulling over real quick and he has to help me watch for random stop signs when there are lots of lanes or strange shaped intersections because I tend to miss them even with nothing distracting me. So it works out that I drive in the country and down interstate where he would space out or fall asleep and he drives in town where there are many lanes and intersections with stoplights and stop signs.

I like that the gps device says not to use while driving. Isn't that the entire point? We now use our phones for gps so no phone usage at all would cause a lot of problems. Looking at a map is more distracting than listening to and glancing at gps.

Originally Posted by akane

There is no public transportation here and you can't memorize an entire route when you're driving 3-4 hrs away switching interstates and going down back roads when you reach the correct town to get to someone's house. I recently took a trip with my mom and we forgot the gps. Had to dig out the maps and ended up missing an interstate connection so we went 2 hrs out of our way and back again. Otherwise we're looking at printed out google maps directions with the same distraction level. A gps that you can listen to and just glance at and immediately see where you are in seconds is far safer.

Originally Posted by Harry Chickpea

Problem is they are illegal. We looked into buying some that covered the auditoriums in movie theatres. Nope. Illegal.

What I would like as access to one of those emergency alert codes where EVERY phone gets called. I'd set it to broadcast every five minutes - "Turn OFF your cellphone and use the voicemail feature. Otherwise I'm going to tell your spouse what you have been up to."

Originally Posted by akane

I see no problem talking on the phone and driving. I prioritize the driving part and many times I've left someone hanging so I could deal with traffic properly before going back to my phone. It doesn't distract me at all and half the time I drive with one hand anyway. Now texting you can't keep your eyes on the road and some drive with no hands and a knee to do it. However somehow my husband does it just fine. I complain to him but he actually drives better texting and watching netflix on his phone than when he has nothing to do and gets distracted by the scenery or spaces out instead. So I gave it up and I just watch the road for him. Luckily his commute to work is a whole 5-10mins depending on traffic.