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    JohnMcClanesSmirkNeetzan Zimmerman
    8/09/13 1:15pm

    This is all well and good but I'm of the belief that emotional appeals and anti-texting laws won't change much. The most efficient way of solving this problem is for automakers and phone manufactures to team up and use NFC technology to automatically disable texting while in a car. It wouldn't be that hard and the technology already exists.

    Of course to work, Washington would have to compel or incentivize all parties involved but it seems like a no-brainer to me. Or, we can just wait 10 years for self-driving cars and after realizing that distracted, over-worked primates shouldn't be operating heavy machinery at 60 miles an hour anyway, we can all sit back and text away.

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      La.M.JohnMcClanesSmirk
      8/09/13 1:20pm

      Disable texting in the car when the car is turned on? When it is running? When? Will I still be able to sit in my car in the rain in a parking lot and text? What about in a running car in the rain with my AC going? Only when I'm moving? How will that work exactly? I lunch break in my car. If I can't text, I will be very unhappy.

      I mean, I feel where you are coming from and I am a huge fan of cross industry partnership to eliminate public health issues but I need to know better how it will work.

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      Sean RJohnMcClanesSmirk
      8/09/13 1:20pm

      Um, what about when someone in the car is using my phone to answer texts for me? What about when I'm texting in my parked car, but I've left it running because of the weather?

      Nerfing phones isn't a particularly clever solution.

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    reggiebushlateralNeetzan Zimmerman
    8/09/13 1:18pm

    Can we create some device that renders a cell phone's texting ability useless in the car?

    Those anti-texting commericals always get me.

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      Sean Rreggiebushlateral
      8/09/13 1:23pm

      No, that would be dumb? I replied to another person making the same point in another thread: What if I lend my phone to someone in the passenger seat to answer texts for me? What if I'm parked but have the car running because of the weather?

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      reggiebushlateralSean R
      8/09/13 1:25pm

      No one would be able to text in the car. You could use your phone as a phone.

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    VeryWellNeetzan Zimmerman
    8/09/13 1:10pm

    I'll never stop. I'm too busy. Like right now for instance I'm headed to wor

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      blackintrovertVeryWell
      8/09/13 1:14pm

      Even though I favorited this comment, the joke kind of falls flat because you were able to click "publish".

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      JohnMcClanesSmirkblackintrovert
      8/09/13 1:17pm

      Ah, why'd you have to ruin it!?

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    EazyPezyNeetzan Zimmerman
    8/09/13 1:12pm

    Can you text at a stop light? Honest question. I mean texting while driving, I can see why it's not a good idea. But I am not sure if the law applies when you're at a stop light.

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      KristenfromMAEazyPezy
      8/09/13 1:18pm

      In Massachusetts, no. If you're in the driver's seat with the engine running, you're not supposed to be texting.

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      swedesEazyPezy
      8/09/13 1:19pm

      I used to do it sometimes but it annoyed the drivers behind me because I didn't notice when the light turned green, so I stopped. Bad habit.

      I now pull over to the side of the road if I have to text or even talk on the phone via the bluetooth.

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    cheerful_exgirlfriendNeetzan Zimmerman
    8/09/13 1:26pm

    Distracted driving and texting while driving freaks me out. What really freaks me out are the people who insist they can totally do it because they are careful. Bullshit!

    My daughter's school has parents volunteer to be field trip drivers and I have brought up my worries only to have a parent tell me "Oh texting while driving is so dangerous, I only use my phone for maps if I'm driving". !!!

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      LibbyBellscheerful_exgirlfriend
      8/09/13 1:35pm

      I do not understand how or why people think those GPS things are any safer than texting or reading while driving. THEY ARE A HUGE DISTRACTING SCREEN THAT YOU HAVE TO LOOK AT.

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      cheerful_exgirlfriendLibbyBells
      8/09/13 1:40pm

      Right??!! The kids are 9 years old and there is often another parent chaperone, let them navigate or perhaps plot out the route from home like I do since even without a cell phone, being lost can lead to bad decisions while driving that could be unsafe.

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    speteNeetzan Zimmerman
    8/09/13 1:17pm

    Those commercials are GRIM. The one with the man who killed a couple of kids is especially haunting. It's not that I feel sympathy for him, exactly; his negligence killed two innocent people. It's fitting that he spend the rest of his life thinking about that. But I can't hate him either, you can tell he's completely broken now. There's no life behind the guy's eyes, he just seems to be existing and killing time until he clocks out.

    Personally I'm so paranoid about losing control of the car I don't answer the phone period. Everyone who knows me knows that if they call me when I'm driving somewhere it's going to go to voicemail and I will talk to them when I get to wherever I was going.

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      Gabrielle Cyniquespete
      8/09/13 1:35pm

      I actually watched this whole thing because there is someone I love very much who does 14 things while she's driving. Speeding tickets (she missed the sign because she was texting!) have not dissuaded her.

      But the stuff in this video, especially 13:00 to 14:20, is devastating. I wish I had that much forgiveness in my heart.

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      nirreskeyaGabrielle Cynique
      8/09/13 2:08pm

      That was the letter, right? Yeah that got me.

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    sportzzzgirlNeetzan Zimmerman
    8/09/13 1:08pm

    Texting while driving isn't illegal in the US? That slays me. :(

    ETA: Okay, just looked it up. It's illegal in some states; not in others. My personal fave? The state of Texas prohibits school bus drivers from texting while transporting a child under 17.

    *Falls about laughing*

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      EazyPezysportzzzgirl
      8/09/13 1:10pm

      It is in CA.

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      thevoidlesscreaturesportzzzgirl
      8/09/13 1:11pm

      41 states do have full bans on it. Just because it's illegal, doesn't mean people don't do it.

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    F.Yoo LeeNeetzan Zimmerman
    8/09/13 1:43pm

    Texting while driving seems to be practiced much more in the US than in their other industrialized counterparts (Europe). From a recent study:

    Americans live far more dangerously than our European counterparts when it comes to texting and driving, with more than two-thirds of us admitting to texting while at the wheel, federal government researchers reported on Thursday....

    Just short of 69 percent of Americans aged 18 to 64 admitted to talking on a cell phone while driving at least once in the past 30 days. This compared to 21 percent of British drivers, who were the least likely to text and drive, and 40 percent of adults in France. And 31 percent of U.S. drivers admitted they had texted at the wheel, compared to 15 percent in Spain.

    More here.

    On top of that, texting while driving in the US involves more women and younger people than men.

    What accounts for these two facts? Is it that Americans drive longer distances and just can't wait to text someone? Is it we're such a car culture that we do everything and anything in our cars? Are women more prone to texting while driving because they might be mothers and juggle one too many things and need to text?

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      BigPlopsF.Yoo Lee
      8/09/13 1:51pm

      There was a discussion about the lack of importance in cup holders in European cars on Jalopnik. It's a very mainstream "I am an extremely normal person" crowd there and there were a couple of incredulous responses to this European guy saying he never used his cup holder. "I just find it unbelievable that outside the US people don't take a drink with them." (http://jalopnik.com/3-cup-holders-…)

      #3 Cup holders? Must be an American problem, which is why European cupholders are an afterthought.… Read more Read more

      Apparently the average American expects to do shit in his car.

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      F.Yoo LeeBigPlops
      8/09/13 1:56pm

      Thanks for linking to that thread; before going over to it, I did not expect it to be so long...and so typically American.

      A big nation of big people in big cars with big soft drinks on big freeways.

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    ArdenNeetzan Zimmerman
    8/09/13 1:18pm

    Thank god I only Candy Crush when I drive.

    The law says no texting, but it doesn't say shit about apps.
    #YOLO

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      Graby SauceArden
      8/09/13 1:22pm

      That's right. They said "no texting;" they didn't say shit about browsing the Internet.

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    DuffinNeetzan Zimmerman
    8/09/13 1:55pm

    Okay, so I'm curious how people distinguish this. Now, when you say texting while driving, you mean literally when your foot is on the gas, correct? That, I agree, shouldn't be allowed. But, do people have a problem if I'm at a traffic light, waiting, that I can type out a reply to someone? I don't see how that would be dangerous.

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      interrogator-chaplainDuffin
      8/09/13 2:02pm

      You could be sitting there and someone is unaware of a dangerous situation you could've spotted and alerted them to. Or an ambulance/fire truck/police car is right behind you and because you have the music too loud and you're distracted the precious moments you hold them up, someone in a real emergency dies because you were taking care of your own petty "emergencies". You could be rear-ended because you didn't react to a vehicle behind you coming quickly because you were texting.

      Or you could just be the dick who holds people up at the traffic lights.

      It's not worth it dude.

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      TheFinglongerDuffin
      8/09/13 2:17pm

      Dangerous, maybe or maybe not; but at least twice a day — without exaggeration — I see people at lights who don't go for a good 6-7 seconds after the light has turned green because they're texting. Often, if it's at a left-turn arrow, they miss the light entirely and have to wait for it to come around again.

      Potentially dangerous, if someone behind you is the road rage type. Certainly discourteous to the line of cars behind you. Definitely not conducive to the orderly flow of traffic.

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