A number of studies, including one by Car and Driver magazine, show texting while driving to be more dangerous than drunk driving. It seems to follow that since we have a law against drunk driving, we should also have a law against its more dangerous relative: texting while driving.
However, texting while driving is not unique in the dangers it poses to drivers. According to a Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study, the “key to significantly improving safety is keeping your eyes on the road.” Naturally, texting while driving often leads to people taking their eyes off of the road, but so do many other activities that we generally don’t think ought to be illegal outright, such as adjusting a stereo or manipulating an iPod.
The Car and Driver study tested the reaction times of texting drivers by measuring how quickly the subjects hit the brakes when a red light turned on. The test was conducted at 35 and 70 miles per hour while the subjects read and typed quotes from the film “Caddy Shack.”
Condemning texting while driving as a whole, based on a study like Car and Driver’s, is dangerous because it tested only the worst of the practice. Common sense and the VTTI study indicate that receiving a message like, “please get milk” and responding “k” is almost certainly far less dangerous than reading and typing quotes from a movie, as the former case requires one to take their eyes off the road for a much briefer period than the latter.
Speed is also an important factor and though I do find texting while in heavy, slow-moving traffic highly questionable, it is certainly better than texting at 70 miles per hour. Texting while stopped at a stoplight, though, seems completely reasonable. Astoundingly, the Los Angeles Times article “Drunk driving could be ‘safer’ than texting while driving, study says,” informs us that in California, drivers can be issued citations even for texting while their car is not moving.
This is ridiculous and absolutely unacceptable. Not only is the risk involved in texting while stopped at a stoplight non-existent to minimal, but this type of texting while driving can be extremely useful, as in the milk example above or in cases related to directions or traffic problems.
The problem with texting while driving is that it distracts drivers from the road, so if legislation is passed banning the practice, I see no reason why such legislation should not also ban a plethora of other distractions for the same reason.
Furthermore, laws that ban texting while driving should be tailored so as not to unnecessarily limit our freedom to responsibly and usefully text while driving in those cases where risks are absolutely minimal.
Email Noah on your phone safely while driving at nnzarr@asu.edu.
