We Know Better, But We Text While Driving Anyway

By Sacha Pfeiffer
Feb 8, 2010, 6:16 AM
15 Comments

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A woman sends a text message while driving in Concord, N.H., in December 2009. (AP)

BOSTON — Sending text messages while driving could soon be illegal in Massachusetts. The House approved a bill Thursday that bans texting behind the wheel; that bill now heads to the Senate. But even though studies show that it’s more dangerous than drunk driving, many people still do it. And why they do it involves a complicated mix of compulsion, rationalization, denial and guilt.

It seems so obvious: You shouldn’t be typing a text message if you’re operating a moving vehicle. No matter how adept a texter you are, common sense says it’s just not smart.

“I really shouldn’t at all,” admitted Todd Hudson, 34. “But I do.”

Hudson says he has informal guidelines for when he will and won’t text while driving: He tries not to do it if he’s in heavy traffic or taking turns, and if he does do it he likes to pull over to the side of the road first. “That’s my ideal,” Hudson said. “But I never quite match that ideal. I mean, you get a text from somebody and you want to respond to it.”

Nick Gross, 46, understands that strong need to be in touch electronically. He said he used to text while driving once in a while, but not any more. “I couldn’t do the two things at the same time without sacrificing one of them,” he admitted.

“There are times if you’re, like, going down the highway, for example, where you can fairly easily text and maintain good driving without endangering yourself or others.”

–Tyler Ostergaard, 25

But Gross remembers the mental battle of being in his car and wanting to tap away on that little keypad.

“My internal dialog is to have to tell myself, I’m going to be there in five minutes. I’m going to see this person in five minutes anyway. There’s no point in texting that,” he explained. “But, you know, on the flip side, it’s like, well, I need to tell them I’m going to be there in five minutes so that they know and they can be waiting for me.”

And remember, Nick is pushing 50. So texting while driving isn’t something that only teenagers and 20-somethings do. In fact, some studies show that the biggest growth in texting is among people over 35. And for older people in high-pressure jobs who need to be reachable constantly, texting behind the wheel can be inevitable.

Although it turns out that not everyone thinks texting while driving is always unsafe.

“There are certainly times when driving when I think you can do it and times when you can’t,” said Tyler Ostergaard, 25. “So if you’re going through a rotary, yeah, then it’s a bad idea. But I think that you can make a judgment call,” he said. “There are times if you’re, like, going down the highway, for example, where you can fairly easily text and maintain good driving without endangering yourself or others.”

You heard that correctly. He says a highway is a safe place to send a text — a highway, where most drivers are going 55 miles an hour, at least.

And he’s not the only person who feels that way. Other drivers interviewed for this story said highways are straight and wide, so you can see what’s coming and stop texting if things seem risky.

Some people say they won’t text in intersections or during bad weather, but they will do it at stop signs and red lights. Others say they text when they’re on suburban streets, but not when they’re in the city because of all the bicyclists and pedestrians.

A few people interviewed did say they never text while driving. Virginia Smith is one of them. She’s 56 and has three kids who don’t drive yet, and she said there should be zero tolerance for texting behind the wheel.

“It should be banned throughout the entire country,” Smith said, “and I think if you do it and you kill someone, you should go to jail for manslaughter.”

That leads to another rationalization for why people text while driving.

Ben Voskeritchian, 26, said he believes he can text and pay attention to the road simultaneously. “Everyone thinks they can be safe,” he said, “and I always tell all of my friends, ‘Stop! Get off your phone!’ If I’m driving next to them or if I’m in the passenger seat or whatever. But that’s kind of hypocritical. Not kind of. It is hypocritical.”

But to borrow a phrase from a local performer, why have a single standard when you can have a double one?

Please follow our community rules when engaging in comment discussion on wbur.org.

rich1234

Texting while driving is the most selfish act, just because one feels so important that one can’t even take some consideration of the safety of the other drivers. If they want to kill themselves, go jump a bridge. Both texting and talking on the cell phone while driving should be band forever and there should be a harsh punishment to the offenders- such as life in prison.
http://www.trysafetyfirst.com TrySafetyFirst

Technology is the only real solution to this problem. Bans and education may stop 40-50% which is a nice start, but the last time I checked was a really bad failing grade on any exam. See Video eblow for a 95% solution:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0kdmDXhkC8

Please understand driving is not a right, it is a privilege and we all have a responsibility to keep our roads as safe as possible. Each time there is an accident, we all pay for it. How do you think insurance rates are determined and who do think pays for the attending officers and fire rescue teams?
John

The punishments should be as severe as those for drunk drivers.
mike

“a highway is a safe place to send a text” – Wow!
What happened to common sense?

When traveling behind another car, just by viewing their driving, I can always tell if a person is on the phone or texting. When I pass them, I look over and sure enough they have their phone in their hand.

As rich said below, these people are very selfish.
Mike LaBonte

This story had some bias in the way it was reported, and it overlooked an interesting recent study indicating that text messaging bans in 4 states have so far had no effect at all:

http://www.iihs.org/news/rss/pr012910.html

Including that info, and sticking to facts, is just journalism. That said, I concur that playing with any gadget while driving has to have negative effects on safety.

For an interesting followup story, you might try to look up accident history statistics for the portions of I-93 in Andover and highway 3 in Tyngsboro, both just south of the New Hampshire border. Since the NH texting ban went into effect, my sense is that there has been an increase in accidents just south of the NH/MA border, where NH commuters all pull out their phones in the same area, as soon as they enter Massachusetts.
Barron Laycock

I think it is easy to misunderstand the statistics quoted in the referenced article about laws not having an effect on accident rates. Until people actually stop based on someone being vigorously prosecuted for .rtexting while driving and having caused a serious accident, no one will pay much attention. But it is so obvious that having your attention diverted by texting is dangerous that it should just be common sense to avoid doing so. The fact that people do not stop or refrain is a reflection of just how reckless and cavalier people have become about life and death issues and personal safety. We are existing in dream worlds, barely apying attention to the world around us, and some of us are going to violently surprised when some idiot crashes into us while texting.
Richard

My wife was recently badly injured by a 20 year old who drove into her on a straight road in broad daylight on dry roads. Was he texting? Don’t know for sure, but I’d bet on it. I’d like to see him do a year in jail for the suffering he has caused us.
drphil

The real question should be : no texting or allowing it while stopped, on the side of the road! The 2nd option would be more complicated, but may be necessary.
Peter Petraitis

We have a couple of generations of young people who were never told ‘no’. They also grew up with electronic nannies. They do not get other human beings nor want to. They live only for themselves. They are autistic emotionally stunted unempathetic Reaganites. They will be the undoing of the human race.
Brock Bose

The fact that we are even discussing this is direct evidence of how irrational people can be. Driving is a privilege, not a right. It has been demonstrated that people can not drive and text safely. That is it, end of discussion. If you want to text, ride a bus or take a train. If you get caught doing it, you should be heavily fined, and repeat offenders should have their licenses revoked.
Harold

In good weather I ride a bike to work 12 miles each way but to be honest I worry more about distracted drivers than drunk drivers. If a distracted driver hits another car the damage is usually minor, hitting a bicyclist is a whole other story.

And being a bicyclist I a have a good vantage point from which to observe behavior. This is going to sound sexist but on my way home between 5 and 7 PM I would estimate that 40-50% of women are on their mobile devices, the percentage for men is much less. And the percentage of texters versus talkers gets worse by the month, texting is so much more dangerous.
Slack

I know better and guess what, I don’t text while driving. And I guess it comes as no surprise that such a law has had no impact in other states, as another poster noted. That’s because it’s virtually impossible to enforce, until after the fact. So really what it amounts to is something else to charge a driver with after the accident. Soon, checking phone records of every driver with a cellphone in his or her possession at the time of a crash will be commonplace. What’s amazing is that enough people are doing this that others feel we need a law to curb it. Can’t legislate common sense, folks.
john chin

there is no reason at all for people to be texting while driving. Many drivers don’t drive well anyway and adding any distractions just magnifies the situations. Human beings cannot repaired like cars.
Adria

That’s great that we all agree that texting while drive is a huge concern, but the discuss needs to be around viable solutions to ceasing this idiotic behavior. Recently becoming a mother has changed my behavior while driving, even though I never texted and always used an earpiece. What does it take to change behavior? That is the issue. Parents need to discuss with their kids and friends need to stop friends. I hang up on friends who drive while on cell phone. The buck stops with ourselves.
Mike LaBonte

Adria is right, the focus should be on finding solutions. But drphil has a good point about the question of whether to allow texting at the side of the road. Doing so will surely increase the accident rate as people get in and out of traffic, and find poor places to stop.

As to the story by Sacha Pfeiffer, I take issue with her position that texting on the highway is worst, with no evidence to support the assertion. We need some journalism here.

If technology is going to offer a solution, maybe it will be 100% hands free voice activated texting. But some people insist there should be zero distractions, in which case there should be no such thing as a car with 2 or more seats.