Texting While Driving - Anonymous Survey

[Cubes]

Quick question is this for a school project or something haha?

It's sort of like a capstone project. The whole premise of this course is to explore problems, research, survey, prototype, construct, develop, advertise, and market a product. It's an independent study course that Lively and I are doing with two others.
TL;DR Yes, it's school. But it's a very open ended project.

Edit: Regarding your position on texting while driving, I totally understand. I get that it can become easy if you've practiced, and you've been doing it for a while. However, there is a psychological term that describes this behavior called an Immortality Complex. This is essentially the belief that "It won't happen to you." Based on the statistics that I've found, not necessarily mentioned in this thread, that is a very dangerous behavior. Keep in mind that using a Speech-To-Text device, something that doesn't even require you to look at the machine, measures a 3.06 on the Cognitive Distraction Scale. That registers as being a greater distraction than using a handheld device.

Likewise, I'm fully aware of the fact that I cannot solely sway your outlook on the subject. After all, my purpose is to solve the problem with a product, not make an advocacy speech. I can only ask that you do your own research, and see the true danger behind it.

 

[WookiePack101]

Jeez, I hate these threads, rants and so called "problem solving." Yeah, I get it. Texting while driving is a serious hazard because you are distracted, and are 23% more likely to crash. We've all heard it over and over. People need to shut up about this and chill. I'm not sure about countries other than the USA, so let's just talk about that.

I live near New York City, so I'm always in the city or suburbs, and constantly on highways. The government (remember, I'm speaking about America) takes our police forces away from serious crime, such as rape, murder, gangs, child abuse, drug overdose, and moves them onto a highway. To stop texting. Why? Because the government is corrupt. They would rather get $200 from somebody texting and driving instead of possibly saving a a human's life, and the family's life.

Living in a city which is mostly forest, what some would call suburbs, I know this as a fact that most driving deaths occur from drunk drivers. Maybe people should worry about that. Oh wait, that'll never happen, people are too immature to realize their favorite drinks cause multiple deaths annually. They don't want to shoot themselves in the foot, so they found an easy pick where they can make a large profit off of.

Overall, while I'm against texting and driving, people need to stop worrying about the small things and get their priorities straight.

 

[Cubes]

Jeez, I hate these threads, rants and so called "problem solving." Yeah, I get it. Texting while driving is a serious hazard because you are distracted, and are 23% more likely to crash. We've all heard it over and over. People need to shut up about this and chill. I'm not sure about countries other than the USA, so let's just talk about that.

I live near New York City, so I'm always in the city or suburbs, and constantly on highways. The government (remember, I'm speaking about America) takes our police forces away from serious crime, such as rape, murder, gangs, child abuse, drug overdose, and moves them onto a highway. To stop texting. Why? Because the government is corrupt. They would rather get $200 from somebody texting and driving instead of possibly saving a a human's life, and the family's life.

Living in a city which is mostly forest, what some would call suburbs, I know this as a fact that most driving deaths occur from drunk drivers. Maybe people should worry about that. Oh wait, that'll never happen, people are too immature to realize their favorite drinks cause multiple deaths annually. They don't want to shoot themselves in the foot, so they found an easy pick where they can make a large profit off of.

Overall, while I'm against texting and driving, people need to stop worrying about the small things and get their priorities straight.

I admire the points that you've presented. I do agree that there are some things that merit more governmental intervention, but that does not excuse the fact that it is a problem. Overall, my goal for this project is not to get police to enforce it more. That would be a poor choice, for the reasons that you pointed out. Instead, the goal of the project is to stop the problem before it happens, and in a way that keeps these traffic stops from happening in the first place.

In the end, it is a problem. However, it is not a problem that I seek to solve through government intervention. Rather, to stop the problem before it can start, by eliminating the distraction all-together.

 

[KelsieBree]

I filled it out too. :3 Good luck with whatever you're trying to do.

 

[Zauron]

Filled out the survey, good luck with that project.

 

[MCGamerzism]

Never even knew texting and driving was a big implication...filled it out anyways

 

[Col_StaR]

Filled that out for you, Cubes.

When I got to the, "what do you see other drivers doing?" section, I suddenly recalled two instances on my driving experience.
One was a woman who was trying to take a picture of a sunset on the side of the road with her iPhone while driving. She was balancing the phone vertically on top of the steering wheel while pointing everything to the sunset on her passenger side window. She almost ran herself off the road twice, but that never stopped her from getting her picture.
The other time was another woman and her friend taking selfies on the highway. Like, seriously?!

 

[NuJaan]

Although I do not drive, I understand that texting while driving is a serious problem. It's great that you are spreading awareness on this topic.

 

[Jst2Strong]

Don't even have a WORKING phone ;-; But still filled it out

 

[Creepah]

This is a very valid point, thanks for bringing it up. Over here in New Zealand, the amount of people you see on phones, doing make up, eating and just generally multitasking while driving is horrendous. It only just became illegal a couple years ago.

Here's a video that shows the effects of this. It's quite disturbing, be warned, however it gets the point across.

 

[Cinci | Kame]

I'll admit I have texted while "driving", but I normally only text at stoplights or something. Still not good but the survey seemed a bit misleading when it comes to that.

 

[Mooclan]

As a person who doesn't actually drive themselves but has seen multiple other people texting while driving - and almost veering off of the road in the process, I can really say that this is something that concerns me.

-snippity snip snap-

While I'm not necessarily against what you said, driving while texting is a massive issue as well, as shown by the facts that Cubes posted.
This might not be the biggest or most dangerous thing in good ol' 'Murica, but...

That seems like a whole lot of deaths a day... And that's only teenagers!
That's 11 peoples' families who lost their children because of driving negligence, which probably could have been prevented by a simple thing like not texting while driving.
Sure, there may be more prevalent or dangerous issues, but we shouldn't belittle the one right in front of us - texting or being distracted while driving.