Unclutterer

1. Posted by Amanda - 07/21/2009

   I’m sorry this happened to you and glad that you are not hurt. I try to not even talk on the phone while driving. I think the game is a great way to prove the point. There could be a whole post on behavioral clutter especially with BlackBerrys.

2. Posted by Kirsten - 07/21/2009

   I don’t recommend texting while driving, but that game, in fairness, is not the same thing.

3. Posted by Simple Llama - 07/21/2009

   I don’t need to play – I know I’m an awful driving multi-tasker. That’s why I don’t talk on the phone, text, tweet, or do any other ridiculous stuff while I’m driving. It’s the folks who don’t realize they’re terrible at it that we have to worry about. My wife is an awful driver when she’s on the phone, but is convinced that she’s great. She tailgates, is extremely slow to brake / react. Quite disturbing, and I won’t drive with her anymore while she’s talking.

4. Posted by Raine - 07/21/2009

   Thank you for posting this.

   I was in a car wreck in April due to someone texting – they hit my car, which knocked it into the other lane, and I was broadsided by a large truck. I’m still out of work, hoping to return next week, with permanent nerve damage and loss of motion in my right wrist.

5. Posted by Jacki Hollywood Brown - 07/21/2009

   Thank goodness you are alright and you didn’t run into this guy:

   http://www.cbc.ca/cp/Oddities/.....013AU.html

   who was watching a porn film while driving!

6. Posted by Martin - 07/21/2009

   Agreed with the above. I don’t agree with texting while driving either, but that game is no where near the same:

   -You can’t vary your speed.
   -You are required to text with a mouse.
   -The software on the PDA doesn’t auto correct.
   -The person you send to doesn’t understand you unless you type everything exactly right.
   -You are forbidden from using the keypad, and there’s no punctuation on the device, meaning that this experience is completely unlike any you’ve had driving OR texting.

   Of *course* your results will be dismal. I understand making a point, but this game–it’s fiction.

7. Posted by Tyler@FrugallyGreen - 07/21/2009

   I’m embarrassed to admit to having done this in the past. After a close call, I realized how ridiculous it was and have stopped.

   However, I should mention that I wasn’t doing it just to be social. In the profession I work in, we are constantly on the move, traveling from project to project throughout a day and needing to stay in touch with people to get our work done.

   I know a number of people that I work with that still do the same dumb things that I did before I realized the danger. I try to warn them about it without being…overbearing, but at the same time, I understand why they’re doing it. They’re under constant pressure to perform at their job and think that emailing while driving is the only way to keep up.

   I, on the other hand, have just begun to work on my time management skills. I will continue to do so and, hopefully, lead by example.

8. Posted by Rue - 07/21/2009

   I will admit to having done it in the past. However, in my defense, I wasn’t even looking at my phone – I was texting by counting the number of clicks to make sure I got the right letter, lol. Ever since I got my iPhone though, I don’t text unless I’m sitting at a red light. Too difficult.

   There was an article on MSN a few days ago where they took a couple of guys out onto an airport runway and tested their driving while texting, and then tested them driving while impaired (I think up to the legal limit). Texting was actually worse than driving while impaired.

9. Posted by mary b - 07/21/2009

   I don’t text at all, so me texting while driving will never happen. Eating, drinking coffee or passing things back to a 5 yo in the backseat, well that is another story.

   Car & Driver did a great road test about texting while driving:
   http://www.caranddriver.com/fe.....t_-feature

10. Posted by knitwych - 07/21/2009

    I don’t text, so I don’t understand the addiction to it, but I definitely think that texting while driving is one of the stupidest, most selfish and irresponsible things one can do. The previous poster (Tyler) said that job pressure prompts people to do this. While that may be true of some cases, it’s definitely not the rule. I see a lot of teens texting while driving, and I don’t think we’ve got a crop of wunderkid CEOs on the loose in Greensboro, NC. Regardless, it is a STUPID excuse. After all, how much work are you going to get done if you’re laid up in the hospital or sitting in jail — or on a slab in the morgue — because you’ve crashed into someone/something? What is so freaking important that it can’t wait 5 or 10 minutes until you either get to work or to someplace where you can pull over, stop your car, and then carry on your communications?

    I think texting and, in many cases, talking on a cell phone while driving are every bit as dangerous as driving drunk. I don’t even like to talk on the cell while driving, and when I do it, I use the hands-free. There have been plenty of times when my phone has rung while I was driving, and I let the call roll to voicemail rather than risk the distraction. I see enough drivers executing stupid maneuvers without the distraction of texting or phones. Every time, I think, “You @sshole, you’re one of the reasons I don’t carry a handgun. Be glad for that, because if I had one, I’d probably shoot you just to get you off the road and make things a little safer for the rest of us.”

11. Posted by Mary Jane - 07/21/2009

    I have to agree with Kirsten and Martin. The fact of the matter is, many people are terrible drivers and would cause accidents no matter what the distraction, and this simulation is not realistic.

    I often text while driving, and I’ve never gotten so much as a moving violation. I’m familiar enough with my phone that I don’t need to look at the keypad while I use one hand to text while wating for a red light to change. I would never text on the highway – driving at such high speeds in close proximity to other vehicles demands constant attention to the road.

    I’m terribly sorry for your accident, but it seems like it was caused by a terrible driver with no regard for others. We need common sense more than we need legislation about what we can and can’t do in our cars because of a few bad apples.

12. Posted by Leann - 07/21/2009

    The real issue is being selfish. I know of a case when a teen was texting while driving, smashed into the back of a van and killed a child. What could possibly have been so important about sending the text at that moment, for so many lives to be ruined?

13. Posted by Michelle - 07/21/2009

    When I read this in the paper I was amazed by the stats on accidents. What amazes me other than the danger while driving is the down right rudeness of texting or being on the phone when hanging with friends or family… seriously, learn to be where you are when you are there.

14. Posted by penguinlady - 07/21/2009

    People can be stupid: just two weeks ago, I saw a man driving while doing a Rubik’s Cube! (Not kidding – he was steering with his elbows while his hands manipulated the cube.)

15. Posted by Jeannine - 07/21/2009

    Since the majority of car accidents are caused by (1) high speeds, (2) drunk driving, or (3) texting while driving, I completely agree that texting while driving is dangerous. This is a behavior I need to try desperately never to do (I’ve been guilty of it a few times).

    However, those of us that live out here on the beautiful Great Plains have a slightly different driving situation. We would NEVER have to change lanes as often as that game wants you to, and we also never drive on a road that has 6 lanes!! When cruising down a highway where another car cannot be seen for miles, I think it might be slightly less dangerous. However, if I find myself driving through Minneapolis or Omaha – I would definitely not try to text. Nevertheless, I will make a very strong effort to stop, no matter where I’m driving.

    Thanks for this posting!

16. Posted by JJ - 07/21/2009

    Here in Alaska, a young man was acquitted on charges in a fatality involving a DVD player. If I remember correctly, two people were killed in the crash. There was inconclusive evidence that the driver was actually watching the DVD player at the time of the crash.

    I don’t text; it’s illegal to do so while driving here anyway. My biggest distractions have always involved my children. We have driving rules for bad weather that dictate no one talks to me or tries to get my attention unless it is an emergency or they see a moose on or near the road.

17. Posted by Terry - 07/21/2009

    I totally agree drivers are more distracted and unattentive as ever, and texting is a serious issue.

    Still, this game has nothing to do with showing how distracted a driver can be. Its premise is that you are switching lanes every x seconds and need to keep up with that and a bunch of other things. Its easy to create a game, any game, to seem like you can’t keep up.

    I think the issue with most texting dangers is far more sublime. It’s someone slowly drifting out of their lane because they’re distracted, not trying to madly switch lanes.

    I think they’re more like driving zombies then high speed lane changers.

    Yes, too many people now focus their attention to distractions and feel driving itself can take a back seat and its a problem, but little displays like this game do no favors to resolving anything

18. Posted by Carol - 07/21/2009

    I’ve never texted in my life and I’ve never needed to. I have a cell phone with pre-paid minutes for emergencies and even then I hardly ever use my cell phone. People did just fine without all this technology ages ago so I see no reason to have it now. Maybe as a convenience but that’s it. Therefore I see no reason to use this technology while driving. For the record I’m only 36 so it’s not like I’m confused by technology.

    On a bit of side note, there was an accident in front of where I work yesterday. A lady with a toddler in the back seat drove the front half of her car under a cement mixer. The cement mixer had stopped to make a left hand turn (they even used their turn signal) and the street doesn’t have a dedicated turn lane. The lady never even hit her brakes. I’m sure she had to be distracted by something to miss a stopped cement mixer. Fortunately she and her child survived.

19. Posted by Lori Paximadis - 07/21/2009

    Weekend before last I was driving to the grocery store, and the guy behind me in his convertible was not only smoking a cigarette and drinking a coffee but also READING THE NEWSPAPER! He nearly rear-ended me more than once.

    There are all kinds of bad drivers out there, and all kinds of distractions. Anything that requires you to take your eyes off the road for more than a split second while you’re moving is a bad idea, whether it’s texting or fiddling with the GPS or looking at the map or finding junior’s dropped binky or putting on mascara or checking to make sure the drive-through didn’t put ketchup on your burger or whatever. All common sense, you’d think.

    I will step out on a limb, though, to say that I don’t think that ALL drivers are incapable of driving well while talking on the phone. Those who drive with other people in the car have conversations all the time while driving, and I don’t see it as any different if it’s on the phone or in person, so long as you don’t need to take your eyes off the road while operating your phone. That said, there are some people who just *can’t* concentrate on driving while talking (I’ve been in the car with a few), and EVERYONE should avoid having emotionally or intellecutally intense conversations of any kind while driving.

20. Posted by cv - 07/21/2009

    @Lori, talking on the phone is more dangerous than talking to a passenger (see http://roomfordebate.blogs.nyt.....technology). Studies show that a conversation with a passenger will naturally adjust to what’s going on, such as a merge, whereas a person on the other end of a cell phone will keep right on talking and the driver will be trying to maintain an uninterrupted conversational flow.

    I’m astonished by all the responses here that amount to “Texting while driving is a terrible idea! I only do it at red lights, or on empty roads, or in an emergency, or without looking at the keyboard. All the other people who text while driving don’t have my special circumstances and are just being irresponsible!” Way to rationalize your behavior.

21. Posted by Andy Ebon - 07/21/2009

    While visiting a friend on a consulting assignment, I was terrified by his attempt at texting-while-driving.

    Finally, I told him, “Either stop texting, let me drive, or drop me off.” I have been featuring him in a presentation segment where I speak about ‘The Myths of Multitasking.”

    I am not big on excessive lawmaking, but I could go for ‘no texting while driving and hands-free-only-cell-phone-use (as is the case in some states)’

    Andy
    The Wedding Marketing Blog

22. Posted by Tim - 07/21/2009

    I’m curious to hear how others were doing with this simulation. My reaction time was 0.07 seconds slower while texting, I missed 3% more gates, and I didn’t see the lady in gray.

23. Posted by Christine - 07/21/2009

    The best was the guy I saw on a major highway playing the trumpet while driving. What are these people thinking?

24. Posted by Looby - 07/21/2009

    As someone who works in an emergency department I, like CV, am astonished at the rationalization in some of these comments.
    Much like your comments on basements (two types; those that have flooded and those that have yet to flood) there are probably only two types of drivers that think they have the skill to text (or call) and drive; those that have been in an accident and those that will be in an accident.
    No matter how good a driver you think you might be you have to assume that all the hundreds of people around you are not and might swerve, pull out, brake or step in front of you at any given moment, while you are busy “counting the clicks” on your cellphone.
    I do hope your texts are absolutely vital so you can explain their importance to someone’s widow or grieving mother.

25. Posted by deb - 07/21/2009

    Honestly, unless your text message is more important than anyone else’s life, including your own, just knock it off. I wish those thing were never invented. We all managed perfectly fine without them, didn’t we?

26. Posted by Justin - 07/21/2009

    Funny enough, the ad on the bottom of you RSS feed is for…

    a Blackberry.

27. Posted by Deborah Marchant - 07/21/2009

    DWD – Driving While Drugged

    One of my pet peeves really is people who DWD or who are driving while drugged. If that lost texting soul in a Jaguar had been stopped by an expert who could easily identify what drug he was high on – I am only speculating here – but the expert could have identified cocaine. I live in the Seattle metro area with LOTS of people who are DWD and I can tell who they are now. Even elderly people can be high on prescription drugs and are swerving around or are driving strangely while driving. I watched an elderly woman even drive up on a city curve. I actually pulled up in front of this DWD driver and stopped her from driving. I even put her in my car and drove her home! So watch out for DWDs along with the DWIs, and other LSs (Lost Souls) that are DCOR (Definitely Cluttering Our Roads).

    Here is a Google Search link for DWD – Driving While Drugged: http://www.google.com/search?c.....8;oe=UTF-8

    - Be Prepared -

28. Posted by Mike - 07/21/2009

    As a cyclist, it seems that all my close calls have been with people who are on the phone. This is illegal in Seattle, but doesn’t seem to matter. If you have a call to make, who cares that you might crush a cyclist?

29. Posted by infmom - 07/21/2009

    It’s amazing how many people think that they are so important and the world can function so little without them, that they make excuses for all kinds of ridiculous behavior. How did oh-so-important people ever survive before the cell phone became ubiquitous?

    Need to get ahold of your kids or your office? Find a nice shady place to pull over. Or don’t even start the car until all your yacking and texting are done. Then turn the phone off and put it away. The number of true life and death emergencies anyone actually has to deal with is very small. For everything else–they can darn well leave a message or call you back.

30. Posted by luxcat - 07/21/2009

    I work in sales and spend several hours a day driving in heavy (and unpredictable) urban traffic. Somehow in the last few years my job description has apparantly expanded to include being able to magically do this safely while participating in a conference call or reading (and of course expected to respond in minutes!) email.

    Of course these expectations were much lighter before the advent of the blackberry.

    I don’t think it’s so much that there are “oh so important people” out there, but that the idiotic pressures of clients (and bosses) have driven half of us to the brink.

    I do use the phone occasionally (with a headset, law in my state) but I refuse to text and drive. Would you believe that in a one hour drive on a freeway from place to place I can find no less than THREE emails from the SAME person on the SAME topic asking me why I have not responded to their email yet?

    So before you criticize that doctor for not calling you back with your test results or the salesman for not answering your work email… think for a moment. Give them a reasonable amount of time to respond… They might be driving next to your daughter or your husband or your grandma.

31. Posted by Mletta - 07/21/2009

    Texting while driving, like doing ANYTHING else but driving while driving is putting lives at risk. Period.

    I recently wrote about this on my Web site, WellnessConcierge.com (Zen and the Art of Safe Driving, http://wellnessconcierge.com/JustDriveJuly0209.htm)

    Dr. Phil did a great show on this last year, Killer Texting (see: http://drphil.com/shows/show/1152)

    His guests included some clueless folks who insisted they were great at multitasking and then failed tests. It also included a young man who had killed someone else in an accident (if memory serves me)while he was multi-tasking.

    I, too, have been almost hit (on foot) by drivers who were talking on the cell and texting. I stopped them and these folks could care less. They were annoyed that I had the nerve to confront them.

    People will not change this behavior until either they or someone they love is killed. Yes, they are that selfish and irresponsible.

    Once upon a time people drove without cell phones. Somehow, life on the planet continued, business was done without nonstop texting, email checking, etc.

    I will NEVER understand how people can put such little value on their own lives.

    I get that they don’t care about others, but to put your own life at risk?

    I’m sorry, for those of you who do this, there is NOTHING more important than paying attention to the road and fellow drivers when you are behind the wheel. NOTHING.

    You are not doing billion dollar deals, saving lives with your text or anything else that makes a difference. If you were, you’d pull over to the side of the road and do your texting, etc.

    Thank you for raising this topic in your blog. It’s far more than “behavioral clutter” although that’s an intriguing term for a lot of things.

    Everyone who is out there multi-tasking of any kind while driving is a potential killer or victim.

32. Posted by Deborah Marchant - 07/21/2009

    For those reading this blog about texting and driving – AND you are clean and sober while driving – here is some info to help alleviate your apparent boredom or need for stimulation while driving.

    Here’s how not to be bored while waiting for a red light to change to green. http://www.ehow.com/how_501418.....light.html

    Here’s a Quick Questionnaire to Help You Identify Just How Bored (and Boring) You Are
    http://www.quibblo.com/quiz/2t.....-Your-Life

    And if you are REALLY bored there’s help for you at http://www.bored.com,

    But I do have ONE simple request. PLEASE wait until you are parked safely along side the road and have the engine turned off BEFORE Googling these links!

    Drive in Peace.

33. Posted by Lori Paximadis - 07/21/2009

    @cv: Thanks for the link to the debate. It is an interesting one.

34. Posted by AM - 07/21/2009

    @CV and others: I totally agree that the “I can text/phone safely” comments are pretty much just rationalizations. If you are operating a 1 to 2 ton vehicle, you pretty much should be doing just that only.

    As for the pace of modern society: to be blunt, people don’t push back enough. They make themselves a slave to the technology instead of thinking the guy who emailed them 3 times because of lack of response is an uptight loon.

    To a certain extent, it actually feels pretty to be so “indispensable” to the planet that you are on call 24/7, even when you should be doing something else, like operating a large piece of equipment at high speeds.

    If we all pushed back, and likewise, didn’t expect 24/7 from anyone else we’d have safer roads and saner schedules.

35. Posted by deb - 07/21/2009

    A few years ago we put a large addition on to our house. When we hired the contractor I told him not to call me or answer my calls while he was driving or I’d fire him. Yup, he had trouble with it but eventually “put up with my silliness”. Subcontractors would call me from their trucks, I’d ask if they were driving, if they were I told them to call back when they weren’t. I haven’t had much need for doctor calls in the past few years (thank goodness) but unless it were truly life or death why would I not do the same with them.

    If I ever email someone three times in one hour demanding a reply, please, put me out of my misery. I feel for people who must deal with bosses who demand this kind of instant response behavior. It must change. Life is precious.

36. Posted by Karyn - 07/21/2009

    Texting. Trumpet playing. Rubik’s Cube???

    Seriously, people: If you’re that bored, sell the car and start using public transportation. Or if you can afford a Jaguar, you can probably afford to hire a driver who might actually pay attention to the driving. Either way, you can fiddle with text messaging and Rubik’s Cubes to your heart’s content, though most buses and trains, at least, tend to frown on playing a musical instrument. Terrible violation of Our Freedoms, innit?

37. Posted by Alex - 07/21/2009

    I’ve texted occasionally while driving, though I mostly avoid it. It’s just if I get a text while I’m en route to somewhere, and people are asking me where I’m at. My phone has a full keyboard so I can type without looking at the screen at all except for a few glances to check if I spelled things right. And it takes me forever this way to text a message because my focus is on driving.

    But I don’t consider these excuses for irresponsible behavior. I always gauge my surrounding and if I’d be able to slowly type out a text message and not have it impair my driving ability or endanger anyone.

38. Posted by Kimberly - 07/21/2009

    I don’t text and drive. I do use my Ipod and have a coworker who rants how bad that is. I tell her it is better than me listening to the radio. I have a playlist called commute that has a combination of shorter podcasts and music. It is all stuff I enjoy. The ONLY time I touch it while driving is to turn it off and turn on the radio during sudden bad weather or traffic tie up.

39. Posted by Hilde - 07/22/2009

    In Germany, it is illegal to text while driving, and speaking on the phone is only allowed with a headset. Of course, you see enough people holding the phone to their ear, but I never saw someone texting!

40. Posted by Leonie - 07/22/2009

    I decided never to let a friend drive after I spent a morning with her (her children and my children in her car)
    She answered the phone every time it rang, and was so distracted both from the reason she got the call, and from the conversation itself.

    It made me extremely nervous and I was uncomfortable. I tried to raise the point and she indeed over estimated her ability to multi task.

    Frankly, just because one has not had an accident while talking on the phone before does not mean one never will.

    Thanks for bringing attention to this and I’m glad you were not injured.

41. Posted by Vanessa - 07/22/2009

    I completely agree, but I have to raise a point that knitwych said. They made a joke about bad drivers being lucky that they don’t carry a handgun in the car. I know it was just a joke, but it’s a very serious topic for me. My second cousin’s dad was killed when he accidentally cut someone off while driving because he was on the phone- the other man had road rage, made her dad pull over, then shot him. Yes, being distracted while driving is very bad and no one should do it. But I think being an aggressive driver is worse, and it causes just as many accidents (and unfortunately, not accidents as well).

42. Posted by gypsy packer - 07/22/2009

    hospitalization, and the bills which cost me my house and had me living in the back of a pickup truck. I had no cell phone then, and the tourist who slammed me denied owning one, despite her age and social bracket, which would have profiled her as a heavy cell phone user.
    Folks who talk or text while driving incite me to road rage.

43. Posted by gypsy packer - 07/22/2009

    Oops! First half of my message got erased accidentally. Raine, I’ve been there, with the accident, injuries, broken bones, pain, etc. etc.

44. Posted by Sue - 07/22/2009

    I’m a cyclist, and it’s bad enough that some people seem to hate me simply because I’m there.

    Add people distracted by their gadgets into that mix and it’s scary. It doesn’t keep me off my bike but it does worry me.

    It’s not just texting. Our cars are full of things that take our attention away from the road in front of us. Texting is just another stupid thing people think they can do while behind the wheel.

    I’ve known several fellow cyclists who have been hit recently by distracted drivers. Just last week, a friend was killed by a driver who admitted he wasn’t paying attention, left his lane and went into the shoulder, hitting my friend and her companion.

    This will continue until we, as a society, become as outraged over distracted driving as we became over drunk driving. Until that time, people will continue to do stupid things behind the wheel, and will receive only minor penalities even if they take someone else’s life.

45. Posted by Peter - 07/22/2009

    I’ve always managed to be sensible and pull over when I text. I drive a lot and often very late (12am to 3am) and have seen some crazy stuff on the roads. If not for your own safety do it for everyone else.

46. Posted by Jude - 07/25/2009

    A 20-year-old who was a month short of graduating from college (and who had previously graduated from the high school where I work) died in December because she was texting.

47. Posted by Shana - 07/25/2009

    @Mary Jane: but you can’t legislate common sense — you CAN, however, legislate that Joe Schmoe can’t take the lives of others into his Blackberry hand just because he personally feels that he’s fine. My right not to be run off the road by a self-important, inconsiderate person outweighs your right to do whatever you want WHILE DRIVING A CAR. Period. You can rationalize it all you want, but it’s dangerous and you shouldn’t be doing it, no matter how good you THINK your reason is. Don’t you think that EVERYONE texting-while-driving thinks he or she is totally fine, in control, not endangering anybody? Yours is a selfish position.

48. Posted by Remember Kids, Don’t Text and Drive - TechnoBuffalo - 12/16/2009

    [...] [Via Unclutterer] [...]

49. Posted by lisa kennedy-cox - 01/27/2010

    Shana…thank you. I couldn’t have said it better myself. Mary Jane…knock it off…texting while driving is dangerous no matter which way you look at it. I agree, of course, that drunk driving is extremely dangerous, but because the driver is NOT LOOKING AT THE ROAD, texting is even more so.

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