The amount of texting & driving out there is making me nervous

[MetroMPG]

I typically ride my bike for most of my local trips, year round.

I've only ever had one negative car vs. bicycle "incident" with a driver who "right hooked" me a year or so back. (She overtook me... almost! Then braked and turned right before she had quite finished the "overtaking" part.)

But I don't worry too much about stuff like that. (By which I mean - I stay alert to what's going on around me, and am comfortable with the proactive/reactive things I can do to avoid problems.)

No, the thing that is beginning to worry me is the amount of texting and driving I'm seeing. (And I'm not talking about the epidemic of texting while stopping/stopped at traffic lights.)

• Last year, a neighbour's kid wrote off the family's Honda by smashing into the back of a parked car on a quiet, straight residential road. In the middle of a sunny freaking afternoon! Texting? That was my first thought. His dad told me his kid swears he wasn't using his phone, but I sure would have been looking at the cell phone records. (Do they even show that kind of detail?)

• A week ago I watched a kid drive literally half a block in a residential area while fiddling with her phone (presumably!), fixated on her lap. I considered yelling in her open window as she went by just to freak her out.

• Today I watched another kid in a Chevy Avalanche pickup pulling a 20-something foot boat & trailer... driving along fiddling with his phone. Doing the ubiquitous "if I keep it below the window line, no one will notice!" routine.

Obviously the texters aren't all kids. But these people are starting to scare me. I think the risk of getting smashed into from behind is on the rise. Yes, I have a little mirror. And I check it a lot! Lately I've been putting more thought into taking routes where the overtakaing traffic is at least going slower.

I cannot comprehend people doing this.

Also: GET OFF MY LAWN!

/rant

[Fat Charlie]

Or get their attention with something rear facing.

[Frank Lee]

I've been right-hooked on bike too. That lady did it on purpose though. Then I caught up to her and came within a mm of breaking her window out when I hit it.

But yeah, texting and cell phones... there are two major employers in this town and they are not smart enough to stagger their shift times; when day shift ends it is like toilets flushing during SuperBowl halftime: millions all at once. Evidently there must be a whole day's worth of really important communications to catch up on by then. One can watch the traffic for a while and notice that 4 out of 5 commuters have phones stuck to their heads... I suppose the other 1 out of 5 have their phones down low, texting.

[Cobb]

I just dial 911 and report it. Ive seen cars facing the wrong way on the roads near me.

I set my phone up so all I have to do is press send to dial 911 and it goes to speaker. They note the report and on 2 occasions Ive had follow up calls for more details.

[t vago]

Today, I happened to experience some idiot SUV driver that was texting while merging onto an 70 MPH speed limit interstate. Sadly, this is the norm around here.

[user removed]

My friends son sent 7000 text messages in a month. His dad got a $600 bill for the cell phone. I asked the kid how long it took him to do a text message, about a minute.

Thats about 110 hours of texting a month, almost 3 weeks of potential (assuming he worked) work time wasted. The kid had worked 3 months from age 18 to 21. I missed 3 months in 30 years between jobs.

Same kid just got out of Marine Corps boot camp, maybe the Jarheads got his head on straight. He did real good and gained 24 pounds in basic training.

Been close to several head ons here with young women texting while driving with half of their car in my friggin lane, on a road with a ditch barely 18 inches from the pavement!

Yeah Metro, I've refined my situational awareness over almost 50 years driving and riding cars, bikes, and motorcycles, but the head ons are the hardest to anticipate.
As Johnny Cash sang "I keep my eyes wide open all the time". I could probably get hit in the rear end several times every day I drive or ride, had a full sized truck two car lengths behind me on my bike today in a 55 zone, when I was going 50. A twist of the throttle and 65 MPH left the Moron behind, gas mileage be damned.

regards
Mech

[HydroJim]

My girlfriend and I are both 2 teenagers that never text and drive. It's just not worth it. I don't understand what the addiction to being in contact with people all the time is. I like my alone time. Being away from the world is so relaxing. People are just stupid I guess.

On a side note, if everyone drove manual transmissions, there would be a lot less texting and driving...I think.

[MetroMPG]

HydroJim - there's hope yet for the future!

We all get to do stupid things in our youth that the vast majority of us can look back on and marvel at how fortunate we were to escape unharmed (and unharming) to then proceed on to adulthood.

Texting and driving is a brand new stupid thing to do in addition to all the old things! How exciting for everybody.

[War_Wagon]

We have a lot of satellite families where I am. As in, mom & dad are in another country making all the money, and the kids get set up here with a nice place to live and a new car while they go to fancy private schools. They all talk/text constantly. None have ever driven before. They all have insanely expensive cars because the "status" is important to the family. Picture an 18 year old Asian girl with a new driver sticker on the back of her car, in a brand new Lambo, trying to text while merging into traffic. You all have no idea how safe you are wherever you are compared to me!! ha ha

[gone-ot]

I swear it seems as though the states are using carnival "bumper-car" rides as the driving test for passing out drivers licenses these days! To go along with the "fogged mirror" requirement.