Driving and Cell Phones

AKIE BERMISS: I am a modern(ish) man.  I have a smartphone, I have a bluetooth, I have a laptop, and I drive an automobile.  I communicate, for the most part, via the internet: emails, chats, text messages, BBM and so on.  And I make no bones about it.  I still sit down and use a pen from time to time.  I write letters that need stamps.  I know how to spell (most things… “ceiling” still gives me trouble even after all these years) and I read paperback books.  And when it comes to living in this modern age, I believe everything comes down to will and intelligence.

Like any tools, weapons, or supplements — technological devices are both a convenience and a responsibility.  Give a person a knife and you can be sure that they will be able to cut things.  Whether those things are smart or helpful things to cut (food, ropes, clothes…) or stupid or useless things to cut (other people, themselves…) — is not something we will know beforehand.  With the added convenience of cutting edges comes the responsibility to know which things need cutting and which things need not be cut.  The same goes for cars — with speed comes the responsibility to know how fast, and when to go and when to stop, and which direction to go in.  This is a simple but ultimately constant rule: with power comes responsibility.

And responsibility, for me, boils down to two simple things: will and intelligence.

So when it comes to driving in the car and talking on the phone, its not enough to just be very intelligent.  It also important that you have the ability to exercise the judgments that you know to be right.  I know, when I drive my car, that I should always keep my eyes on the road.  Of course, we make allowances within reason.  I need to check my speed, sometimes I scan radio frequencies, if someone is in the car with may I may occasionally look over at them.  But I am aware that we are moving, constantly moving (and sometimes even accelerating) and that my responsibility first and foremost is to move accurately and safely.  Not to show my engagement in a conversation or make sure that we don’t hear the same Adam Lambert song on the radio for the fifth time.  While intelligence may have informed my decision to make driving the first priority — my will may not be strong enough for me to exercise that idea over my body.

We can think of it as holding a baby.  Whatever else you may be carrying (barring a motion-sensitive nuclear device) its not nearly as important as that baby.  If you find that you’re in a situation where you’ve lost balance or maneuverability — which item do you drop?  Simple — not the baby.  If its four steaming hot triple-capps in one hand (are my liberals listening?!) and a baby in the other, prepare to lose your coffee.  And more importantly, BE prepared when you pick up the baby, to lose whatever else you are carrying.

This is how I view driving and talking on the phone.  I use bluetooth so I don’t usually have to deal with the phone and the steering wheel simultaneously.  But back before it was illegal to use the phone handset and drive, I used to have to drop my phone all the time.  Sometimes in the middle of an important call (though if its that important, my friends, consider not making it from your car) some jerk comes flying out of the right-hand land, cuts me off in the middle-lane and nearly careens into the divider in the left-hand lane.  And so I have to get on the brakes hard, and sometimes you got to swerve, and the car goes out of control for an instant.  And, in that moment, you lose your grip on the phone.  Let it fall, my friends.  The reflex is to go for the phone as well, but in this instance: frack it.  You can pick it up anytime and use it.  Your life, however, is harder to pick up off the floor (believe me, I’ve tried.)

So it may be a question of intelligence, and it may be a question of experience.  But also you need to be in possession of the ability to figure out what you can and can’t do.   Some people can multi-task.  They can dial a number, turn on the brights, light a cigarette, and put their coffee back in the cup-holder all in one fluid motion.  Others need to organize themselves and plan things out: turn on the brights. stop. sip my coffee.  stop. put the coffee away. stop. light my cigarette. stop.  who was I going to call again?

And still, others need not try to do anything of the sort.  They are best staying completely focused.  Will and intelligence.  I don’t think it simply boils down to IQ, I think there are plenty of highly intelligent people who should NEVER get behind the wheel of a car.  It has to do with adequate intelligence and the strength to apply it properly. And, of course, practice.  If you put in a 500 – 1,000 miles a week on average, you’re probably pretty accustomed to the ways of the road and driving (especially if its the same route everyday).  I fit in somewhere in that category, but I’m often driving to completely different destinations each time I get into the car.  So while I may know part of the route like the back of my hand, the last five or six turns may be brand-spanking new.  Probably not the best time for me to try and place a call… or check my email… or take a really cute picture on my phone.

And I know that. So I generally don’t.  Even if the phone rings or buzzes or announces that something really awesome may or may not be happening!  And I stand before you — a man at peace and in one piece.  Knock on wood: its worked so far.

HOWARD MEGDAL: While Akie calls for personal responsibility, as a good leftist, I will instead turn to the government for assistance here.

Look, we know that drinking and driving is deadly. Thousands of people are killed every year on the roadways due to drunk driving. Millions of dollars have been spent on educating the public on this fact, in schools, even on television by the beer companies themselves!

And still it continues. As far as I can tell, the only thing that works is equipping all cars with a turn-on breathalyzer. There are those that complain about the inconvenience, which is why we see them only as mandatory in a few states for multiple DUI offenders. This seems ludicrous to me. Are we really saying, as a people, that we’d rather thousands of people die each year than be forced to spend five seconds breathing into a tube?

Unfortunately, perfectly sober people impair their ability to drive just as keenly by talking on cell phones, or more dangerously still, by texting. And unlike drunk driving, the technology does not yet exist to measure a person’s ability to combine a sense of entitlement with a willful disregard for human life that comes with the decision to text and drive.

So until that happens, I think we need to take a different approach. As Akie says, not everyone is created equally-if we assume that texting reduces a person’s ability to drive by 40 percent, just for argument’s sake, then 60 percent of one person’s ability may still fall within the lines of capable driving. (Remember, one doesn’t need a perfect score on the driving test to get a license).

And the very aspects of a personality that make someone likely to text and drive- myopic, lack of interest in other human life- make an education process like the one undertaken for decades about drunk driving likely to be as effective as… the one undertaken for decades about drunk driving. It is likely to be a bigger problem, since while society dictates that most drinking occurs during a relatively limited set of hours, people send and receive texts 24/7- and always have their phones with them. It’s like a nation of electronic flask-carriers.

Instead, we need to accept that this is going to happen- and test for it. You’re so certain you can drive well, even while texting or talking on the phone? Prove it. We give licenses for driving cars, but have different tests and licenses for driving trucks. Take the driving test while one observes and another texts you. If you pass, you have the opportunity to drive while texting or talking. But be forewarned- the test is tough, and your ability to drive has been curtailed significantly.

The flip side of this is, if you are caught driving while texting or talking on a cell phone, and you aren’t licensed to do so… you lose your license. Period. The government is allowing an opportunity for you to put your money where your mouth is, and if you fail to do so, either by failing the test or electing not to take it, then you are no different than the 14-year-old who decides to drive anyway-or more to the point, than the guy with three DUIs who had his license taken away, but once again gets behind the wheel.

With the stakes so high, people are bound to text and drive less. That is, those people who aren’t capable of doing both- which I suspect is the overwhelming majority of people. For those who can, there’s no problem- in fact, this presents an opportunity for those people to show off.

Either way, this hits people personally, which is the only way we’re ever solving this problem. And make no mistake about it: this is every bit as much of a problem as drunk driving. And while the tech fix is here for that one, texting and driving requires some more creative thinking.

Tags: bluetooth, CARS, cellphone, driving, drunk driving, multi-tasking, smartphone, texting while driving

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 10th, 2010 at 12:00 am and is filed under Arts & Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.