Roughstuff

People always as me why I am using my phone and computer as much as I do. (In general....not while driving....)

I tell them: you have (even more than) the LIBRARY OF CONGRESS at your disposal, with all kinds of knowledge, humor, science and god knows what else. feast your eyes and mind!

If folks would use the NET this way, they wouldn't be looking at their phones when they are having dinner, they'd be able to have nice conversations about food, current events, yadda yadda.

Chuck Naill

You are correct. To compound the problem is the old men are driving their $80k retirement pickups that they couldn't parallel park or back between the lines if their lives depended on it. Yes, they are on FB so much the children look for other sites.

KPREN

I would like to believe that its not possible to multi task while driving but I did it daily flying airplanes in the soup. Flying on instruments and radios while talking to control on a radio, all without almost crashing.
I was taught with a formal program to multi task in an airplane but it took a serious commitment and a lot of time to do it safely.

I-Like-To-Bike

To compound the "problem", there are people who extrapolate from the foibles of dummies in their own family on to the behavior of the general population, or others who fabricate or repeat dumbbell stereotypes as representative of entire segments of the general population. Yes there is a problem but the one being addressed in this thread is ignorant bias.

JoeyBike

I'm not certain seniors are worse that others, especially "soccer moms" who helicopter over their kids every breath, even when the kids aren't present, and firmly believe that no good decision could EVER be crafted without their "all knowing" input.

As for seniors, we have NO excuse for this behavior. I'm 65 yo. I have a smart phone that I fk around with way more than I should. But I grew up in an age without portable phones. I've cycle toured solo across the USA FIVE TIMES without a phone. In a sense, I hate being tethered to the rest of the world 24-7. That said, when I go out to eat with my wife, or other friends of hers (I don't have any of my own **) I leave my gahdam phone AT HOME. If some "dire emergency" crops up I'll either deal with it or use her phone. And thank GOD my wife very rarely calls or texts me unless it is REALLY URGENT to do so. So when I am actually with her, i have no use for a phone.

**Well, I have a few friends here at BF but they NEVER CALL ME! My kind of friends! I didn't want to slight anyone here but can't blame anyone for not claiming me as a friend in a public forum.

I-Like-To-Bike

Just curious, where do you encounter all these distracted phone wielding helicoptering soccer moms and learn about their beliefs on raising their children - the internet?

LV2TNDM

I'll take that over motor vehicle anarchy and epidemic lawlessness behind the wheel! (Yeah, yeah, "Those who trade safety for freedom get neither" or other such gibberish.)

I don't see much of a difference between the police issuing a citation and a citizen doing same. The problem is, we have no police issuing citations. There's no traffic enforcement. Add to that the fact that people don't make enough money in America (44% of Americans earn $10.22/hr. or less.), giving a little economic incentive to improve behavior behind the wheel is a pretty effective way to address the problem.

Oh and I JUST learned that the owner of River City Bicycles in Portland, OR was nailed by a red light-running driver in June. Multiple injuries put him in the ICU for two weeks. Just one more almost fatal data point in the endless data points of drivers injuring, maiming, and killing other road users.

It's beyond an outrage at this point. There are MANY causes for driver anti-social behavior on our roads. I pin it directly on the problem of failed economic opportunity. Basically, when a population is struggling economically, they don't tend to have much time for doing things well or right, following rules, regulations and laws. And just look to other societies and this is obvious: lawless places like Somalia where poverty reigns, government is failed, and crime is rampant. Pollution, disease, crime, you name it, society is falling apart. Then look to prosperous nations with strong social democratic principles, you tend to have law-abiding, happy people.

The US is quickly falling from first-world status to something like Somalia. Our growing homeless camps are proof. Egregious driver behavior is another data point supporting the demise of American society.

But these things cannot be fixed overnight. Repairing the decimation of the American working class will take generations. Until then, we need to stop the killing on our roads. WAY MORE emphasis on road safety and enforcement is so badly needed. And why not pay concerned citizens to help police the situation?

You call it a "tattle-tale." I call it "whistleblowing." And remember, if YOU don't want to participate, YOU don't have to!

Calsun

"To compound the problem is the old men are driving their $80k retirement pickups" shows remarkable bigotry. You do not like old men in general or old men driving new pickup trucks that you cannot afford?

It used to bother me when I was a teenage and on bike rides there would be at least one middle aged man with a pot belly, often smoking, and sitting on an Italian racing bike that cost 4 times what I could afford to pay for a bike. But I got over it.

I see women putting on makeup on their morning commute and men and women driving with one hand while holding a cup of coffee or a hamburger or a cigarette, and not able to see their left side mirror when merging with traffic. Cell phones have made the situation much more commonplace and although there are hands free laws that have been on the books for many years in my state it is never ever enforced by the LEOs.

Two things that would help a great deal would be to have the cell phones shut down messaging when traveling at speeds greater than 20 mph. My cars have not allowed me to enter a destination in the navigation system unless the vehicle was at a complete stop. Easy to do the same for cell phones.

The second thing is to use traffic cameras to spot people using a cell phone which is easy to do. A computer can scan images of motorists and detect a person holding a cell phone with present technology and 100% accuracy. The cameras are already photographing people who run red lights and recording their license plate information. If a motorist received a $1,000 fine they would quickly spend the $15 to buy a hands-free earbud.

Until someone attempts to fix the problem I avoid 90% of the highways around my house as the motorists are invariably speeding and not paying attention to anything on the road.

FBinNY 

It's both impossible and pointless to try to correlate distracted drivers with any demographic group.

This issue isn't about demographic groups or classes of drivers, it's about individual drivers being overly distracted.

There are many contributory factors, ranging from technological changes offering new ways to be distracted, sociological factors whereby people are more used to multitasking (with various degrees of skill going up from zero), to design changes in cars themselves which tend to take eyes from the road more.

However, it's still about individual drivers. For example, while many or even most of us drive with a cell phone in the car, we are not compelled to answer while driving. Some may always answer, others never, and the rest deciding based on the conditions at the time.

What is safe to say, is that it's rising both in frequency and degree (distraction isn't binary), and is likely to continue until something changes to reverse the trend.

mpetry912 

I'm with FBinNY on this one. More "Laws" are not going to change anybody's behavior. More "Laws" just give cops another thing to ticket you for (like a tail light out or torn mudflap on a truck leading to a lethal force encounter.)

I do agree that distracted driving is a huge problem for pedestrians and cyclists, as is full self driving. I don't dislike cops, but I do not trust them. they are not there for anything remotely related to safety, their purpose is do issue a citation leading to a fine, or to gather evidence leading to your arrest, conviction an incarceration. Their primary job is to extract revenue, or shovel the chum into the great gaping maw of the criminal justice system. I do not feel one bit sorry for them, they knew what they were getting into when they pinned the badge on.

/markp

JoeyBike

I know a dozen, at least, personally. They are family members and their friends. Several coworkers over the years. And the little league baseball fields two blocks from my house is loaded with them, not to mention a dozen SOCCER fields 10 blocks away.

Chuckles1

I've seen a significant increase in recent years of oncoming drivers straddling the center line of rural roads. It used to be a rarity. Now, it's a rare day when it doesn't happen.

I sometimes drive my car close to centerline if theres no oncoming traffic if the pavement is smoother, but quickly move right when an oncoming car appears.

I'm amazed how many folks roll right on by, right on top of the painted yellow line. Do they have a death wish? Does it never occur to them that a similar driver approaching them would cause a high speed head-on collision? Or are these just narcissists who figure it's everyone else's job to stay out of their entitled way?

blacknbluebikes 

There have always been horrible drivers out there, they've just found new ways to be even more horrible.

I-Like-To-Bike

See https://www.bikeforums.net/22995856-post29.html

spclark 

I'll make mention of vehicle-makers' propensity to add 'features' purportedly offering 'convenience' that too often add unneeded distractions to the detriment of pretty much anything around those vehicles being driven by drivers unable to avoid being easily distracted.

I barely avoided being backed into this morning on my way to work by a driver doing a three-point turn so he could park to drop his kid at school. Cars lined both sides of the street I was riding on, the intersection he turned left into (left turn made in front of me as I was cycling towards him, he turned into oncoming traffic's lane where there's a stop sign for oncoming traffic; I've often seen drivers ignoring this stop sign despite presence of cross traffic) then backed out to park at the curbside just ahead of me.

I called him out for his inattention. He said he saw me (why he stopped pointing the wrong way) and waved to me to proceed. With the sun at my back I couldn't see inside his vehicle for the glare off his dirty back window, so I stopped until he'd completed his three-point turn.

I wasn't about to ride behind a vehicle doing such a stupid - likely illegal - maneuver, whether he was waving me on or not.

(I may hang a GoPro on my helmet, see if I can interest the local PD in conditions at that point.)

jon c. 

My wife and I both drive older cars without any modern features. It always confusing when I get a rental to figure out the controls on a modern car. But the lights are automatic now so as long as I can get the wipers on as needed I can ignore everything else.

JoeyBike

"Well man, that's like...your OPINION man." - The Dude

And the irony of your post did not escape me. Always entertaining.

"There are people who EXTRAPOLATE..." - I-Like-To-Bike