'No Texting' Is The New 'No Smoking': Bans On Texting While Driving Gain Support

'No texting' is the new 'no smoking.'

Obama, carmakers, state governments, and citizens have rallied in support of legislation that would ban drivers from texting on cell phones while driving.

Sending text messages while driving --or "distracted driving" -- has been likened to drunk driving given the increased risk that it poses for drivers. New research, reported by the New York Times, found that the risk of collision is 23 times higher for drivers that text than for drivers that keep their hands off their phones.

Doubtful? Try an interactive game from the New York Times that allows you to test how how external distractions can affect your reaction time.

Even if you think you can drive fine while BBMing, texting, or emailing, if you're a federal employee or a resident of one of the 18 states that have limited texting, you'll have to put down your phone.

President Obama has banned government employees from texting and driving while on the job, operating a federal vehicle, or using a government-supplied cell phone, Ars Technica reports. The new law will affect 4.5 million employees.

The Obama administration doesn't plan on stopping there: they're also pushing to limit text messaging by interstate bus drivers and truckers, and are encouraging state governments to pass similar bans on distracted driving, writes the New York Times.

Many states, including California, New York, New Jersey, Washington, and Oregon, have also passed laws to curb distracted driving. Check out an interactive map of the United States at NPR, to see which states had laws in place as of September 2009, or a complete list at the Governors Highway Safety Administration (GHSA).

Story continues below

advertisement

Support for texting bans has come from automakers and citizens alike. A New York Times/CBS poll found that ninety percent of adults say sending a text message while driving should be illegal. Reuters writes that even the wireless industry has voiced support:

The wireless industry -- including cellphone manufacturers, carriers, and some Internet companies represented by the CTIA-Wireless Association -- also believes texting "is incompatible with safe driving."

An ongoing series by the New York Times, "Driven to Distraction" chronicles the dangers of drivers using cellphones and other electronic devices, as well as efforts to curb the vice.

Learn more about texting while driving -- including research, accidents, and laws -- on Wikipedia here.

We text while we drive, but also while we walk, talk, eat, watch, listen, pay, hug, love, and learn -- and even when we're in the bathroom.

Do you set your own texting limits -- or do you wish you could? When do you unplug and why? When does 'second-hand texting' drive you crazy? Tell us below!

Follow HuffPostTech On Facebook And Twitter!

Comments

[deepfreezevideo]

Damn right it's the new "no smoking"!
How do you know when the driver ahead of you is texting?
When you see them driving ten to twenty MPH below the speed limit and their car is weaving all over the road.
Texting drivers are like DRUNK DRIVERS, only slower.

[StevenAldrich]

I attended the Department of Transportation’s Distracted Driving Summit last week and it was clear that legislation and technology solutions will curb the texting while driving epidemic. Yet I am disappointed that we are myopically defining distracted driving as “texting while driving”. We have an opportunity to tackle a key cause of the six million car crashes that happen in the U.S. every year – the driver’s inability to focus and react quickly enough to distractions inside and outside of their vehicles. According to the AAA, distracted driving is the cause of the majority of car accidents in the U.S. but texting is not even in the top six reasons for driving while preoccupied.

Research about how the brain works and its impact in situations such as driving make it clear that brain performance is the biggest factor in driving safely. And according to our research at Posit Science on brain plasticity, the brain has the ability to rewire and therefore improve the cognitive functions that are essential for safe driving.

So many lives can be saved on the roads today if people would only pay attention to their real reason for being behind the wheel – to operate a motor vehicle – while we help drivers deal with the multitude of distractions that get in their way of doing it safely.

[taxisdaddy]

While I completely agree that texting or talking on a mobile phone are distractions while driving, a number of the responses to this article focus on the unacceptibility of any use of electronic devices while driving. How does following textual directions from an electronic device differ from reading directions from a piece of paper? I get my road directions electronically, and there isn't always access to a printer. Is it really more dangerous to refer occasionally to my BlackBerry (on which I have set my defaults to 12 pt. bold, by the way) for text-based directions than to do the same thing from a piece of paper (or, even worse in my opinion, a road map)? Reading road maps or printed instructions in a car are perfectly legal; why shouldn't they be on an electronic screen?

[cloudmaker]

I am sure that soon more and more Americans like me will stop going to the movies or theater. How can one focus ona film or play when throughout the audience there are the distrcactions of lighted screens.

[jefered]

People should be doing nothing but driving while they're driving. As a motorcycle rider, it scares the daylights out of me to be on an interstate doing 70-plus and see a driver in a minivan packed full of kids turned around and passing out Happy Meals.

I've even seen people eat and talk on the phone (no headset). Left me wondering if they had a third hand on the wheel.

[SCboy]

The fact that this is even a debate topic indicates how dumb we can be in this country. The federal government should pass a law immediately banning cell phone talking and texting while driving.

I used to live in a state where residents and the legislature were proud of the "no one tells us how to do things" attitude. This was graphically illustrated by road signs that read "Unsafe To Pass". Not "Do Not Pass" or "No Passing", but "Unsafe To Pass". Any language other than that would be taking away someone's choice tp pass if they wanted to, god forbid.

Now I live in another state with similar attitudes. Can't tell these folks what to do in the privacy of their own two ton, 75mph moving weapon.

[jaschrod]

Talking on a cell phone while driving should be outlawed also. Most people can't even walk, and chew gum at the same time.

[thegirlnextdoor]

They actually make a "no texting please" announcement along with the "turn off your cel phones and things that beep" at Pacific Opera Victoria. I'm glad they do.

and, p.s texting whie driving .... do you want to die? That is insane.

[JIzin]

Second hand txt LoL
This is just a reactionary repulsion of a new(ish) technology.

I love my phone and am txt all the time :D If you dont like that F-you!

[WorkingClass]

Just put that thing down. Playing with your phone 24/7 is SICK as well as dangerous.

[RockyGibraltar]

About time.

Texting in movies and the theater should also be banned as far as I'm concerned. If you are addicted to your blackberry, stay home and feed your addiction, don't bother others.

[So Calif Indpdnt]

Should it be the new no drinking and driving? Makes a lot more sense.

[katmeyster]

And can you please stop texting while in my classroom? Adults, in a college classroom, can not stop texting! Even though it's in the syllabus, I mention it on a regular basis, and walk down the aisles looking side-to-side, they still text. I'm going to have to start kicking people out of class. This is an addiction, pure and simple.

[TheOceanWalker]

I feel your pain. -So- annoying. Four or five years ago, never saw it at all, and now you can count on seeing it all the time.

I think you're right, though. It's compulsive behavior.

[Pupadup4oBama]

i think thats a great idea! when they see you are serious, theyll think twice before they do it again. or at least you can confiscate the phone during class

[TheOceanWalker]

The first time I heard that people text and drive (some news story about a serious accident), I couldn't believe that anyone would. It seems so obviously unsafe.

It's kind of sad there's a need to legislate over something like this, but it's hard to imagine that it would be controversial.

[amirtalai]

what a dumb headline. Did people ever try to ban smoking while driving?

[NoblesseOblige]

Sorry, smoking and using a cell phone are 2 different issues entirely. For starters, people don't talk to or text their cigarettes. Do you?

[SimJack]

I'd put engaging in sex while driving before smoking as the larger concern.

[KIVPossum]

The big issue with sex while driving is finding a willing partner.