We have to be better than this people.
We all get comedically outraged when we see bad tech behavior from people operating motor vehicles, when we recount those stories at dinner parties. However, there’s something sickeningly shocking about actually confronting this behavior head on. Out in the wild. Actually on the street. That momentary, icy chill when you realize that someone values their video watching more than the lives of all the people around them on the road.
Distracted driving has become one of my causes. It’s already illegal to use tech in this manner, but that doesn’t seem to act as much of a deterrent, and over 100,000 crashes a year involve technology. We need to do a better job of making it unfashionable. We need to make it as socially unacceptable as drinking and driving. We can be responsible tech citizens.
Moments after I took this photo, I honked my horn to see if I could snap her out of it. She didn’t even flinch before she turned to merge on I-405.
And yes, the irony of me using my phone to snap this pic isn’t lost on me.
For more info on the dangers of distracted driving, I would humbly ask you check out www.ItCanWait.com, please share the free documentary From One Second to the Next (directed by Werner Herzog), and you can also check out a recent event held here in LA to encourage people to sign the pledge to curb distracted driving.
Oy veh.
A couple months ago, I was waiting in line to make a left turn, but when the light turned green, the car in front of me didn’t budge. Finally able to pull around the car and alongside it, I found that the drivers was talking on her cell phone with one hand and eating an ice cream cone with the other. I rolled down my window and wished her the best of luck.
And by “wished her the best of luck” I hope you mean “engaged in a crude hand gesture”?
The scene played out something like this:
[roll window down] “Excuse me, ma’am? Now that I see that neither one of your hands is in full control of your vehicle’s steering wheel, all I can say is, ‘Best of luck!'”
That last expression should be in boldface or italics to properly convey the sarcasm delivered. 🙂
Yet another perfect example of why we must adopt a proper sarcasm font.
I’m all for it!