Texting And Driving: America's New Pastime
There’s nothing better than a morning run…
The sweet morning sunshine warms your skin, feeling like a soothing tickle all over your body. The friendly waves and hi’s from neighbors and strangers brighten your young day. The calm vibes of residential roads make you feel like the main character in a feel-good movie.
And, of course, you can’t forget about the best part: the reckless drivers zooming past you, going 45 in a 30 while texting on their damn phones.
Does that happen to you, too? Or is it just me?
While running around my neighborhood today, I passed by a lot of cars. Maybe more than 30 but definitely more than 20. And I swear, at least 60% of the drivers were texting while driving.
They made it seem like texting and driving is America's Hot New Pastime.
Seeing this happen so frequently pissed me off because some of the suburban roads near me don’t have sidewalks, so I had to run on the road as these inconsiderate drivers zipped by, a few feet too close for my liking. One accidental turn of the wheel and, BAM, I wouldn’t be a happy (or breathing) runner.
What pissed me off the most, however, is how shamelessly people texted while driving.
They didn’t even have the respect of hiding their phone out of sight below the steering wheel so vulnerable people like me couldn’t see their blatant texting. Watching them stare at their phones makes me worry and think (hence why I’m writing this). So, I’d prefer if they hide it and let me act like nothing’s wrong.
I’m not trying to portray myself as a paradigm of righteousness when I say that I never text and drive. (Is it crazy that this is something I feel a need to clarify?)
The closest you’ll come to catching me doing it is picking up my phone to skip the song currently playing on Spotify. That's all! You’ll never see me reading or sending a text. I don’t want to be that guy who hits an innocent object or person. I pay way too much money a month for my car to have it damaged by a distracting text message.
I’m a good boy when it comes to following the rules of the road. I’m not like this due to a traumatizing driving incident from the past. I’ve had a spotless record since I started driving seven years ago.
However, I know people who have been in car accidents.
Some were the ones driving the car, some were passengers. Some were at fault, some were not. Some were injured, some were unharmed. No matter the case, the aftereffects always have a cost—be it financial, physical, or mental. That’s why I play it safe and pay attention while I drive.
Back to the shameless drivers I encountered on my run…
I was amazed at how brazen they were about texting and driving. Seeing so many people doing it within a 40-minute period of time and within a 2-3 mile radius of my home made me wonder what society has become.
Seeing those people text and drive today made me think that they do it because they’ve never experienced negative consequences from it. I bet those people I saw while running have never been pulled over by the police for texting and driving. I bet they’ve never hit a garbage can, fire hydrant, or god forbid, a person while distracted by their phone. And I bet they’ve never had someone tell them to stop.
I’m a guilty contributor to that last one…
I, like most people, have been in a car with someone who texted while driving. But did I tell them they shouldn’t do it? Heck no. I’m not sure why I’ve stayed quiet. I just know it has happened. (but hopefully won’t happen again)
Perhaps that’s part of the problem…
We know people who text while driving (some are probably close friends or family), and we let them do it. We make no effort to stop them, so they have no accountability until something terrible happens.
Honestly…
That’s the story of most things in life. People see nothing wrong with what they do until they mess up and something tragic happens. They don’t see danger until it’s too late.
Due to the importance we place on the digital world and our phones, I find it unlikely that people will stop texting while driving unless we speak up and tell them no. That’s one to make people stop.
The other, more catastrophic, option is for them to learn the hard way.
But we don’t want that, right?