Texting and Driving

There are "good" reasons to look at your phone when you are driving. By "good" I don't mean you should do it. You shouldn't for the same reason that you shouldn't be texting, but there is no reason at all to be trying to type a text on a phone at 65 miles per hour. I've been in cars with people who did it and I almost lost my shit. These activities are just not compatible. People say things like, "people eat while driving! it's the same!" No it isn't the same. I can't scarf down a Big Mac without looking at the damn thing. I can't type 140 characters (and no one can) without staring at the phone.

Safety regulators still have no idea just how deadly the combination of mobile phones and cars can be, but mounting evidence paints a grim picture.

The latest disconcerting data come from a massive study by Zendrive, a San Francisco-based startup that tracks phone use for automobile insurers and ride-hailing fleets. Of the 2.3 million drivers it monitored over 5.6 billion miles, some 12 percent were characterized as mobile-phone addicts—calling, texting or scrolling through apps three times more than the average driver.

Pedestrians shouldn't be staring at their phones while walking in the middle of the street (even if they are in a crosswalk) but they're unlikely to kill anybody else if they do so.