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Texting While (Not) Driving

This Ad Age report cites a substantial decline in young drivers (and driving), and chalks it up largely to the “digital revolution.” Perhaps, but conspicuously underplayed is graduated drivers licensing programs, which have made driving (solo, at any time) at age 16 or 17 a thing of the past in many states (with good reason).

(Flash of the headlights to Clive Thompson)

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 1st, 2010 at 12:47 pm and is filed under Drivers, Traffic Culture, Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Texting While (Not) Driving”

  1. hokan Says:
    June 1st, 2010 at 3:27 pm

    I’ve been seeing this with my kids and their friends. None of my kids (ages 17, 19, and 22) and few of their friends has a license. They view a car as expensive and car ownership yet another hassle in a complicated life.

    A combination of bike riding, transit, and hitching a ride with family or friend seems to do for them.

  2. Erik Wood Says:
    June 1st, 2010 at 7:46 pm

    I decided to do something about teen distracted driving after my three year old daughter was nearly run down right in front of me last fall by a texting driver. That incident changed me but I don’t hate texting. The way I see it, that would be like hating nightfall – 72% of teens text every single day - some over 3000 times a month. The texting drivers I spoke with, including teens and truckers, all said that laws and Big Brother type software devices that “lock down” their phones would not deter them at all. They feel their civil liberties slipping away. So I built a tool called OTTER for the individual to help manage their texting on their terms.

    OTTER is a comprehensive text management system for the home, office and certainly, the highway. It has GPS based Parental Control Feature for teen drivers, a GPS Mode for adults who choose to use it and an Auto reply with unlimited customized responses. We are getting 4.5 to 5 star rating from the tech community and great response from teen groups and safety organizations. We have heard of teens and business people alike using OTTER to schedule their own “texting blackout periods” so they can get some focused work done without feeling disconnected from their social network. If a someone uses OTTER like this, then we think they will see the benefit of OTTER’s road safety features. We are not going to stop until change hits our roads and not just our laws.

    Best,
    Erik Wood, owner
    OTTER LLC
    http://www.OTTERapp.com
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_yS0V21CFg

  3. townmouse Says:
    June 2nd, 2010 at 12:15 pm

    I wonder whether the decline is also related to the decline in independence among children, and the willingness of parents to (continue to) drive them everywhere.

  4. Vin Says:
    June 3rd, 2010 at 8:54 am

    I think there’s probably some truth to all of these explanations. Graduated licensing programs are the simplest explanation and probably account for the substantially higher declines among 16 and 17 year olds. For 18 and 19 year olds, another reason could be the increased numbers at four-year colleges. College towns are frequently compact and walkable, and many campuses have limited parking. So that could have something to do with, too.

    Now that I’m thinking about it, it seems the “digital revolution” is the least likely reason. I suppose the internet makes it easier to telecommute and shop at home, which has some impact. But “I’m not going to drive because I can’t watch YouTube.” Is my generation’s (I’m 25) attention span REALLY that bad?

    A preference for urban living amongst twentysomethings probably has a lot to do with it. Teens with overzealous parents who are willing to drive them around may play role, too. But I’m always suspicious when someone says “now we have the Internet, so we no longer need to x (where x could be driving, or reading books, or interacting face-to-face).”

  5. spiderleggreen Says:
    June 4th, 2010 at 10:03 am

    I could see a whole lot of the explainations above being true, but I’m hoping that the reason is that more kids are riding bikes. Cars are soooo 20th Century!

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Traffic Tom Vanderbilt

How We Drive is the companion blog to Tom Vanderbilt’s New York Times bestselling book, Traffic: Why We Drive the Way We Do (and What It Says About Us), published by Alfred A. Knopf in the U.S. and Canada, Penguin in the U.K, and in languages other than English by a number of other fine publishers worldwide.

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