It’s now an article of faith – after numerous studies prove it to be so – that texting, talking and even listening on your cell phone while driving is even more dangerous than driving while drunk.
That, of course, doesn’t prevent people from texting, talking or listening while driving, even when it’s illegal: OMG! I’m gonna crash.
It’s enough to make you get out and walk. But lately it occurs to me that is no solution. Walking has become just as dangerous as driving as the streets are populated by the same idiots – distracted drivers who somehow manage to park their cars without incident.
Everywhere you go, and I mean everywhere, the Text Menace is right in front of you, brow furrowed, thumbs going a mile a minute, jacked into headphones, completely oblivious to what’s going on around them – or in front of them.
How many times today were you forced to swerve to avoid some vision in UGG boots who couldn’t wait to tell her BFF that’s she’s just across the street, so Wait for Me!
And if you think that’s bad, did you know you can get an iPhone app called Type and Walk which makes it possible for you to, well, type and walk at the same time without running into anything or anyone. That means you never have to look up. Or say you’re sorry. Or thank-you. Or hello, or any of that other, like, outmoded human interaction stuff.
I guess Type and Walk is a good thing, especially if you have a tendency to walk off the curb into an oncoming bus, but would it not be simple just to turn your phone off for the three minutes it takes to get from here to there?
I think it’s time to consider a ban on cellphones altogether. In case you haven’t noticed, “smartphone” zombies are everywhere, holding the line up at Tim Hortons as they talk to their friends while trying to select 30 different Timbits. Or they’re in the elevator telling people they’re in the elevator, as in: “I’m in the elevator.” Or in a stall in a public washroom. “Hello, Dave here. Hold on while I flush.”
I actually heard that happen.
Some people don’t think it’s a good idea to ban cellphones, even if you’re heading down the freeway at 40 kilometres over the limit. Rush Limbaugh, for example, thinks the whole idea is a commie plot: “Liberalism, socialism, communism is responsible for more deaths than cellphones could ever hope to be.” But consider the source. I would bet listening to Rush Limbaugh lose his mind in public is more dangerous than texting and drinking combined.
LOL.
Paul Sullivan is a Vancouver-based journalist and owner of Sullivan Media Consulting; vancouverletters@metronews.ca.
