facebook twitter

Texting-while-driving ban yields no downsides

Posted on Jul 26, 2010 in Opinion

Share|

People caught texting while driving on Birmingham city streets – including those on UAB campus – will be slapped with a $100 fine beginning August 1.

This is big news, as the texting while driving fad is now an “epidemic” according to the UAB University Transportation Center.

Fall semester starts soon meaning droves of students will be making their way to and around campus. It is important for everyone on the soon-to-be busy streets of UAB to know about the newly passed city ordinance banning texting while driving.

It’s plain to see that this is a good change for our city. Distracted driving is a factor in 25 percent of police-reported crashes, according to insurance companies. If it is illegal to text while driving, the logical conclusion is that people will stop doing it. Right?

Are there any downsides to this ordinance? Every decision should have both pros and cons, but everything about this one seems to indicate that it is a good idea and should have been passed months ago.

What about the act of texting while driving? Does it have any benefits? If something is so important that it constitutes communication while doing something as risky as operating a motor vehicle, texting is never the best way to go about it.

Talking to someone on the phone while driving, though still highly dangerous, must be safer than texting while driving. If there is an emergency, dialing a pre-programmed number on a cell phone requires less attention than typing sentences into a text message. That means the driver’s eyes are off the road for a shorter amount of time.
Seriously, what is the benefit of texting while driving?

Texting while driving never crossed my mind until reports of traffic incidents related to it started popping up on the news in record numbers. It wasn’t until Oprah did a special on it that I realized that people can be silly enough to text while driving.

When Oprah talks about something, you know it’s a big deal.

After all the news coverage and the horror stories of texting-related accidents, the fad continues. It’s about time someone took legal action. It shouldn’t have even been a question.

By the way, texting isn’t the only thing people are doing while driving. With the technological capabilities of devices like iPhones and Blackberries, the person driving behind you in rush hour traffic could be checking their e-mail or shopping online for new drapery for their house.

They could be watching the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy or reading up on the newest celebrity gossip.

Does the ban cover acts like that? If someone is caught using a cell phone to look something up on Wikipedia while driving, do they get the $100 fine as well? They should.

And if they don’t, that’s the one downside to Birmingham’s new city ordinance.

email: opinion@insideuab.com

 




Tags: , , , ,