Yep, I Text and Drive -- You Too?

A new survey finds that 66% of people who use text messaging and drive admit to reading texts or e-mails while driving, and another 57% admit to typing and sending texts while driving. And yet we are shocked -- shocked! -- that this is allowed, because 89% of respondents said they think texting and driving should be outlawed.

Of course, so should other dangerous driving distractions -- like eating and driving, scolding your kids and driving, finding the right CD and driving, putting on make-up and driving...

Do I think texting and driving should be made illegal? Jeez, no! I'm a pretty typical practitioner. I have a Treo that gets e-mail and texts. I set it next to me in the center console. I don't actually pick it up and try to type something with my right thumb while changing lanes at 60 MPH on the Beltway, or going around curves on a country road. That's not because I'm so responsible. It's because I can't without feeling like I'm going to run off the road. If the Treo had a heads-up display and thumb keypad mounted on the steering wheel, I might text and drive all day. (How long before a Mercedes comes out with this capability?)

But I do pick up the Treo when I'm stopped at lights, usually to read, once in a while to write. But writing's trickier because the light might turn green before you're done. I'll also pick it up to read -- but hardly ever write -- in dead-stop traffic, which is pretty much a multi-daily occurrence here in the DC area.

And if some grandstanding state legislator pushed through a law making driving and texting illegal -- I'd probably do it anyway. Washington state passed such a law. I'd like to see how it gets enforced. Cops are going to peer in car windows, trying to see if someone is holding a smart phone below the dash? Good luck with that.

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