Responding to Distracted Drivers
We’ve all seen or experienced distracted drivers in some capacity. Maybe your experience has been while driving on the highway - you pass a car that’s driving oddly slow and slightly weaving between lane markers. Maybe you’ve seen distracted drivers from the side of the road while on a walk or on a bike ride. Or maybe you know someone who’s been affected by distracted driving directly. In those moments when you’ve realized that a driver was making the decision to focus on something other than the road right in front of them and driving their car, how do you react?
My reactions to distracted drivers vary from quiet disappointment to the some of deepest rage I have ever felt. I have also noticed a cycle in the level of emotional investment in my reactions to distracted drivers. There are phases where I feel a strong reaction to every instance of distracted driving I see. On the other end, there are periods where I see distracted driving and simply acknowledge it and move on without any change in my emotional state or line of thinking.
For the past few months, I have felt almost numb to the countless distractions I see on the road. It’s exhausting to have an emotional reaction every time I see someone on their phone. Since the end of June, I have been living in more heavily populated urban areas than has been normal for me in the past few years. Naturally (and unfortunately), a significant portion of this population is distracted while driving. It actually feels unusual and surprising if I see someone sitting at a red light looking forward with both hands on the wheel, fully present in the task at hand. In those moments, the thought crosses my mind: “what’s wrong with this person where they don’t feel the urge to pick up their phone at the earliest possible moment?” While reflecting on my current thinking and approach to the prevalence of distracted driving, I feel disappointed and downtrodden.
People frequently bring up the promise of self-driving cars to me when we discuss distracted driving. While this is an exciting and innovative frontier with the potential to save countless lives, it only brings up further disappointment and frustration for me. To me, an ideal world is one without cars entirely. It feels like we have it backwards in the United States with regards to transportation. Mass transportation that is efficient, convenient, and economical is where I would like our collective focus to lie. Reducing the need for cars to a minimum has been done well in so many other countries, why not us? When I arrive back at the realization that the U.S. is so far from being set up for a successful mass transit system that the majority of people actually want to use, I feel defeated.
”Meaningful change can and should be at least partially in the hands of the companies reaping the benefits from our distractions. They have the resources, staff, and power to help save lives”
View from my campsite on the Crown looking at Mount Sopris, Carbondale, Colorado.
With the dream of reducing our dependence on cars out the window, what, then, is the solution to distracted driving? Is it nationwide ad campaigns? Increased education in schools and for young drivers? Will we find success by getting car and phone manufacturers and social media giants on board with preventative technology to mitigate the temptation to drive distracted? With the way our country is set up to continue to feed the perpetually hungry money vacuum that is the auto industry, I believe it will take all the above and much more. People love their cars, and for good reason! We have such a fantastic country with so much to see off the beaten path that a mass-transit system could hardly enable access to in a way that makes economic sense. There’s such freedom granted by hopping in a car and taking control of your future destination. I get it, I feed into it myself, and I am frustrated by it.
I believe my ever-changing reactions to distracted driving parallel a growing maturity and understanding of the vast challenge we find ourselves facing. In the United States, cars are not going anywhere anytime soon. Distractions in the car are also not going anywhere (did someone say exclusive use of touch screen controls in many current cars?). And, the ruthless clawing for our attention by money-hungry companies is certainly only growing with their profits. So, what does this mean for our attitudes and approach toward distracted driving? Are we going to simply accept the enormous number of needless, totally preventable deaths each year? I recently found this Forbes article that summarizes recent distracted driving statistics well.
The answer has to be no. Fortunately, the squeaky wheel tends to get the grease and we see many examples of this every day. A screaming child gets attention. A town full of unhappy residents calling their selectpeople get a response. A country fed up with systemic racism gets nationwide news attention. But what happens when we get the attention of people who can help make meaningful change? Too often, major issues are brought to the surface, bask in the limelight for a short while, and then sink back down when another, newer issue pushes it lower because of the relentless competition for attention and newsworthiness. It’s true, there are an overwhelming number of issues that desperately need the attention and resources available to make meaningful change. Why should distracted driving take priority?
Distracted driving feels different and separate from some of the other pressing issues we face as a society because meaningful change lies not necessarily in the hands of the government officials who are drowning in calls for attention and resources. Meaningful change can and should be at least partially in the hands of the companies reaping the benefits from our distractions. They have the resources, staff, and power to help save lives and it seems we need to show them that the thousands of deaths each year in their vehicles as a result of their communications devices and platforms are not a necessary function of their profits.
So, let’s do something about it. Feeling anger and frustration and disappointment when we see someone driving distracted is not enough if we don’t channel that energy toward the real source of the problem. Yelling at the stranger next to you at the stop light won’t save the 3,000+ lives that will be lost this year because of distracted driving. It’s not entirely our fault that we have these stimuli that are trained to habituate our craving and addiction for their engagement. This is a tough nut to crack! It can be done and I believe we can make forward progress despite all that’s stacked against us.
Thank you for reading and please turn on Driving Focus if you haven’t. Have a great week!
-Ben Grannis
#EyesUp
