Comment by mig4ng | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mig4ng | Hacker News Reader

This is extremely bad. In Portugal I don't cross the road if the person is using a phone, unless they fully stop of course. Yet this is a problem so big that even people walking cross roads with their faces glued to their phones.

It happened to me more than once almost getting into an accident, both while walking or driving because the other party is distracted by a smartphone instead of paying attention to driving or walking. People cross road like complete maniacs while using smartphones, luckily I have quick response time to brake the car, but there are other people that might not have such luck. I am afraid that in the future when my response time increases this might become a problem, even if I lower the velocity.

I never use my phone while driving, not even in stop signs or red lights. Yet it is so socially acceptable to do it these days it's disgusting. I hate this so much I make an simple website to try to raise awareness[1]. I haven't dedicated much time promoting it because it was just a small side project to experiment with TailwindCSS, but I might as this problem affects even my family...

[1] https://github.com/mig4ng/2min.pink

> this is a problem so big that even people walking cross roads with their faces glued to their phones.

I see this comparison a lot, and I just want to clarify: when you are distracted as a pedestrian, you're risking your life. When you are distracted as a driver, you're risking other people's lives.

Getting behind a wheel drunk is considerably more dangerous to society than going home on foot. Phone use equivalently so.

I have far more patience with people risking their own lives, rather than those of others.

> I see this comparison a lot, and I just want to clarify: when you are distracted as a pedestrian, you're risking your life. When you are distracted as a driver, you're risking other people's lives.

You are letting distracted pedestrians off too lightly. They are not just risking their own lives; they are risking the lives of motorists, cyclists, and other pedestrians by potentially forcing motorists and cyclists into erratic evasive maneuvers to avoid them. Ditto for drunk pedestrians. We should not be giving them a pass just because drunk/distracted drivers are more dangerous.

True. It's not good. But I'd argue we should also not include them in the same category, because they dilute the severity of the matter.

Sorry to be cruel, but I'm passionate about drunk and distracted driving. Less so about drunk pedestrians. I'd really like to focus our efforts and not get distracted.

Let's start a separate conversation about texting pedestrians. I'll join. But please let's keep this one about just this one thing: people putting others' lives at a significant risk on a daily basis. It's a different ballgame.

If one effort is to get people to think how their actions impact themselves and everyone else, and there are consequences (life threatening or some form of punishment). Then why limit that to just driving.

Also, if the issue is an attitude of "no fucks given", then they seem just as severe to me because then they might take their "no fucks" on to the road.

I agree with this sentiment.

Oh come one. Motorists are driving dangerous killing machines around, distracted pedestrians are just walking.

What is the big deal with phone use at a red light? It will, at worst, hold up traffic slightly.

I literally see this happen almost every time I'm at a stop light. Someone in the queue is looking at their phone and by the time they react only a handful of cars have gotten through a light that's normally timed to move them all. Multiply this by hundreds of intersections and the effect leads to rising travel times and frustration across the board. I've also noticed a large uptick in people running stale yellow lights/newly red lights, I believe this behavior is precipitated by the red light texting crowd.

What should possibly need your attention when stopped at a red light?

If it's something frivolous then it can wait. If it's important then are you really able to compartmentalize it? Will you be able to put the conversation out of your mind, or ghost your chat partner as soon as traffic starts moving?

Are you saying people shouldn't be driving if they have something on their mind or a passenger they're chatting with?

Interestingly, chatting with a physical passenger in the car is an entirely different level of distraction, from trying to chat with someone you can't see on the other end of the phone. For some reason (invoking visual synthesis to imagine how they are responding?) the phone case takes quite a bit more mental effort.

Try putting 'blinders' on when talking to a passenger and driving normally. E.g. put a hand up so you can't see them, even out of the corner of your eye. This A/B test (for me anyway) ups the mental effort 2X or more.

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