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I just came back to the US for a visit and was absolutely gobsmacked at the wide level of texting/phone usage while driving. People weren't even making an effort to hide it or using hands-free cradles. Just full on swiping and looking down while driving on freeways and at traffic lights. It felt like a surreal dystopian nightmare.

Well, it becomes more unsafe if you hide it from cops. It’s much safer to hold your phone up so that your peripherals can still see the road lines instead of looking down where you can’t see anything.

Yes it’s pretty common, I see phones in driver’s hands about 25-40% in my local area.

I am guilty of this. What I wish to see is a better device that doesn’t distract the attention from the road.

A better voice input so I don’t have to type.

The biggest distraction is a notification comes and you want to see what it is.

But you are right. The best soln is not to use your phone.

I admire the bravery it takes to admit it, and so I'll abstain from judgement.

To help you put it in perspective though, simply ask yourself if you'll stop caring about the notifications the day after running into a pedestrian or a cyclist.

Please turn this on if you have an iPhone: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208090

Honest question. Why do you feel you need any device when driving? Other than for navigation I suppose. As a confessed user do you actually feel it's important to have access to a device while you drive?

I like to be connected I guess. Waiting in traffic sucks, it’s boring as hell. My commute is 1.5 hours each way.

To be honest, I want a self lane following car. Reliably keep distance from car in front, keep the current lane, don’t exceed speed limit. Don’t bumps into objects, stop on traffic lights

5 simple things. I feel like this should be doable reliably in the next decade.

I don’t want to drive. I don’t have another more convenient option.

I have all these features in a 2016 Golf GTI (except traffic light one). The future isn't that far away for the masses.

So you want better public transportation.

Navigation and spotify. I wish there was a way to skip tracks using the volume buttons on the side or something like that to get rid of the need to look at the screen while doing it. Presumably that would drop the dangerous level down to that of fiddling with a radio.

Agreed on every count. In LA, where I am, drivers leave only 2-3 car lengths following distance even when traveling over 100/120kmh. It's incredibly dangerous, and one can't really even try to leave proper following distance because someone will just think "that's an open space" and merge in, putting everyone in danger. It's the __default__ behavior and it enrages me.

Social stigma is great; but I write to my state and federal representatives every quarter of the year about this specific issue. I want distracted driving to be treated as an equal offense to driving drunk.

At the very least, real enforcement and stiffer fines need to happen in order for any changes to take place.

I think the real danger isn’t so much the user’s sending a text. It’s the engaged user’s watching news streams, Facebook video’s, Tiktok video’s, YouTube, Snapchat Stories, or playing video games and such while driving.

What is lane surfing?

I assume continuously changing lanes on a 4+ lane road, such that you don't rear bump fellow drivers. This must be done if you're driving at 130 mph, while the rest go at 70. At those relative speed differences, the rest of the cars look stationary. (note the sarcasm)

I'm not sure what lane surfing is. But aside from the 130mph remark - changing lane to maintain speed is how you're supposed to drive on a motorway/freeway. So long as you're within the speed limit, of course. Braking is a freeway anti-pattern.

In the UK passing on the right (well left for us of course) is illegal and called undertaking. I know it's not illegal here but it still winds me up!

I think it's actually really quite dangerous to have cars passing you on both sides when you're already going 5 over to "fit in". It'd be much better if like in Europe people pulled out to overtake and back in when done and that lane surfers had a little a patience now and again. A few seconds really does not matter. Especially when you overtake them 5 mins later as they're texting anyway!!

If you are being passed on the right in the US then you are doing it wrong. Slower traffic keep right except to pass. By your definition, you're in the wrong lane.

Lane surfing happens in the US because people here don't understand how to drive on freeways. It is non-existent in Germany because drivers there know how to drive.

I used to live in Seattle, a perfect example of a city that has enough freeway but still has traffic jams because people drive cluelessly. Not just my opinion, but the opinion of traffic enforcement in Washington.

And people on their phones while driving just make the situation worse.

I believe this is true in most of Europe - stay to the right except when passing, which you do on the left.

On the other hand, some cities (such as LA) have off-ramps on both the left and right sides, not to mention many multi-lane freeway interchanges located on both sides... combined with Google Maps telling you at the last minute that you need to be in the left 3 lanes, followed by immediately being in the right-most lane in order to get on the right freeway. Almost every visit to LA requires 1 or 2 retries on a few of these freeways. When I'm not constrained for time, I often opt for much slower side streets to avoid the utter insanity of some interchanges.

>undertaking. I know it's not illegal here

I believe it varies state to state.

Agree that the US test is laughably easy to pass compared to the UK, though.

It wouldn't be possible to undertake if folks had proper lane discipline in the first place, although the UK also has it's fair share of Middle Lane Morons

I've heard speak of 'the orbit game' - legally pass the MLM on the left, then pull across into the right lane, slow down so they pass you, then pull into the right lane and pass them again, see how many times you can 'orbit' them

I was in a car where the driver was stopped for prolonged driving in the passing lane in a US midwestern or plains state. This was maybe 25 years ago, but this has been a violation in at least one state at some point.

Same thing happened to my SO in MA a few months ago - I told her she deserved it

No ticket though. They probably use it as an excuse to pull people over to try and ding them for other stuff

Yep,if that's what is meant by lane surfing then that would be a bad idea too. I was referring to lane discipline.