Texting and driving have to be behind some large portion of this increase.
I grew up in another country where it was illegal to hold a cellphone while driving and it was actually enforced. I'm just completely dumbfounded at the behaviour here and the lack of enforcement.
Hands-free! But also doubly dangerous.
I suspect CarPlay and Android Auto are incredibly dangerous, but there isn't great data on how they contribute to accidents yet.
People also use it for music, messaging, finding/changing destinations, voice calls, etc.
The CarPlay UI in particular is so inconsistent and unpredictable that I can never just have a routine. Some Siri commands randomly don't work ("I can't do that while you're driving") when they just worked a few minutes before.
Android Auto is much better, I will say.
Edit: anyone who disagrees and has downvoted me care to explain why? I wrote the comment from the perspective a pedestrian. I don't even drive!
Some cities consider it such problem they've talked about making it illegal to walk around in the street looking at your phone: https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/20/us/new-york-walking-while-tex...
I see this very often as well, but you're not operating a several ton vehicle. At worst you run into some kid and knock his ice cream over.
It's the presence of cars, their prioritization in our infrastructure, and unenforced laws surrounding them that are the problem.
Who thinks like this? Seriously what is wrong with you? Large SUVs have blind spots larger than people, and fatal crashes are generally happening in cross walks in cities. They often happen when vehicles are turning. Blaming pedestrians is just fucking awful.
[EDIT] I checked the data again most strikes are happening in urban areas in places where there is no crosswalk or on shoulders. So largely due t infrastructure placing pedestrians and cars in contention.
Do you have a source for this?
I've driven through/around the deadliest city for pedestrians and in my experience driving there, it seemed both drivers and pedestrians had a death wish. Many drivers were running red lights and many pedestrians were just crossing wherever they felt like it. Also, lots of people obviously on drugs vaguely aware of their surroundings.
So what you're saying checks out, I'm just wondering about the degree to which these things are a factor.
Somehow the people in this thread have interpreted this observation as a justification that it's okay. Don't know why, really. Is it victim blaming to suggest locking ones' doors? Obviously we shouldn't have any thieves. How dare someone suggest measures that might reduce the ability of malevolent parties to harm you.
When I lived in SF, I saw this constantly btw. I probably saved on guy's life who saw a walk sign turn on at an intersection, proceeded to look at his phone, and stepped into the intersection. Meanwhile a car was running the red light at a fast speed (it was crossing Market somewhere up near 2nd Street), so I had to tug this guy by the back of his shirt to prevent him from getting creamed. And he actually gave me an annoyed look. This was sometime around 2015 though, so just an anecdote that doesn't have much to do with the data in the article.
Blaming pedestrians for bad infrastructure and giant cars is a super dickish, car-brained take. European cities don't have the same problems and people are no less likely to text and walk in those places.
It's fascinating how many of the replies require you or other commenters to rely heavily on straw men and false assumptions (like assuming American nationality) to twist reading my comment from its anodyne straightforward interpretation (look where you're going) into some sort of apologia for "car-brained dickishness". It's quite amazing.
If everyone who stepped into traffic while looking at their phones looked up first, fewer people would be hit by cars. I stand by this dickish, car-brained statement.
I suspect your downvotes are coming from readers who interpret it as some kind of victim-blaming because of the asymmetry in forces involved. Let’s just acknowledge this is a multifactorial problem and that there are going to be interventions from both the pedestrian and driver perspectives that keep people safe.
I think the downvotes come from the fact that this argument is used as a relatively dumb anti-pedestrian rant in a lot of places. Frequently the pedestrian is "stepping into the road" where they have right of way (which in a lot of cities is any uncontrolled/unlighted intersection, regardless of whether a crosswalk is painted), and the car driver is loathe to admit that they didn't want to stop or didn't know that the pedestrian has right of way.
As a pro-cycling and pro-pedestrian person, my feeling is that walking and texting is just a red-herring complaint that is not the cause of any sort of serious problems. Putting it into the same bucket as distracted driving, which is VERY dangerous, and has a death toll attached feels disingenuous. Its like comparing a scraped knee to cancer. One of those is a serious problem killing lots of people, one of them is not. Even though both should be treated medically, we shouldn't be talking about them in the same context.