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What about listening to the radio, talking to a passenger, or just zoning out and daydreaming?

These can all be just as dangerous as using a phone while driving.

It's not clear those are similarly dangerous behaviors. Talking to passengers can prevent falling asleep at the wheel, which may be a bigger net danger than conversational distraction.

But the larger answer is perhaps that if you are driving poorly you can be ticketed regardless of the underlying reason.

Ideally, people would not drive when they are fatigued enough to fall asleep at the wheel.

I do realize that the reasons for it are often quite complicated, I don't mean to be dismissive. Such levels of fatigue are something society should be taking a closer look at.

New York didn't make texting while driving illegal - it made driving while distracted illegal, so as to encompass all smartphone-related and unrelated issues that make the road dangerous.

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