Texting While Driving Gains Popularity After Being Outlawed

You know what they say? If you can’t beat ‘em, then join ‘em. I would suppose that government regulating some of society’s activities, such as gambling, alcohol and prostitution has something to do with keeping tabs and control over the situation. After all, if you were to outlaw something, chances are pretty high things could get ugly on the streets, so why not regulate the entire situation and make some money out of it at the same time? Some things, however, should not be regulated – such as texting while driving, as an outright ban would be, theoretically speaking, the correct thing to do. But is it effective? California’s texting-while-driving ban that took effect since the start of 2009 has not really resulted in the effect that lawmakers wanted, as cases of texting-while-driving has exploded since.

The AAA of California released its annual roadside observational surveys recently, finding out that handset-to-head cellphone use is down by 57% ever since the no-handsets-while-driving law took effect in 2008. Unfortunately, texting while driving is up by 126% since the 2009 ban, where approximately 4% of drivers admitted to doing it last year, against the 1.5% figure touted before the law kicked in. Perhaps the explosion of instant messaging platforms like WhatsApp has something to do with this unwanted growth. After all, enforcing such a ban can prove to be tricky and difficult to say the least.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Cellphones, Transportation
Tags: ban, texting