virtual drivers as bad as drunk while on cell phone

http://www.livescience.com/health/090504-texting-driving.html

Similar studies have found that adults who talk on cell phones while driving in simulators perform as dismally as drunken study participants. Studies from the University of Utah show that hands-free devices do not make it safe to use cell phones while driving.
In January, the National Safety Council called on state and federal lawmakers to ban the use of cell phones and text-messaging devices while driving and also urged businesses to prohibit it.
The problem is acute among younger people.

D: this could very well drive up the cost of insurance for young people.
Think you're paying a lot now - well just wait.

The vid link is a scary vid. The bus driver was texting in highway speed traffic.
And ran full-speed into the car in front.
The IDIOT.

I hope they jail him.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/vp/30472366#30472366
D: it took SIX MINUTES of texting.
But texting is just plain nuts at any duration!
And even just talking on a cell phone.
Of course, talking to the passenger is not great either.

That's how I ended up on a car hood a few years ago.
There was no other traffic, visibility was good, and sight lines were good.
D and I waited for the walk signal.
Then the driver gunned it.
She didn't look. She was too busy talking.
I would have been kneecapped, had I not leapt.

I ate van in similar circumstances a coupla years ago.
Again, I had right of way.
My bike was covered with refectors. I had not one but two lights fore and aft.
I had aimed the blinking helmet light directly at the driver.
Visibility was good for a block. There were no barriers approaching the stop on a side street for the van. There was no other traffic.
When the van did a cursory almost-stop and punched the gas, I had no chance to evade it.
I was travelling 30kph forward and did not wish to eat car door.
So I swerved in front - low bumper and only 20kph.
My bike got totalled but I was OK.

In both cases, the drivers lacked good habits.
A habit needs to be reinforced 100x in a row.
It is why I signal in parking lots.

Yesterday a driver decides an advanced green, or even yellow, was not his taste.
Nope, red was his favorite colour.
I was walking my bike across the pedestrian walk.
The light changed so long back that I was able to leisurely walk to the second lane before he reached me. I was watching. If he didn't notice, I would have stepped back, leaving my bike on my right side in his way. I always appreciate somebody buying me a new bike. <:
No rush. Waved, smiled, walked. Slowly. While he jammed the oncoming traffic lanes.
The humiliation does drivers like that good.
God knows nothing else works.