So, do u txt wen ur drivng?

May 22, 2008

I do, I’ll admit it. And there’s really no good reason except that I’m bored in the car. My grandmother would kill me.

I’m no road safety expert, but I think it’s safe to say that it’s bad to drive without looking at the road. Apparently people around here don’t care. According to WTOP in Washington, Maryland and Virginia are ranked fourth and sixth in the country when it comes to the number of people who admit to taking their thumbs off the wheel.

In Maryland, 36 percent of people say they text and drive. It’s slightly less common in Virginia, where 35.6 percent own up to it.

WTOP said the stats come from Vlingo, a company that makes voice recognition technology for phones. The company says its product can substitute for text messaging, so they may have a dog in the fight.

South Carolina takes the top spot at 40 percent. The lowest number was in Arizona (14 percent). At first, that surprised me, given the straight desert roads and the wide open spaces. Then again, they have winding mountain roads, too. They also may not have cell service everywhere in rural states. Vermont (20 percent) was the third-lowest. I used to live there and I couldn’t text and drive because there were no cell towers outside of town.

Some lawmakers in Maryland tried to ban texting while driving during this year’s legislative session, but the effort fell short because others in the General Assembly wanted an outright ban on cell phone use and they couldn’t find a compromise. Neither proposal made it through, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see these topics again next year.

ANDY ROSEN, Business Writer

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Posted by The Daily Record | Filed Under business, government, technology 

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