let's motor

I have a cell phone, but it only makes calls and sometimes alarms me in the morning enough to wake me up. Yes, I can also play Tetris on it. But it does not text. Well, let me correct that. It does text and receives text messages, but I don't text. I don't want to learn this feature on the phone. I don't like it and now there's probable evidence that texting-while-driving is killing people.

It's a sad story for the people involved, these cheerleaders who were young. It appears the driver was irresponsible (in addition to possibly texting while driving, she was breaking the rules on her junior driver's license) and yet she took 4 other lives with hers. It's one thing to kill yourself--another take other people with you. This is the thing that bothers me most with the story. I don't drive much anymore--except to tour, I'm trying to take my bike, bicycle or walk wherever I can. I'm lucky too--when we go places together, #1BB drives and I can read or look out the window. But when I do drive, I'm much more aware of how poor our driving skills have become. Can we just focus on the task at hand? I don't want to be the victim of some arse who thinks that it's so important to be looking at her Blackberry, while she runs me off the road. This is also why I felt I was distressed and followed, in the news, the Paris Hilton story. I admit I'm a selfish person. But I don't drive drunk or high and seriously endanger the lives of other people. I wonder if she thought about that at all: that there was a very big chance she could have killed someone. I doubt it. Although, I haven't see that she's repeated the behavior since her time in the clink. (Maybe I need to catch up on TMZ.)

A similar thing happened to #1BB last month. He was driving to a city west of Baltimore for work. A guy driving next to him started to merge into his lane, directly where he was driving and thinking quickly, #1BB moved over to the shoulder. Of course, all of this happens in a matter of seconds, and so he recovered and pulled back onto the highway. #1BB and the other driver happened to pull off the same ramp and end up at the stoplight together. When he looked over to see what the other dude's deal was, he saw: he was reading a book.

I wish Baltimore had a more accessible, more reliable public transport system that I lived near to--but it's my choice to not live near the train or light rail system and I haven't yet fulfilled my dream of buying a day pass and riding around B'more bus trails...I admit, I'm not well versed in our public transport, yet.....but I am trying to drive my little car, as little as possible. But if you're reading this, (especially while you're driving) I'd like us to put away our cell phones, PDAs and books and just get your hands at 10 and 2 on the wheel. Look at the road and the streets and the other people around you. They deserve your attention. And I think it's just another piece of evidence about disappearing courtesy in our social world. Let's be courteous on the road and careful with each other.