Pimp My Wry

Cleveland Tourism Video — Part Two

Poor Cleveland. Is it really as bad as this filmmaker says?  (Hat tip to J.W. for this one) ...

Homemade Tourism Video: Cleveland

I've got nothing against Cleveland; never been there. I just stumbled on this video and think it's hilarious:

$6M Study On Texting While Driving: OMG! It's Dangerous!

Because it's not obvious enough that texting while driving can — and does (see video below) — cause accidents, the New York Times reported today that Virginia Tech Transportation Institute compiled a study that reveals texting "far surpasses the dangers of other driving distractions":

The new study, which entailed outfitting the cabs of long-haul trucks with video cameras over 18 months, found that when the drivers texted, their collision risk was 23 times greater than when not texting. ...

[The institute] also measured the time drivers took their eyes from the road to send or receive texts.

In the moments before a crash or near crash, drivers typically spent nearly five seconds looking at their devices — enough time at typical highway speeds to cover more than the length of a football field.

Even though trucks take longer to stop and are less maneuverable than cars, the findings generally applied to all drivers, who tend to exhibit the same behaviors as the more than 100 truckers studied, the researchers said. ...

Compared with other sources of driver distraction, “texting is in its own universe of risk,” said Rich Hanowski, who oversaw the study at the institute.

Mr. Hanowski said the texting analysis was financed by $300,000 from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which has the mission of improving safety in trucks and buses. More broadly, the research yielding the results represent a significant logistical undertaking.

The overall cost was $6 million to equip the trucks with video cameras and track them for three million miles as they hauled furniture, frozen foods and other goods across the country. ...

Tom Dingus, director of the Virginia Tech institute, one of the world’s largest vehicle safety research organizations, said the study’s message was clear.

“You should never do this,” he said of texting while driving. “It should be illegal.”

What should be illegal is spending $6M to discover what anyone with a brain already knows.

But what makes this colossal waste of money even more shameful is that the results of the study probably won't change the bad behavior of drivers. According to the Times, some who text while driving know the risks, but do it anyway:

The AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety plans on Tuesday to publish polling data that show that 87 percent of people consider drivers texting or e-mailing to pose a “very serious” safety threat (roughly equal to the 90 percent who consider drunken drivers a threat).

Of the 2,501 drivers surveyed this spring, 95 percent said that texting was unacceptable behavior. Yet 21 percent of drivers said they had recently texted or e-mailed while driving.

About half of drivers 16 to 24 said they had texted while driving, compared with 22 percent of drivers 35 to 44.

Robert Smith, a recent college grad from Maine, who probably shoots roman candles out of his ass for fun, told the Times that he texts while driving regularly, even though he knows it's a very stupid thing to do:

“I put the phone on top of the steering wheel and text with both thumbs,” he said, adding that he often has exchanges of 10 messages or more. Sometimes, “I’ll look up and realize there’s a car sitting there and swerve around it. ... I’m pretty sure that someday it’s going to come back to bite me,” he said of his behavior.

And I'm pretty sure that the 'Jaws of Life' at his local fire/rescue department are salivating at this very moment.

A Very Small Injustice

This is completely subjective, of course. "Injustice" may in fact be something of an overstatement. However, I just have to say that I feel it is beyond unfair that I am not one of the people driving around Spain in a Mercedes with Mario Batali (who I thought was an Italian chef) and Mark Bittman. (check out Spain On The Road Again)

I know a little something about food, after all. Though I will grant that I a) have never starred in a major motion picture and b) am not Spanish. In other words, I'm not Gwyneth Paltrow or Claudia whatever her last name is. 

None of this is to infer that I am bitter or dissatisfied with my life. I'm simply pointing out this very small injustice.