Monday, October 03, 2016
Distracted driving
Think laws against various forms of inattentive driving are new?
March 1937. An Idaho state senator named R.E. Whitten,
who was clearly pleased with his Senatoritudinosity, tried to make a law prohibiting auto radios. Radio manufacturers and dealers mobilized and got the other legislators to vote down the law.
At that time car radios were less distracting than the more familiar post-1940 form. Many car radios had controls on the steering column:
where you could see the dial and turn the knobs without reaching WAY over to the middle of the dash.
More broadly, radios are not in the same category as other distractors. Radio is unquestionably distracting, but the positive and negative effects are about equal. Listening doesn't involve your eyes or hands most of the time, and a radio can often help to keep you awake when silence would let you drift.
¶ 4:05 AM 
who was clearly pleased with his Senatoritudinosity, tried to make a law prohibiting auto radios. Radio manufacturers and dealers mobilized and got the other legislators to vote down the law.
At that time car radios were less distracting than the more familiar post-1940 form. Many car radios had controls on the steering column:
where you could see the dial and turn the knobs without reaching WAY over to the middle of the dash.
More broadly, radios are not in the same category as other distractors. Radio is unquestionably distracting, but the positive and negative effects are about equal. Listening doesn't involve your eyes or hands most of the time, and a radio can often help to keep you awake when silence would let you drift.
¶ 4:05 AM
