Hasta La Ideas

Last fall, I was run off the road by some lunatic who was speeding in a Jaguar with his windows down, listening to a blaring radio, and texting on his BlackBerry. I was lucky that the road we were traveling on had a grassy median for me to drive onto instead of directly into a lane of on-coming traffic.

My honking and screeching brakes didn’t phase him as he swerved directly into me and ran me off the road. Afterward, another driver pulled onto the median behind me to check if I was okay, and the lunatic in the Jaguar just kept barreling down the road, totally clueless.

I have seen some truly horrible forms of clutter — time, physical, mental, behavioral — and texting while driving is the second worst type of clutter I can name in the behavioral clutter category (drunk driving is definitely the worst).

If you’re someone who thinks that it’s completely safe to text while driving, I’d like to suggest you play an eye-opening game in the Technology section of this weekend’s online New York Times.

Gauging Your Distraction
New studies show that drivers overestimate their ability to multitask behind the wheel. This game measures how your reaction time is affected by external distractions. Regardless of your results, experts say, you should not attempt to text when driving.

How did you perform? As expected, I was dismal. I didn’t even see the people on the road.