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this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2026
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Chapotraphouse
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No anti-nautilism posts. See: Eco-fascism Primer
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Within the past few years, its gone from about 10% of people looking at their phones while driving, to easily about 40%.
for. real.
i have been doing a lot of pedestrian action for the last probably 10 years, and that slow style of commute lets me see exactly what the hell car drivers are doing. i thought it was fucked 5+ years ago already, because i would almost get hit by someone (usually once or twice a week) by a driver who was on their phone. just looking one way, gabbing, and about to run over me while i'm in the crosswalk with the signal. or witness a near collision where the cause was someone driving while on their phone. because so many of these people were on the goddamn phone.
now it's everybody.
this story was related to me by someone being super charitable: i had a dumbass family member "get into a fender bender" where they "rear ended someone" and it "totalled the car". Unreliable Narrator Mode Activated.
i said, "sounds like it was their fault if they hit someone from behind." and the story was relayed, "all of a sudden they looked up and cars were stopped and blammo."
because on the fucking phone.
the immediate environment, the climate, the biosphere, the deteriorating geopolitical situation around oil, the fossil capital formations and the political economy that protects it... there are so many reasons to get away from reliance on cars, but seriously self-preservation should be the one that spurs americans to at least try and make different choices. the highways and roads are fucking thunderdome.
Simply being in a car is the most dangerous thing the average person does in their life.
it's a literal orphan crushing machine and they just let anyone drive them
driving a car is guaranteed by the first amendment \s
running over an entire funeral procession is FREE SPEECH
First amendment is ridiculous. Now second amendment, you might be able to make a case...
Sorry. The specific trajectory I drive my Truck^{TM} at is my unique expression in the Public Sphere that is the road
Its really scary out there for pedestrians now. I stare everyone down now when I'm in a crosswalk. Learned to do this when I used to ride a moto when going through any intersection, and it definitely cut down on people creeping out or just ignoring the road.
Same, i live in a city with lots of bad drivers and i always make direct eye contact with the people who are supposed to be stopping (not to mention people blowing through the protected crosswalk with lights flashing)
The funny thing is that some drivers take offense to this because as soon as the solid red turns to flashing red they gun it past me, revving their engine as much/loudly as possible lol
A few years ago I read a story about a black teenager killed by a cop who was driving (fast) the wrong way down a 1-way residential street, about 25 mph limit, until T-boning. The cop was not charged, because he had lights on, while the teenager’s friend who was driving was arrested for driving with a suspended license.
Driving on the road in America means watching out for yourself because the rules will not actually protect you.
40% might be on the low end, riding on a motorcycle you can look right into people's cars and so fucking many are just staring at their phone in their laps
I used to ride all over the place on a bicycle on dangerous roads even with drivers mostly paying attention, now I wouldn't dream of sharing road space with cars on a bicycle. At least a motorcycle can move with traffic and get away from dangerous drivers, you're just fully at their mercy on a bicycle at 18mph.
After my last moto died, and due to too many close calls from dumbass phone-addicted drivers, I ended my moto-ing era. Its just too dangerous nowadays. I don't want my obit to read: "killed by an SUV driver scrolling instagram."
DWD - Driving while doomscrolling
I occasionally do stupid shit while driving (I'm bad at judging gaps sometimes because idk I get lost in my head/zone out a little) but I'm NEVER on my phone. How do people do this ??
I gave up on commuting by bike for this reason. I’ve had too many close calls. I never felt particularly safe before the pandemic but it got so much worse after 2020. The last time I went for a ride around my city I almost got hit three separate times. I don’t want to become a ghost bike.