If You Text While You Drive, Your Government is Sending You Mixed Messages

It’s illegal to text while driving in New York City, right? That includes receiving as well as sending texts, correct? And that also includes reading texts while behind the wheel, no?
We’re just checking; because in what can only be called a magnificent piece of irony, New York state agencies send traffic-alert texts about road conditions that drivers receive…while they’re driving.
Which is illegal.
In part because the agencies that are sending these texts made it so.
Government in action.
The New York State Legislature outlawed texting while driving in New York this past fall. On November 1, it became illegal to use cell phones, ipods, and other electronic devices while driving. But Notify NYC, run by the Office of Emergency Management and the Department of Information Technology and Telecommunications, alerts subscribers about traffic conditions and city emergencies by email, phone messages…and text messages. More than 25,000 New Yorkers subscribe to the service, which was launched last May.
A spokesman said drivers could check their messages when they stop, or can sign up for phone calls that can be answered with hands-free devices while driving.
The State Department of Transportation also sends out emails and text messages through TransAlert, which gives drivers information about traffic problems. Last November 772 alerts were sent out to drivers...who presumably read them while driving.
Hey, New York drivers? Be smarter than your local and state governments, OK? Act like grownups behind the wheel--not like 13-year-old girls at recess.

Texting While Driving in New York? Don't Even Think About It

Need to text your wife and ask if she wants you to pick up the latest Quentin Tarantino DVD on your way home? Thinking of sending a quick message on your cell to see if Susie is free for lunch tomorrow? Well, forget about it--at least if you were planning on texting while you were driving anywhere in New York State.
Governor David Paterson signed a “No texting” law into effect last week, making it illegal to text while driving anywhere in the state. Not following the rules carries up to a $150 fine. (Not to mention, of course, the possibility of an accident.)
In New York City, where seeing someone text while driving is as common as, well, seeing someone apply lipstick while driving, it’s a much-needed--though most likely hard-to enforce--law.
Not texting while driving would seem to be a no-brainer, yet vast numbers of people in the city still do it.
The law also covers any kind of hand-held device or laptop--and just to be clear, it stresses that you can’t use any kind of device to read, view or send images or data of any kind while the vehicle is on the move and you’re driving.
By the way, that means that you can’t check your email or surf the web either, so get over any ideas about checking the Yankee score or seeing if your Aunt Myrna sent you the address of that new restaurant--at least not while you’re behind the wheel.