Baltimore to Bowie doesn't involve the DC Beltway (and only a tiny bit of the Baltimore Beltway) And I was no longer on the Beltway when I posted that. Though at the speeds I was doing on the Beltway (up to 15 MPH) I almost might as well have been at a series of stoplights there, too...
Interesting thought about which is scarier though. Talking on a handsfree unit isn't any more of an impediment to driving than listening to music on the radio, and is safer (at least for me) than listening to talk radio ... but dialing in motion is a bit of a problem unless you use speed-dial or are calling someone at a "don't need to look" spot in your in-phone list of numbers.
Posting to LJ via SMS can be done without looking at the phone at all[*] if one is willing to risk some typos ... does require one hand, which makes it less safe than talking on a handsfree ... you can drop the phone mid-message if you need both hands on the wheel suddenly with less consequence than doing the same when talking without a handsfree adaptor ... but the clincher is that thinking about spelling, and counting keystrokes (4='g', 44='h', 444='i', 4444='4') is a significantly larger mental distraction than speaking, somewhat offset by the ability to pause and set the phone down whenever you get anywhere near another car.
OTOH, I've seen people whose eyes go off in the various directions that are said to indicate varous mental processes when they talk on a cell phone, rather than overriding that to continue looking at the road. I don't know how those people drive and talk (on a phone or to a passenger) -- or walk and talk, for that matter -- at the same time in the first place. If sone who can split their attention is thumbing a phone in their lap without looking distracted, I won't know they're SMSing. Seeing someone visibly distracted from their driving is scary no matter what it is they're doing.
[*] FWIW, it's: right-button, down-arrow, right-button, right-button, right-button, right-button, 6, up-arrow, right-button, left-button, right-button, right-button, type the message, right-button, left-button, left button. So it's not "do without looking" until after you've done it a few times, but it does get to be that way. And of course, at a red light one can spare a glance just before starting the message body, to make sure one hasn't flubbed it.
(no subject)
Interesting thought about which is scarier though. Talking on a handsfree unit isn't any more of an impediment to driving than listening to music on the radio, and is safer (at least for me) than listening to talk radio ... but dialing in motion is a bit of a problem unless you use speed-dial or are calling someone at a "don't need to look" spot in your in-phone list of numbers.
Posting to LJ via SMS can be done without looking at the phone at all[*] if one is willing to risk some typos ... does require one hand, which makes it less safe than talking on a handsfree ... you can drop the phone mid-message if you need both hands on the wheel suddenly with less consequence than doing the same when talking without a handsfree adaptor ... but the clincher is that thinking about spelling, and counting keystrokes (4='g', 44='h', 444='i', 4444='4') is a significantly larger mental distraction than speaking, somewhat offset by the ability to pause and set the phone down whenever you get anywhere near another car.
OTOH, I've seen people whose eyes go off in the various directions that are said to indicate varous mental processes when they talk on a cell phone, rather than overriding that to continue looking at the road. I don't know how those people drive and talk (on a phone or to a passenger) -- or walk and talk, for that matter -- at the same time in the first place. If sone who can split their attention is thumbing a phone in their lap without looking distracted, I won't know they're SMSing. Seeing someone visibly distracted from their driving is scary no matter what it is they're doing.
[*] FWIW, it's: right-button, down-arrow, right-button, right-button, right-button, right-button, 6, up-arrow, right-button, left-button, right-button, right-button, type the message, right-button, left-button, left button. So it's not "do without looking" until after you've done it a few times, but it does get to be that way. And of course, at a red light one can spare a glance just before starting the message body, to make sure one hasn't flubbed it.