a midway bikelog

Distracted drivers are as likely to cause a crash as a driver with a 0.08 blood alcohol content; the same level that will get you a DUI under Minnesota law. You don’t have to be a cyclist to see this in action, but it helps – i’m far more aware of poor driving at cycling speeds than when i’m in the car, probably because the little swerves and lapses in attention don’t put a car into my personal space. How long before, like the new seat belt law, police are enabled to pull people over for talking on a cell phone in traffic?

There’s a big story in the NYT about this today: U.S. Withheld Data on Risks of Distracted Driving. The proof of poor driving is only half the story, of course, as big an issue is the fact that the information was suppressed and why it was. The committee was not so much worried about the cellphone industry, which would be expected to complain, but about multi-tasking drivers who vote on their elected positions. This is an epic fail of government. Part of the reason we don’t have corporate studies for this sort of thing is that we expect a company to slant or suppress financially damaging information. Government agencies that withhold information that would improve public safety are hurting us twice.