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Gridlock Guy: In Captain Herb’s spirit, some tips to curb distracted driving

The Highlights
  • Use the infotainment system in the car’s dashboard
  • Plenty of accessories aid hands-free driving
  • Apps can track distractions, precautions can limit them

This time of the year normally brings a fount of fond memories and twinges of melancholy for those at 95.5 WSB and others that were close with Captain Herb Emory. His 70th birthday would have been this past Sunday and this coming Wednesday, April 12th, marks nine years since his passing.

Emory was an affable, larger-than-life traffic expert who delivered Atlanta’s best traffic coverage with warmth and urgency for decades. He was a bulldog for public safety and defensive driving. His dedication to the cause and the craft extended to his home basement studio, The Tiny Lund Ballroom (named after one of his favorite childhood NASCAR drivers), which he packed with monitors, audio equipment, and police scanners, so he could be on top of the latest traffic info whenever he wanted. I wish I had taken a few pictures of not only this impressive room, but the array of antennas he had run up in the tree outside.

After his passing, his widow, Karen, and I went through this traffic cave and I was able to salvage some items for use in my own studio. One was a small TV monitor with a “Hang It Up” bumper sticker. The sticker was old enough that the exed-out phone on it looked like a mid-2000s Nokia.

All of this is a roundabout way of saying that April is Distracted Driving Awareness Month, one of many traffic causes for which Captain Herb stood. The platitudes about texting and driving almost become wallpaper, but the epidemic has gotten worse, despite the 2018 passing of the “Hands-Free Georgia Act.” The warpath of loss because of distracted driving is wide. The small bruises that inflame traffic jams are countless.

So here is a short primer on some tips to get phones out of hands and how the anti-texting and driving law works in Georgia.

Georgia drivers cannot legally hold phones

The bolstering of Georgia’s anti-texting and driving law in 2018 essentially barred drivers from holding their cell phones while behind the wheel of a car in motion or stopped in traffic. There are exceptions for certain professions, including first responders.

Commuters may touch their phone screens to make phone calls and manipulate GPS apps, but the phone cannot be in their hands. Touching a phone screen to do text messaging or watch videos is forbidden.

While the threshold for legality is fairly low, the law simply made enforcement of the texting law that was already on the books. The problem with the older law was that drivers could just say they were making a call and get away with it.

Of all the phone distractions behind the wheel, texting is easily the most dangerous.

Enforcement of the newer law is still very low and many drivers blatantly break it, likely evidenced by the fact that roadway fatalities continue to rise in Georgia. But the law at least sets a baseline and a very achievable standard.

Use the infotainment system in the car’s dashboard

Not every car has a touchscreen built in, but many late models do. And most are now Apple CarPlay and Android Auto-compatible.These programs for their respective mobile phones limit a phone’s features, but allow certain apps to work on the in-dash screen and with voice-activation.

Google Maps and Apple Maps are much better GPS navigators than the ones built-in to cars. The interfaces with various audio-streamers, messaging apps, and actual phone calls are all hands-free and work with simple swipes and taps and voice-activation.

Using an infotainment system is completely legal in Georgia. Drivers can usually get their phones to sync with a vehicle by plugging them into the USB ports.

The downside of this convenience is that it works so well and does so much that it presents its own distraction. But using these dashboard touchscreens are far easier than trying to thumb on small phone screens.

Plenty of accessories aid hands-free driving

I started employing a cradle in my vehicle’s AC vent to prop my phone up in the case I need to use an app that doesn’t show up in Apple CarPlay. For those that need this functionality or that do not have infotainment systems, phone cradles are far better than just sticking them in cup holders or under the driver’s leg. These aids range from small cradles that wedge in vents, to ones that suction to windshields and are not expensive.

Drivers can get audio to play through the car speakers by buying a small transmitter that plugs into the cigarette lighter and uses an FM frequency. Set the device and the car’s radio to the same FM signal (that does not already carry a local radio station).

Motorists also need to make sure car chargers are long enough to stretch from the plug to wherever the phone’s cradled. Stretching a small charger can create tension that pops the phone out of place and creates a bigger distraction.

Apps can track distractions, precautions can limit them

I have written before about TASL (This App Saves Lives) which drivers can run in the background while they are driving. It measures when drivers navigate off of a GPS app and use other ones while a car is in motion. The longer that they avoid the temptation to switch screens, the more points it rewards. TASL then has prizes that drivers can redeem with their focused-driving-points.

TASL also sells a parent portal, where teen drivers can be monitored by their parents and not only rewarded by TASL for good behavior, but rewarded by the parents.

The Lutzie 43 Foundation, founded after former Auburn football player and Georgian Phillip Lutzenkirchen got killed in a drunk driving crash in 2014, has a key mantra they travel the country promoting. Wrapping the issues of distracted and impaired driving together, they promote “43 Key Seconds” drivers should take before getting behind the wheel to make sure they have clear heads, hands, and eyes and to click seatbelts closed. Asking these questions before shifting into drive and sticking to them can save lives.

Doug Turnbull, the PM drive Skycopter anchor for Triple Team Traffic on 95.5 WSB, is the Gridlock Guy. Download the Triple Team Traffic Alerts App to hear reports from the WSB Traffic Team automatically when you drive near trouble spots. Contact him at Doug.Turnbull@cmg.com.

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