Distracted driving is a dangerous, all-too-common habit.
Come on: we’re all guilty of it. We just love to do stuff that isn’t driving, while we’re driving. Fiddling around with Spotify at stoplights, eating entire meals in bumper-to-bumper traffic, trying to snap a picture of that idiotic vanity plate. Occasionally, all at once… These days, I usually take the Subway. And the streets are probably better off without my tiny attention span.
Because on average, distracted driving is responsible for around 3000 fatalities each year.
There are three kinds of distraction at play on the road. In increasing order of severity: visual, manual, and cognitive. Visual distractions are the most benign – anything that takes our eyes away from the road, like an accident in the median or one of those flailing tube-men from an auto dealership. It’s an inevitable part of driving.
Manual distractions generally have worse outcomes but are more preventable. Things that cause us to take one or both hands from the wheel – like texting, eating, applying makeup, or fiddling with the music – are a matter of impulse control. But cognitive distractions are worse because there’s little we can do to prevent them. If you’ve ever made a long-haul drive, especially at night, you’ve probably experienced “highway hypnosis.” The tendency to lose one’s sense of space and time while driving on long, flat, straight roads. Maybe you’ve even caught yourself nodding off at the wheel. In any case, the best solution to cognitive distraction is simply not to drive at all. Driving requires mindfulness from us.
But we’re hurtling down the pavement, at 80 miles an hour, in steel death cages full of explosive gasses, and some of us still can’t muster the willpower to keep our hands on the wheel and not text back “LOL.”
But there are more incentives to safe driving than just keeping out of hospitals and jails. For one: many insurers offer apps and plug-in devices, which actively track your behavior while driving. It’s not a new concept – pioneered in 2003 by Progressive, with their Snapshot program. After all: if our phones can already record steps, what other physical phenomena could they record? And how could that data be helpful to insurers? If the data recorded shows that you’re an exceptionally safe driver – that you drive the speed limit, brake easy, turn smooth, and otherwise don’t rattle your phone’s accelerometer – it means you’re a lower risk. Less of a chance that you’ll file an expensive claim. So, to keep that state of affairs in place, insurers will offer discounts on their premiums based on this data.
The policies exploded in popularity, and many people drive more safely as a result And now that the technology’s caught up, almost every auto insurer offers a program like it. But it’s a double-edged sword. Because if you enter the program and prove to be a risky driver? Your rates are going up. It’s inevitable. After all, insurance companies can’t just ignore that data. Plus, they’re the ones who get to interpret what “safe driving” looks like, in numbers. Plenty of people who participate do save, but many more find out, pretty quickly, just how bad their driving is. Or, depending on your perspective, how stingy their insurance company’s trying to be that year. In either case, I wouldn’t recommend any of it. Distractions are abundant on the road, and the savings – usually in the order of $10-$20 a month, at best – aren’t worth the risk of raising your premium.
However, there is a similar program you can participate in that actually does make you a better driver and doesn’t potentially raise your premiums: the Defensive Driving Course.
Check with your insurer first, but this one-day, $25 seminar can knock as much as 10% off your premiums. In most cases, you can even take it online. Shop around for an insurance policy that fits your budget and needs, ask if they offer the discount, if there are any restrictions, and complete the class before paying for your policy – no insurers offer reimbursement or credit for this particular program.
You might even re-learn a thing or two you forgot from driving school.
