No, actually, it's your sanctimonious BS that can wait....

[captainsblog]

I forgot to mention something odd seen in my Thruway travels earlier this month. The endless drumbeat against high-speed stupidity has met its match in the response of the government, along with that of the enabling mobile carriers, to the safety problem.

Behold, the GUV:



These signs have now sprouted at least the entire length of the 90 from here to Syracuse, all being appended onto existing signage for services and rest stops.  The idea, it seems, is that these darn fool textin' kids will see one of these and go, yeah, bro! I can wait five miles to finger my Flappy Birds some more! Thanks, Governor Cuomo!

Not shown, though, is my favorite of the bunch- the one where the TEXT STOP topper got popped onto one just west of the easternmost Thruway exit in the Rochester area.  It now reads:

IT CAN WAIT

TEXT STOP
2 MILES

NO BATHROOMS

Did the highway-safety consultants behind this marketing campaign consider, for even a moment, that drivers might be more inclined to use a TEXT STOP if it had more in the way of amenities than just a shoulder of frozen highway?  According to at least one reporter that took this same trip recently,

those little rest stop areas... years ago had bathrooms but too many perverts were hanging out in them so they got rid of the bathrooms and put up signs telling us “No Bathrooms.”

The more prevalent and populated Service Areas also have these spankin' new signs.   Little more than vending machine huts in my early Thruway driving days, they were upgraded in the 80s to opulent chalets with chain restaurants, humongous gift shops, toilets to service a football stadium worth of pee-ers at once, and even farmers' markets and fresh fudge in season.  I'm dying to stop at one now to see if these TEXT STOP signs now provide any amenities they previously didn't. Like, for instance, free wi-fi, or printing capacity, or anything else that a traveling texter might actually use in his or her decision to put the brakes on the thumbs.

Knowing New York, I'm willing to bet that they've done no such thing. But only at a state-approved casino, of course.

----

The carriers are carrying this same hypocritical water.  Every bill now from AT&T carries the IT CAN WAIT moniker on it, and they and their mobile brethren sponsor the pre-show STOP YOUR TEXTING messages at movie theaters.  I assure you, from my experiences watching kids (and surprising numbers of adults) in these venues is that it does no good whatsoever.  Unless someone like the Alamo Draft House kicks you out, it's gonna happen.

And yet it doesn't have to.  Mobile phones have the technology, as in right now this minute, to stop texting in its tire tracks if the carriers really cared enough to give up the revenue from those very cheap-to-send little bits of data.  And, yes, passengers can still text or whatever.

Here's how:

A new software suite called OneProtect, which includes a mobile app and web browser, is here to curb the destructive impact our attention to our mobile phones and texting can have on our driving.

Once installed, the OneProtect technology blocks drivers from using their phones while in motion. Once your phone's GPS indicates your car is moving above a speed of your choosing — the default is 15 miles per hour — it will lock up.

What sets OneProtect apart from other distracted driving apps is its Attention Verification Test (AVT), a patent-pending technology that differentiates between drivers and passengers.

"We assume users won't be compliant, so the Attention Verification Test is the only effective check," Cirian Hynes, CEO of OneProtect maker 10n2 Technologies, told Mashable.

The AVT first asks you whether you're a passenger or a driver, once it picks up that you're traveling above the pre-selected speed. If you select you're the driver, the AVT locks your phone until you drop below the speed threshold. If you select that you're a passenger, you're asked to confirm that you're not driving at that exact time, such as "9:30 a.m. on Friday, Sept. 7."

You are then given the Attention Verification Test, which asks you to precisely tap on letters that appear on your screen in a short amount of time. The AVT is tested be essentially impossible for drivers, but doable for passengers.



Rather than passing out tickets or wasting money on stupid signs, Lej's everywhere should be mandating the installation and non-blocking of apps such as this, because they would solve the problem the way problems are meant to be solved- with science.

Similarly, while it would take FCC action to enable cellular signal jammers in cinema, there's nothing stopping the mobile carriers from assisting theater owners in construction techniques that would make their auditoriums more and more resistant of the bars.  I seem to remember something from Superman about lead being a good idea for that kind of thing.  Or just go Alamo on them, consistently and constantly, and we can see an end to that scourge, as well.

And if it works? Hell, put it on a big blue sign on the 90 and I'll even enjoy seeing it:)