Proposal Would Make Austin Roads No-Selfie Zones

If you’d said to me ten years ago that in a decade, there would be a proposal to turn Austin roads into no-selfie zones, I would have no idea what you were talking about. But alas, here we are in 2017, and such a proposal now exists.

Traffic safety advocates have proposed amending Austin’s distracted driving ordinance. The current ordinance bans use of all electronic devices while driving. The amendment would prohibit anyone – passengers included – who is in a car from taking photos or videos of people in the car.

The amendment was discussed in an August meeting of the Austin Public Safety Commission, but action on the amendment and two other distracted driving-related changes was postponed. Those two other amendments would:

1. Make it illegal for drivers to use phones when stopped at stop signs or stoplights
2. Prohibit drivers from wearing headphones that cover most or all of the driver’s ears while the car is moving

Distracted Driving Statistics

From a personal injury standpoint, amendments like these seem like common sense changes to current distracted driving laws. The only thing a driver should be doing is paying attention to the road, not a cell phone or posing for a selfie.

Did you know that, at 60 mph, a driver can move 176 feet in the two seconds it takes to snap a photo? That’s the length of two basketball courts, over half a soccer field and almost half a football field. Filming a six-minute video at 60 mph, that driver moves 528 feet – a football field and a half.

Do you support making Austin roads no-selfie zones?