I'm not one to text while driving. Texting while doing nothing else is about my speed. When I first heard that people do this I had to scratch my head a little. How the heck do you do that and keep enough attention on the road and the cars around you to avoid a head-on? Unfortunately laws that are aimmed at banning the practice aren't effective. People who persist in doing this just attempt to hold the phone lower so it can't be easily seen which causes them to lower their eyes from the road entirely for longer periods of time.
Then we have issues with people texting each other when a meeting is going on that should demand your full attention. This happens in business meetings and some government meetings like city commission meetings.
The city of Gresham Council is considering a new law that would ban texting during their meetings. The new rule is justified over concerns about texting being a method of conducting business out of the public view. That's right. Appearently council members are texting each other and city staff members during the course of the meeting rather than having those discussions verbally.
Remember when email was becoming popular? Some City Councils were under fire for exchanging emails that could be construed as reaching consensus on issues before council meetings were actually held to hold public discussions. This ended up with efforts at transparency by making emails available to the press.
There needs to be a standard here that includes texting. As a matter of safety on the road, or the operation of heavy equipment the force of law might be appropriate but efforts so far have been largely ineffective. In other cases people need to apply rules of common courtesy in using this technology. Some of that comes in correcting behaviors by setting policy and sticking to it.
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