UT senior Brittani Robinson text messages a friend while walking on Guadalupe Street.
Text-messaging Austinites will finally face the law after the city council voted unanimously last month to prohibit texting while driving.
The ban, which goes into effect on January 2, 2010, will impose a $500 misdemeanor fine on drivers caught sending text messages using electronic devices while their cars are in motion.
Scott Johnson, who initiated the idea for the ban through the Street Smarts Task Force, told the city council on October 22 that he fully backed the ban.
“Driving a vehicle or riding a motorcycle or riding a bicycle and using a cell phone for any reason particularly texting is just outrageously irresponsible behavior,” he said at the meeting. “And I strongly support this measure.”
Heavy traffic is common for Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, making texting while driving all the more dangerous in Austin.
“The dangers of use of a device while driving are just absolutely, abundantly clear,” said Mike Martinez, Austin’s Mayor Pro Tem.
The new law, which was first introduced in November of 2008, bans the use of anything with texting capabilities while driving, including electronic readers like Kindles.
“If you want to read a Kindle, you should not be behind the wheel,” Martinez told the council.
Drivers may use text messaging, emails and Internet capabilities on their phones while stopped. The ban does not cover cell phone calls or use of GPS.
Originally intended to go into effect on November 2, the ban has been postponed until the new year to give legislators enough time to review its language. Enforcing it, however, may spark new challenges for Austin police.
“It’s not about enforcement. It’s not about revenue generation,” Martinez said. “It’s about safety, and it’s about awareness.”
A study by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that for every six seconds of driving time, a texter spends nearly five of those seconds with their eyes off the road. And according to the injury law firm Edgar Snyder and Associates’ website, half of all people between the ages of 18 and 24 are texting while driving.
