I rode a commuter bus for years and saw the exact same thing you describe, and no one would seriously suggest 50-75% of drivers are (equivalently) drunk.
Or drunk driving isn’t as dangerous as previously thought.
Or there’s many more drunk drivers than previously thought.
I don’t necessarily agree with either of those, but the point is there are many possible explanations and we should be careful about jumping to conclusions.
A better way of refuting those claims is to find flaws in their methodology
Inebriated is much different. They are less likely to notice something in the first place because their senses are deadened. If they do notice, their full attention while intoxicated is much less as is their ability to rationally make decisions. There’s no way to un-distract if something gains.
With texting and driving there are other major daily hassles. A common scenario for me as I walk my dog is that I no longer assume a car will yield on a crosswalk - even the ones with a stop sign or a signal. May be the impact is that few people bike or walk? Or walk elsewhere like a trail or a park instead of sidewalk and neighborhoods? End of the day, it’s about what we want as a society. If we decide that people should be allowed to focus on their phone, we have to start redesigning the streets now.
Not just as a pedestrian, even as a driver I don’t assume I can go in green light anymore. People seem to miss red lights on the regular now
I'd also guess most people are not constantly on their phones as they are checking notifications/texts and that kind of thing, so you get more of an on-and-off effect rather than just being consistently drunk for the entire duration.
Not that it makes the practice any better, but it does seem like a complicating factor when trying to frame the problem in terms of drunk driving.
I think this ignores the fact that people can’t actually pay attention to more than one thing at a time, generally. Meaning, they aren’t simultaneously looking at their phone and being vigilant of “weirdness” That switching overhead from one focus to the other may be enough to delay reactions to cause accidents.
So while they’re not offline, the sensory input cycle is slowed enough to be much less useful.
Yep. About 10 years ago, I took a bus from Boston to Hartford and I spent most of my time looking down into cars along the highway.
Aside from drivers looking at their phones, I saw people block their entire field of view by unwrapping burgers and lifting them up to eat, fixing their clothing, makeup, etc.