Multi-tasking Mania

Today I saw the ultimate. A woman merging onto the DVP northbound from Eglinton with a coffee and cellphone in her left hand, the steering wheel and cigarette in her right. It must have been some trick to hold that coffee steady while talking on the phone. What a piece of work!

I’ll admit that sometimes I have to remind myself not to text and drive. I’m not addicted to my blackberry as much as some of my contemporaries are, but its immediacy does have a certain allure. Stats out this week show that as many as 80 percent of car crashes can be attributed to driver inattention and I believe it. I see it every day on my drive home. Anyone who drives our roads sees it.

Another tidbit revealed this week is that virtually all traffic jams would disappear if everyone just let someone in, when there’s a lane reduction. So what we suspected turns out to be true – just a few selfish idiots are enough to ruin the drive for everybody.