Ask the Experts

Defenseless Driving

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I had a close call driving and texting. Did everyone else already learn this lesson?

Your question received lots of press over the past few years. We expect that students already learned this lesson.

A University study by Dr. Tamyra Pierce was released back in 2010. Observing 2,582 drivers on the highway, the study noted over 17% were distracted by some other activity.

Seven years later, in 2017, U.S. traffic deaths continue to increase year-over-year. This is counterintuitive, since vehicles have become safer over time. Unfortunately, driving distractions have increased for 18- to 29-year-old drivers. In the Empire State, there has been an 840% increase in texting-while-driving tickets issued.

According to auto-accident lawyer Edward Smith, smartphones and apps have become both more prevalent and more distracting. In his article about texting and distracted driving accidents, Mr. Smith points out that thousands of people are killed every year by distracted drivers.

If you are tempted to look at your phone while driving, understand you are not alone. Scientific studies actually show the phone jingles we hear induce the release of chemicals into the brain. Those sounds make users feel rewarded, while not responding creates anxiety.

An iPhone app called Passenger Mobile, gives people points for not texting and driving. There are a few more popular apps, says Smith. In a recent article about apps to prevent distracted driving, Smith highlights apps DriveOFF, DriveMode, and DriveScribe.

It seems a simpler, childish solution to just turn off your phone while driving. Yes, using your phone while driving is childish behavior. Be safe.

Jacob Maslow is the founder and editor of Legal Scoops.

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Ask the Experts

Pacing Purchases

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I’m graduating this year, and so is my longtime girlfriend. We have some big plans, but we don’t totally agree on how we want to spend our money. We both have jobs lined up and we both have some help from our parents so, we can afford to make some big purchases–but we can’t afford to get all of what we want, so it’s become kind of an issue.

We both agree that we want to buy a house rather than rent, although we’re not sure yet how we’re going to manage who owns what (we’re not married yet, but that’s coming soon, I think!). We want to live near the shore and I am very convinced that I want a boat–just a little one, obviously, not a yacht or anything. Meanwhile, she wants certain appliances and other really specific stuff for the house, and some of it is really expensive. She thinks I’m being frivolous, and I think she’s being a little intense–we don’t even know yet what sorts of appliances will be installed in the house we buy, and she already wants to replace them! Any advice on figuring out how to divvy up our budget?

It sounds as if you have some big plans for your post-graduate years! It’s good to have financial goals, and it’s hard to give specific advice about your finances without knowing more about your income and your existing savings. With that said, it sounds like your spending plan is very ambitious–something that you seem to recognize as you wrestle with the competing priorities that you and your partner have.
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To the Manor Born

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Here at the University, we have adequate housing. What is the deal with some dorms providing pools, gyms and saunas?

You and I have the same question. Who is living this lifestyle, at which colleges and how much is it? Student housing from earlier decades had only one goal; provide students with a place to live. With burgeoning college enrollment, the environment began to change and now that dynamic has changed. It naturally increased demand for off-campus housing, and real estate developers quickly recognized an opportunity. Just as expected, outside developers are more cost-efficient housing developers than the host university. One key source of demand, incoming foreign students, prefer to reside off-campus. You and I both missed out. Read about the privileged few.
Ask the Experts

Defeating Drunk Driving

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I know that drunk driving is a terrible thing to do, and it’s something I would never, ever do myself. For a long time, I assumed that pretty much everyone agreed on that–in fact, I wondered how it was even still a problem. But sometimes when I speak to older folks (even some within my own family), I’m surprised by how accepting they seem to be about the idea of drunk driving.

That may seem depressing, but it actually got me thinking kind of optimistically. If younger people are more serious about preventing drunk driving, we must be headed to a better, safer future in that area, right? So I thought I’d ask the experts: in general, how are we doing in the battle against drunk driving?

Drunk driving is a serious thing indeed–and, unfortunately, it’s still very much a problem in the United States. Drunk driving kills over 10,000 people a year and accounts for 29 percent of all traffic deaths in the US. Those sorts of statistics should be enough to make anyone stop driving drunk, but the sad truth is that many still do: 28.7 million people admitted to driving drunk in 2013.