A Funny {or not so funny at the time} Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum: Travel Distractions & a Focus on Things Learned

Misgivings

On Sunday evening I was beginning to wonder if I should have agreed to go to New York. My flights had me traversing the Eastern side of the country: MSP to MKE to ATL to LGA. It was already going to be a long day, but then in Atlanta, I got delayed by the unrelenting rain and wind in New York.

I finally left ATL an hour and a half later than scheduled, but then we were sentenced to a holding pattern above the thick white storm clouds, circling in broad sweeps above New York. Just when I thought I couldn't stand it one minute more, we started to descend into the pitch black. The landing was one which the passengers clap upon finally touching down on solid ground after being tossed about in the pouring rain and strong winds.

I rallied. I had finally arrived. Except I hadn't; no, LaGuardia had lost electricity in parts of the airport. So, we sat on the runway and waited for electricity to be restored to our gate. I'm not making this up.

I had gate checked my bag which meant that I would not be picking it up until New York. This was done quite by accident and is quite another story. Regardless, I couldn't shake the feeling that my bag would not make it to LGA on Sunday night. My driver and I waited patiently while all the bags were unloaded and picked up at baggage claim. Mine wasn't there. My heart was sinking, but I kept hope for divine intervention. Alas, divine intervention arrived along with my bag; it had made it to LGA before I did and was waiting for me in the baggage claim office. I can't help but wish I had been on whatever flights my bag took to arrive earlier.

The drive to Yonkers was dark and wet; water flooded parts of the highway we drove on. My experienced driver assured me she had witnessed this scene often on this road {that highway and two others were later closed and remained closed on Monday due to flooding}. Finally, after 13 hours of traveling, I arrived at my hotel, having missed the dinner and pre-panel meeting that had originally been my idea. Nonetheless, a hotel room has never looked so good to this weary, hoarse, coughing traveler. Monday was a whole new day; the sun was shining, and I had things to do.

The Forum

Consumers Union, the non-profit publisher of Consumer Reports held the Distracted Driving Forum in their bright, sprawling headquarters in Yonkers, NY. It was an informative event and I hope those who were in attendance or streaming from home thought so too. I was honored to be a part of the panel discussion at this event. I met many wonderful people from Consumers Union/Consumer Reports, Focus Driven, the media, etc.

The Lists

I like to make lists of things to summarize things in my brain, and here is a list of a few things I learned while at Consumers Union {some relating to distracted driving and others relating to Consumer Reports and the tour of 3 of their 53 testing labs}:

1. When police stand on a corner and give tickets for using hand-held phones and texting while driving, it effectively reduces the number of those engaging in this risky behavior;
2. I would LOVE the chance to work with Don Mays, Senior Director of Product Safety & Technical Public Policy, for even one week of testing products for safety issues {I'm not kidding. If he asked me to I would...wink, wink};
3. My explanation of what social media is all about {engaging, having a dialogue, interacting, building relationships} was well received by at least a few participants;
4. Jacy Good is an amazing, resilient woman, with a strong message; as are all the survivors who share their stories in hopes of saving others.
5. If you break a CFL light bulb remember there is a small amount of Mercury in it. To clean it up, don't vacuum it; use tape to pick up all of the debris;
6. New Jersey has a program where GDL (Graduated Drivers License) or provisional license holders must have a red sticker on their car bumpers to notify police they are under 21 and legally should not be using a cell phone while driving.
7. You can text SAFE to 76666 to sign up to receive texts from Consumer Reports once a week or so informing you of any safety alerts and/or product recalls. But if you receive these or any other texts while driving, just ignore them until you have stopped driving; and
8. U.S. Sec. of Transportation Ray LaHood and the DOT are advocating for a federal distracted driving law.

And here is a list of information I already knew, but it's worth mentioning again:

1. In 2009, distracted driving killed close to 5,500 people;
2. 30 states have laws barring texting while driving;
3. Only 8 states have banned hand-held phone usage while driving;
4. No states have totally banned cell phone usage while driving for all drivers;
5. People under the age of 30 are more likely to text while driving;
6. Most people think there should be laws against texting while driving, but think they are not distracted by using a phone while driving, especially if it's a hands-free device;
7. Most people don't know what the laws in their respective states are regarding these issues; and
8. Awareness of these issues and the data that the distracted driving studies reveal do lead to reduced distracted driving activity.

The Scoop

Overall, the people I came in contact with throughout my trip helped me stay upbeat despite being exhausted, feeling lousy from having a cold with a constant cough and getting delayed: both drivers from Blue Chip Limo were wonderful; all of my seat mates on my 5 different flights were lovely people to chat with; the front desk attendant at the Residence Inn by Marriot in Yonkers offered me some of her pizza when I arrived at 10:30 PM and still hadn't eaten dinner; and all of the Consumers Union/Consumers Report people I came in contact with were warm and friendly and seemed to really care about the work they are doing.

On Thursday, I will be updating the statistics from last year's posts on distracted driving and providing additional resources, etc. If you missed the live stream of the forum, but would like to view it, you can click here for the Ustream feed. Oh, and the photo above is from the anechoic chamber  at Consumers Union. Anechoic means without echo. And the lack of sound and echo was really confusing to the brain, but very interesting. Over and out....

Anna

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