New York State introduces texting zones for motorists

If you have read the news in the past few days you might have seen the headline above and thought to yourself, are they nuts, driving zones where your allowed to text. That thought kind of popped into my head to as I clicked on the news link. To my relief it wasn’t a driving zone at all but really a safe parking spot where you can pull over and text to your heart’s content without driving.

Governor Cuomo unveils new texting zones along New York highways.

The new signs that will be seen across New York’s system of public highways and Truway will remind drivers that a safe place to stop and text is just ahead. “Texting Zones” as they are called are really existing Park-N-RIde facilities, rest stops and parking areas. The signs are meant to encourage drivers to wait just a few minutes to use their hand-held devices parked in a safe place.

Governor today announced a 365% increase in tickets issued in summer 2013 compared to summer 2012 for distracted driving, a result of an extensive enforcement crackdown by the State Police. This summer, State Police issued 21,580 tickets, surpassing last summer’s total of 5,208 tickets.

The staggering increase in tickets issued in the State of New York for distracted driving just in the summer months shows not only has enforcement increased but people are just not getting it, this despite the fact earlier this year the Governor increased the penalty for distracting driving from three to five demerit points on your driver’s license. He also signed legislation to increase license suspension and revocation periods for distracted driving on young and new drivers.

Will these new signs pay off in the long run, well we can certainly hope so. In the mean time watch out the State Police will be out in their new Concealed Identity Traffic Enforcement or CITE vehicles. CITE vehicles are SUV’s which allow greater height giving officers a better look inside your vehicle to help catch people texting, even lap use of hand-held devices. These vehicles come in many different colors all the better to blend in.

Just don’t risk it, put your phones away and make use of these new, always been around texting zones, across North America.