A guy in San Francisco has caused a bit of a stir recently by naming and shaming people who drive while using their mobile phones.
Brian Singer is the man with the plan. He formed a group called Texting While in Traffic, which works out to have the very nice acronym TWIT. Anyone who gets caught on camera using their phone gets their picture put on the internet and there is a chance that the picture gets slapped up on a giant billboard as well.
You would feel like a fool
Photo courtesy of Brian Singer
How would you feel about having a photo of you doing something so naughty put up for the whole city to see? You’d feel like a bit of a fool, wouldn’t you? And so you blooming well should. Singer says that his TWIT photos are designed to make the guilty drivers “freak out” as well as to make them think twice before using their phone while behind the wheel. He claims that there should be no legal issues with using these images, as no one expects privacy while driving along a public road.
As far as the number of people who do this is concerned, Singer says – rather bizarrely – that there are 20 mobile phone users on the road for every nose picker. I don’t know about that, as I tend to see more nasal cavities being explored than people texting on my daily commute.
Naturally other drivers shouldn’t take the pictures. Otherwise we would need to set up a new group to name and shame the people who drive while taking photos. Snapping Photos in Traffic. SPIT. We would then have massive billboards showing someone taking a picture of someone else using their phone. Heck, we might as well try and get a nose picker in on that shot as well. PINIT.
What do you think? Should someone in the UK start a similar initiative which puts out most thoughtless drivers up on giant billboards?