I lay part of the blame for distracted drivers on car manufacturers. In Detroit especially, there has been, over the years, a movement to make the driver just a passive occupant of the vehicle, with more and more of the driving control taken over by machines.
It started many years ago with automatic transmissions and cruise control, and today, car manufacturers are pushing navigation systems, so that car drivers have their attention glued to a TV screen that shows a map to where they are going.
The eventual goal is to have cars that drive themselves, where the driver just punches in a destination on the computer screen, and sits back, blissfully bombarded by music and video.
But since passive driving has to come in incremental steps, the result is that distraction will increase when we still have to pay attention to the road.
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Il faut de l'audace, encore de l'audace, toujours de l'audace
1980 3Rensho-- 1975 Raleigh Sprite 3spd
1990s Raleigh M20 MTB--2007 Windsor Hour (track)
1988 Ducati 750 F1