In the last couple weeks, both my girlfriend and I have come within inches of being hit by cars while walking, in crosswalks, in downtown Seattle. Unfortunately this isn't the only time that's happened to us, nor is it exclusive to us or this city. Every single day in every city I visit, I see drivers blow through lights, stop in crosswalks and generally disrespect pedestrians. What's obviously changed in the last few years is the root cause: people aren't necessarily more rude or worse drivers, they're just trying to use their phones while driving. Each and every time I see a car get close to hitting a pedestrian, I can look in the window and see that their hand is on a phone. In the case of my girlfriend's near-miss, the offending driver was on a video call on her phone while she was driving through the city — so she drove right through a red light without even recognizing she had done so. A video call. While she was driving. If that's not a perfect example for how bad this problem has become, I don't know what is. Verizon is offering the Pixel 4a for just $10/mo on new Unlimited lines

The NHTSA's numbers from 2015 show over 390,000 people injured and 3,400 killed specifically by distracted driving in that year. Not all of them are phone-related. And not all of them could have necessarily been prevented — but so many could have if people chose to put down their phone and pay attention to the world around their car. And no matter how many could have actually been prevented by putting down the phone, we know that nothing on that phone at the time was more important than the injury or death caused by it. Your incoming message, or email, or Instagram notification, or video call is never important enough to take your eyes and mind off of the task at hand: driving. Nothing on your phone is important enough to take your eyes and mind off of driving. Self-driving cars and general driver assistance systems are on a massive upswing right now. They're extremely exciting and it's clear that even the simplest of technology like adaptive cruise control, blind spot monitoring, forward collision warning and surround cameras are making driving safer for drivers and pedestrians alike. But for now, people are still responsible for driving the cars. "Smartphone addiction" certainly has an effect on our lives in many ways. But driving while you're using your phone is one time where your addiction to looking at this little piece of technology could kill someone. Best universal car mounts for your phone I don't drive all that often; about half of the U.S. national average per year. Thankfully I have a situation in which neither myself nor my girlfriend drive to work. I also have a car that I love and really enjoy driving — it doesn't feel like a burden to get in and go where I need to. But when I drive, I've made a serious effort to dramatically reduce phone interaction. Android Auto on my phone has been a massive help. (Sadly my car's infotainment system doesn't have Android Auto available.) A new phone mount that keeps my maps and music a quick glance away is another. Buying a new car with Bluetooth, built-in microphones and address book/dialing support obviously made hands-free calls easy.