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It appears Sioux Falls drivers aren't getting the message when it comes to the texting while driving ban.
On one of the city's busiest intersections, KELOLAND found ten people texting on their phones for 30 minutes starting at 1:00 p.m. at the corner of 41st Street and Minnesota Avenue.
That's close to the nine texters we saw on September 27, the day before the ban allowed police to ticket offenders.
Kris Firestien, 29, admits he is ignoring the new ordinance.
"I haven't changed a thing at all. I think the texting ban is kind of dumb because you can do so much more on your phone that apparently isn't illegal and I don't see what the difference is," Firestien said.
But for other drivers, it is just a tough habit to break.
"It becomes just an automatic response," Sanford Behavioral Health Triage Therapist Karla Harmon said.
Harmon gives some insight in why it's difficult for some drivers to put down their phones behind the wheel.
"Phones and texting have a unique quality because they have a signal and that signal alerts your brain and you want to follow up on it. It's a natural course of events," Harmon said.
Experts say it's harder for younger drivers to break the texting while driving habit, because they've likely been doing it as long as they've had a license.
"If you've grown up texting, it's a little more difficult and that's why reminders are a little bit more helpful," Harmon said.
Harmon suggests putting the phone in an unreachable spot in the car or turning it off altogether to ease the texting temptation.
But for Firestien, he plans to keep texting.
"Probably, until I get in trouble anyway," Firestien said.
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