--- title: Brian Singer Puts Photos of People Texting While Driving on Billboards description: The artist couldn't believe how many people he noticed texting while driving during his commute canonical: https://time.com/35596/artist-secretly-takes-photos-of-people-texting-while-driving-and-puts-them-on-billboards/ author: Kelly Conniff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-24T16:08:25.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T04:48:45.858Z og:title: Artist Secretly Takes Photos of People Texting While Driving and Puts Them on Billboards og:description: Brian Singer couldn't believe how many people he noticed texting while driving during his commute og:url: https://time.com/35596/artist-secretly-takes-photos-of-people-texting-while-driving-and-puts-them-on-billboards/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Artist Secretly Takes Photos of People Texting While Driving and Puts Them on Billboards twitter:description: Brian Singer couldn't believe how many people he noticed texting while driving during his commute twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Artist Secretly Takes Photos of People Texting While Driving and Puts Them on Billboards > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically.  by [Kelly Conniff](https://time.com/author/kelly-conniff/)  ## Kelly Conniff Conniff is deputy editor at TIME. Mar 24, 2014 4:08 PM UTC  by [Kelly Conniff](https://time.com/author/kelly-conniff/)  ## Kelly Conniff Conniff is deputy editor at TIME. Mar 24, 2014 4:08 PM UTC We’ve all done it, but that doesn’t make it okay. Texting while driving is an unfortunate side effect of our smartphone-crazed world, and a new project is attempting to make us stop by pointing out our bad behavior on a large scale. Brian Singer started [TWIT](http://www.twitspotting.com/) (that’s texting while driving, for the uninitiated) after the he noticed how many people he saw staring at their screens during his commute. So the San Francisco-based artist started posting his images to a website and now encourages users to send in shots they take while traveling — but only when you’re in the passenger seat, natch. The resulting pictures are rarely exciting in their composition, but it’s utterly terrifying to scroll and see person after person caught redhanded using a phone while operating a moving motor vehicle. Singer generally posts several photos per week, each with an appropriately snarky headline about the person’s unsafe behavior. [Research in 2013](http://techland.time.com/2013/05/14/study-more-teens-killed-texting-while-driving-than-by-drunk-driving/) suggested that texting while driving is the leading cause of death for teenagers. And according to Singer, approximately 660,000 drivers are using their phones at any given time during daylight hours in America. Singer is now taking his project to the next level by putting the images up on billboards in the ultimate effort to shame the drivers who just can’t quit. Maybe consider the fact that you could end up on a billboard next time you drive and text.  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