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Billboards Aim To Expose Bay Area Drivers Texting Behind The Wheel

SAN FRANCISCO (KPIX 5) -- A handful of billboards have popped up across the Bay Area, getting quite a few glances. They show distracted drivers caught in the act, using their cellphones behind the wheel.

The idea was dreamed up and developed by graphic designer Brian Singer. He met with KPIX 5 this week at one of the billboards in the San Francisco's Mission District.

"I actually love seeing them up," Singer said.

Brian said from the passenger seat started seeing distracted drivers everywhere and decided to do something about it.

He snapped shots of them and then put the pictures on a website he crated called twitspotting.com.

"For every person I saw picking their nose, there would be like twenty people texting," Singer told KPIX 5.

To Singer, a few thousand dollars in billboards paid from his pocket, was a natural next step.

He insists that the billboards are not a public campaign to shame people, but to create social pressure. "It's not so much about shaming an individual as it is about making people think twice," Singer said.

Singer said he is getting interest from across the country, from law enforcement, nonprofits, and safety-conscious people.

He hopes others will follow his lead, taking pictures from the passenger seat. "It's better to learn this way than it is by getting in an accident," Singer said.

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