QOD II
What do you think of a nationwide cell phone ban while driving?
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What do you think of a nationwide cell phone ban while driving?
Tags: QOD
Connect with us on the following social media platforms.
I don’t like bans, but then I find myself driving behind some idiot chatting on their cell phone…
Bluetooth earpiece.
Reis,
it is n’t about “hand’s free” it is about not paying attention to traffic.
The stats don’t lie.
Reis, the group in the article is looking for a nationwide ban on mobile phone talking even hands free.
How the hell could anyone check? Its seems like a retroactive rule, where if there was an accident, the police would have the power to pull your cell phone records and see if you were on the phone at the time of the accident. They could make this discovery a condition of having a state license so they wouldn’t have to get a subpeona every time it was an issue.
And just a thought: if this is such a big concern, why are car manufacturers putting DVD players in dashboards?
If talking is a safety problem then we have to ban 2-way radios for cops and truckers.
But if cops and truckers can still use their radios, then I guess talking while driving isn’t the safety problem it is set out to be.
It is more distracting to fiddle with the damn hands-free setup than it is to just pick up the phone.
Why not just ban car accidents? I bet it would have about the same actual prophylactic results that such an idiotic ban on cell phone use would.
Jesus, when will this nanny-state nonsense ever end?
People will not stop using these devices no matter what government nanny scheme you come up with.
All it will mean is taking a bunch of coin out of the pockets of people who get caught doing so….most of whom are already struggling to survive in this economy.
Yay! How about a new federal War On Cell Phone Use in Vehicles! A new agency to enforce. Federal Highway Patrol?
Better yet, how about the feds mandate the installation of cell-phone blocking devices in every vehicle in existence and any to be produced in the future. Call it part of the “stimulus package”.
Sheesh.
It’s fine as it is. Many states are already enforcing their own versions. A countrywide ban is impossible, though the fed gov’t could offer funding ultimatums as it did with blood alcohol level.
“But if cops and truckers can still use their radios, then I guess talking while driving isn’t the safety problem it is set out to be.”
What about cops on their laptops, thats the scariest distraction I have seen in use.
Ban on all calls, even hands-free devices?
What’s next, a ban on having a conversation with fellow passengers?
So an officer pulls you over and says: “I know you were talking to the person next to you while driving. I saw your lips moving.”
Response: “No, I was singing to I Will Survive on the radio!”
Officer: “Tough shit; that’s banned too!”
Silly.
Cracker, I think singing along with “I Will Survive” is a crime in and of itself.
For some reason, I’m thinking of the urban legend stories of people getting their man-parts bit off in accidents.
Seems unenforceable to me.
It would seem to me that a conversation on a hands-free cell-phone would be less distracting than a conversation with a passenger, because when you speak with a passenger, it is common to glance over at him occasionally, taking your eyes off the road.
We should ban women showing their cleavage while being passengers, because we men will be staring at their chests and not the road!
We should ban fighting kids in the back seat, also.
Oh, and we should ban eating crabs while driving.
h/t Mascitti
Eating crabs while driving? Wow. That one I have never tried.
I will, however, admit to having downed my fair share of Wawa cheesesteaks while behind the wheel. No I’m not proud, just hungry…
I’m not in favor of bans either, but I am sick of having people weave in and out of their lane while chatting on the phone. Some of the conversations get very animated. I was almost t-boned by a DART bus while the driver was yacking and driving through a shopping center parking lot. Maybe the insurance companies should subpoena cell phone records before paying out on accidents. Or ban children from the car if they can’t behave. Or require that you pee before leaving the house so you’re not distracted by your bladder.
I’m an agnostic on these bans, mostly because I drive a manual shift car and have a built in excuse to ignore my phone in the car.
That said, I do think that talking on the phone is different than singing with the radio or talking to a companion in the car. If people call me with work-related stuff, sometimes I need to write stuff down or check notes, and always have to be engaged with whatever people are asking for (and that is usually problem-solving). And I can see that with other drivers too — they are talking away and have no idea that they just crowded me out of my lane or that they are going way slower than the speed limit. In the fast lane. Way too many of us overestimate our ability to multi-task. Asking people to use the hands free thing can be distracting too — but I work pretty hard to get off of the phone with people using those things. The sound is horrific. So I consider myself working for a safer (and more polite) environment by pretty much hanging up on people using the hands free thing.
My immediate reaction was “no.” But, then, my average cell phone call is less than two minutes long.
I’ve also been run off the road by a travelling salesperson yakking on his cell at the SB 95/495 split (he didn’t realize that there was a curve, for heaven’s sake) and watched persons whose daily routine leaving work was get in the car, fire up the cell phone, start yakking, start car, keep yakking, fasten seat belt, keep yakking . . . .
I think it’s a bit extreme. I’m a parent. My son calls. I know it has to be bad news. And I don’t answer?
Maybe they should try just banning dumb.
You can’t fix stupid.
This is another idiotic idea. You cannot fix people’s bad driving habits. People have wrecks because they were digging around for a new CD or changing the radio station, eating fast food, looking in the glovebox, trying to retrieve one’s purse when it falls on the passenger floorboard. Personally, I found refereeing rowdy kids in the backseat to be far more distracting than any cellphone call, and I can’t imagine them banning having kids in the car with you. But then again, you never know, I suppose.
they should ban texting while driving. and they should ban the use of cell phones in any store, restaurant, etc.