When its legislature convenes this year, Kansas will consider banning motorists from sending text messages. South Carolina will, too, and debate whether to prohibit drivers from using phones altogether, or requiring them to use hands-free devices when they call. New Jersey lawmakers have proposed banning drivers from manipulating a navigation system in a moving car.And yet, people keep using hand-held cell phones. It is becoming more and more common to be at a traffic light or in stop-and-go traffic and have the driver ahead of you fail to move along because the moron behind the wheel is screwing around with a Blackberry or iPhone or some other damned device. It is already illegal to do that in the states I drive in, but those laws are so widely flouted that they may as well not exist.
In all, lawmakers have already proposed 200 bills to curb distracted driving, and policy analysts expect to see dozens more in the coming months.
“It’s the hottest safety issue in the states right now by far,” said Jonathan Adkins, spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association, which represents state highway safety agencies.
This country is not Canada or Germany; people will not obey laws just because some asswipe of a legislature passes them. My favorite example was metrification in the 1970s, when both the US (under President Ford) and Canada decided to push the metric system on their citizens. Canadians accepted the governmental mandate, Americans roundly ignored it and metrification failed (though the U.S. was one of the original signatories to the Treaty of the Meter in 1875).
It has been the same with bans on the use of hand-held cellphones and texting as it was with drunken-driving, which was illegal for a very long time before it became socially unacceptable. Trying to cure a problem by passing a law will be as futile as it has been for the other forms of prohibition (alcohol and drugs) pushed by the "there outta be a law" moralists. If they want to get people to stop using cell phones and other deices, then they are going to have to persuade people that it is in their interest to not use them.
Good luck with that.
7 comments:
I drive a large truck on a daily basis as part of my job. I constantly see people pay more attention to their phone than their driving. Folks have cut me off, veered towards the truck (as in almost side swipe), and other great moves while holding the steering wheel with one hand and their phone in the other. But I've seen makeup being put on with the person using the rear view mirror as a vanity mirror, folks with a drink in one hand and food in the other (steering with their legs, I guess), and other forms of driving distraction being performed on the road, with similar vehicular maneuvers. And all are a hazard on the road, but I've yet to hear folks try to outlaw these behaviors. Lets just face it folks; intelligence and common sense are finite, and the population keeps growing. Hold on to what you have.
Charles Darwin is vindicated from beyond the grave, I say.
Not to mention the unacceptable consequences of these laws. Ham radio operators have been safely using their mobile radios since the 1970's. There is no (zero) indication that ham radio operators have a higher accident rate than the general populace. Yet many of these laws have the unintended consequence of making using your ham radio while driving illegal too, especially if you're using one of the new digital messaging modes like APRS to beacon traffic problems to other local hams.
Marc, 50% of people are below average. And average ain't so bright nowdays. Siiiigh!
Cranky, the big problem is that most of these folks manage to reproduce before they manage to off themselves via their stupidity. Worse yet, they often manage to take out *other* people with them too. I was almost taken out several times during my motorcycling days by cellphone-yakking drivers. They would just change lanes at random without looking because their cell phone was more important. I avoided them because I operated under the assumption that people were *trying* to kill me (and thus made sure I had escape routes whenever possible), but the point is that Darwin rules only if they manage to off themselves before reproducing -- and, alas, it doesn't take a whole lotta brains to boink. Siiiiigh!
- Badtux the "Darwin sucks!" Penguin
This country is not Canada or Germany
You're right. They're considerably more stupid here. If you have to be told that being distracted while you're driving is dangerous, then you're not too bright. If, after being told and had that demonstrated to you, you still don't believe it, you're a froth-mouthed idiot.
And yes, this has been demonstrated numerous times, including on network TV.
As far as I'm concerned, anti-cell phone use laws are just one more thing to throw at stupid people when they cause accidents using a phone when they shouldn't. More power to them.
Cujo, the Germans were the first to discover the problems with cellphone directions as the motorists would do what they said, without question, including driving into a clearly marked canal because the box ordered a turn.
Cell phones give directions? Maybe I should get one...
Some do, Cujo. Mine only works as a telephone, which is all that I want from it. (Most of the time, it is more than I want from it.)
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