Report: House introduces bill calling for ban on holding phones while driving
#16
Unfortunately, your entirely correct. However, study upon study have shown that it's not the act of holding a phone to your ear but the actual conversation that is a dangerous distraction. Passengers in the car get the same visual cues as the driver and understand when is an appropriate time to continue a conversation. However, the cellphone conversation continues even as the driving conditions change. Until there is a law that addresses the distracted driving, none of these laws will do any good to make the roads safer.
Most of the problems arrive when passengers distract drivers (teenagers have this problem big time, which is why there are laws limiting how many people are in car with a teenager driving) or when you remove a hand from the steering wheel taking up part of your hand-eye part of the brain to operate. This dramatically reduces your response time no matter how skilled of a driver you are.
The arguments here against this saying it costs too much to implement are invalid too. The cost of writing a bill is almost zero, as is "putting it in the books". Enforcing it costs nothing because police are already out on the streets, all they have to do is write tickets for it which creates revenue.
The question of whether a law can be implemented like this on the federal level is another question all together, and will have to go to the courts to figure out how constitutionally valid this would be. I do think this should be up to the states, but it would be nice to have some consistency state to state.
#17
This sucks because my phone is my ipod, and not only that, but the phone never leaves my hand, i am always holding it, idk why but i dont like putting things in my pocket, so instead the phone is always in my hand, along with my wallet, and keys...people say its cause i watch to much entourage and see ari doing it all the time haha
#18
I agree that yakking-while-driving can be foolish (I've seen some idiot-driving, too), but how are you going to enforce this law? You've got (probably) a thousand yakkers for every traffic-cop out on the road....even more than that in some areas. It's like the old 55-MPH speed-limit......if the cops doubled their force, and worked around the clock, 24 hours a day, they couldn't even make a dent in it.
Last edited by mmarshall; 06-25-11 at 06:39 AM.
#19
Cell phones dont cause crashes, distracted drivers do. There are limitless ways one can get distracted. Cell phones is just one thing in the entire driving equation. The answer isnt as simple and clean cut as removing cell phones from it and awesome we are safe. Guess what you still have changing the radio station, your gossipy passenger, blonde in a red convertible, hot babe out jogging, etc.
This Rep McCarthy person is also the same person that wants to ban guns. Blaming inanimate objects on society's problems, how typical.
Last edited by 4TehNguyen; 06-25-11 at 07:44 AM.
#20
Cell phones dont cause crashes, distracted drivers do. There are limitless ways one can get distracted. Cell phones is just one thing in the entire driving equation. The answer isnt as simple and clean cut as removing cell phones from it and awesome we are safe. Guess what you still have changing the radio station, your gossipy passenger,
blonde in a red convertible, hot babe out jogging, etc.
#21
how is this even remotely comparable? You cant "install" this type of behavior changes like you can a traction control system. This whole thing can be easily improved through driver education, not unenforceable laws. Most of the "safety" laws on the books have nothing to do with safety but more to do with raising revenue.
Education is not going to stop that, either. The risks of cell-phone use while driving are already well-known. Many people simply don't care....they are so used to instant-gratification that they simply don't have the paitence to wait for anything, including a potentially safer time and place to make that call.
And, in some cases, there may even be legitimate reasons for cell-phone use while driving. While I myself frown on the practice, I've had some people tell me that they have to sometimes talk on the phone while driving to get their jobs done. One of my friends, for example, is a Federal DEA Agent, and she tells me that she couldn't function on the job otherwise. Given the pressures that jobs like that involve, I tend to believe her.
Last edited by mmarshall; 06-25-11 at 07:14 PM.
#22
study upon study have shown that it's not the act of holding a phone to your ear but the actual conversation that is a dangerous distraction. Passengers in the car get the same visual cues as the driver and understand when is an appropriate time to continue a conversation. However, the cellphone conversation continues even as the driving conditions change. Until there is a law that addresses the distracted driving, none of these laws will do any good to make the roads safer.
#24
#25
#26
And then progress to merge without looking and cutting people off and getting mad at them when they are honked at. If they want to reduce the amount of folks using cell phones, subsidize some device (similar to how they subsidized the digital cable box), that makes any phone work through the cars audio system. That way anyone can hook up their phone to it and talk to someone after pressing a button. Those who choose not to get it and still press their phones to their ears and chatter away, fine em. And throw HEAVY penalties at folks who text and drive.
#28
And, of course, some people HAVE to use a phone or two-way radio while driving, simply by the nature of their jobs.
#30
How is this going to address anything? A person holding a cell phone isn't the danger here, it is that the driver is immersed in a conversation whilst also having to pay attention to driving. How is a hands-free conversation going to fix anything?
I haven't heard of any accidents where people got injured because the drivers didn't have both hands on the wheel...
I haven't heard of any accidents where people got injured because the drivers didn't have both hands on the wheel...