Their time would be better spent outlawing Peter Angelos.

/long-suffering O's fan

I will only support new traffic rules if they come with two provisions: First, a mandatory jail sentence on conviction. Second, a system for private prosecution so that people with money, connections, or badges can't escape prosecution. If you aren't willing to put any violator in jail based on the judgment of the least tolerant person to witness the violation, you don't really think the problem is serious.

Lobbyists - is there anything they can't do?

I spend alot of time in both NY and MA, in NY it is illegal to drive with a cell phone and in MA it isn't, a negative side effect of the ban, as I have observed, is that there is a dramatic increase in the number of douchebags who wear those retarded blue tooth earpieces, walking around talking at whatever or whomever they are facing.

Now if we can only do something about the pinheads on cell phones at the grocery store, restaurants and ballgames.

"YEAH IM AT THE GAME! WHAT? NO. YEAH SOUNDS GOOD. BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH..."

Awesome. Other countries already have this, and a good thing too in my opinion. Just last month somebody in the UK went to jail for four years for killing a guy on the road. Police looked at her cellphone records and concluded she'd been texting at the time.

Headso: I spend alot of time in both NY and MA, in NY it is illegal to drive with a cell phone and in MA it isn't, a negative side effect of the ban, as I have observed, is that there is a dramatic increase in the number of douchebags who wear those retarded blue tooth earpieces, walking around talking at whatever or whomever they are facing.

Youtube (new window)

...doesn't care.

EVIL hotlinker

Awesome. Other countries already have this, and a good thing too in my opinion. Just last month somebody in the UK went to jail for four years for killing a guy on the road. Police looked at her cellphone records and concluded she'd been texting at the time.

That happened with a group of 3 teenage girls who all died in a car in the US not too long ago, looked at the records and she (driver) was texting while driving.

I'm not disagreeing with the cell phone ban. But if it takes 10 years of trying and failing, don't you think people might not want the ban?

Sorta reminds me of the Quebec separatist vote. They're going to try and try again until it passes by a measly 1%, then say they have a mandate and resist any efforts for a revote in the future.

And MADD and drunk driving laws. People like that press and press until little by little liberties get taken away, then block any criticism or talk of doing away with it. Vermont considers thinking about reducing the drinking age and MADD has kittens.

Drunk driving is stupid, but nanny laws are moronic as well.

In other news, submitard thinks Baltimore is the only city in Maryland.

We had a texting accident around Boston too, prompting the usual suspects to say that if only we had a law to stop dangerous driving, people would stop driving dangerously.

One such accident led to one of my favorite Fark headlines of last year: Omg, my bff jill said u ksd my bf ur so omg a trk o no.

jxb465: In other news, submitard thinks Baltimore is the only city in Maryland.

Well Dundalk surely doesn't count.

/subby
//yeah, realized that after the fact. s/Baltimore/Maryland okay?
///I could whip up a GreaseMonkey script to replace that headline for you if you want :)

I support a nationwide ban on talking on cell phones while driving, up to and including hands-free and bluetooth.

"Sorry, Honey. I couldn't answer the phone and have you tell me about the three stops you needed me to make on the way home. I was in the car and it's illegal to talk while driving."

"Gotta go, Mom. I'm getting in the car; it's the law."

...never mind that such a law is unenforceable...

they have that kind of nonsense here in chicagoland.

what would be infinitely more satisfying is a law whereas we can biatchslap the people who flip others off when they get honked at for driving like crap while jawing on the phone. Don't flip ME off because YOU can't drive. Same with the morans who flip people off when they get honked at for forgetting you can turn right on red.

Smiths: jxb465: In other news, submitard thinks Baltimore is the only city in Maryland.

Well Dundalk surely doesn't count.

/subby
//yeah, realized that after the fact. s/Baltimore/Maryland okay?
///I could whip up a GreaseMonkey script to replace that headline for you if you want :)

I live in dundalk so I got a kick out of that reply.

Hey Hon, youse dona want me to run inta youse while I'n on my cell phone, git outi left lane.

In before Wire refere---damnit. Watch this turn into a finale thread.

I support a law legalizing the shooting of tires of cars with drivers talking on cell phones. For safety's sake though, you have to wait until that car comes to a complete stop first, unless there are no other cars around and that biatch really needs to die.

Another fine example of an impotent legislature wasting time doing nothing useful so they can stand up at election time and tell you they how wonderful they are and how much they are taking care of you. One more small loss of your personal freedom gone away and with your full support.

NJ just instituted the ban a week ago. I'm all for it, I believe that when you are driving you should be driving, not yip yapping on your cell phone. I saw the craziest phenomenon occur the other day, though; while in Shop Rite, every person in the dairy aisle was chatting away on their cell phone, all 8 or 9 of them, all banging into each other with their shopping carts because they couldn't steer them with one hand. I also heard one woman in another aisle say, "I can't talk right now Mom, I'm driving," then go right back to talking to someone else she had on hold.

Coolhaus: Their time would be better spent outlawing Peter Angelos.

/long-suffering O's fan




THIS

I am so tired of people either driving like 80 years olds or drunk drivers. Stop clogging up the roadways.
Drive now, talk later.

And on the bluetooth issue, when I see someone talking at the air it is a problem. If you are holding a phone, there is a signal. People on bluetooth, you don't know if they are talking to you, off their meds or what. I see this as a failure of some sort.

/Would like to see someone in a restaurant, talking loud on a bluetooth, wearing sunglasses, with an upturned collar and a sideways cap. Just see how totally douche you can go before people turn in mass.

Hands free device, get one and use it. They've been available since these were popular....



/ 4 watts of analog power

Are they outlawing CBs too?

How about maybe having people be QUALIFIED to drive the particular vehicle they have, cuz i love looking in the mirror and seeing the 4' 11" blue-haired rocker-jockey who can barely see over the wheel of the H2 she has, for reasons that to this day baffle me.

Prop Joe don't care. He has not talked on a cell phone in years.

trendon,

I have not problem with people who can drive and talk. Use your super-human power well. It is the people that can't, drive seniorly or as drunk, they are the problem.

/Maybe a new class of license is in order?

So what do you overreacting jackasses plan to do about the woman who totalled my car because she was halfway through a tasty taco salad and couldn't be troubled to avoid slamming into me at about 40 MPH while I was stopped at a red light?

downtownkid,
So what do you overreacting jackasses plan to do about the woman who totalled my car because she was halfway through a tasty taco salad and couldn't be troubled to avoid slamming into me at about 40 MPH while I was stopped at a red light?


Buy her a new salad.

/Just kidding.

Enemabag Jones:
Buy her a new salad.

/Just kidding.


This is why I come to Fark. Perfect answer.

Guess what folks? This shiat doesn't work.

First off...research has shown that cell phones are the #8 cause of distraction-related accidents. #8. Farking around with the radio was #1, and I don't see those getting banned. Nor putting on makeup, nor eating in the car.

Second...I lived in NY years ago when they passed this same feel-good legislation there. The only result was some people got headsets (which statistically made no difference) but the vast majority (including me) just kept talking on the phone until they saw a cop. It remained so common that the cops did not even bother enforcing it unless they needed a quota fill for the month. Not surprisingly, when they ran the stats a few years later the law didn't make fark of a difference.

Moral of the story: When 90% of the populace is breaking a law, you know you've got a dumbshiat law on your hands.

How about some effective drunk driving legislation? I was in the hospital a few months ago when two people came in from the same accident, one the drunk driver, one the woman he hit. The women he hit ended up going to the OR for serious liver and spleen injuries. Drunky McDriverson got away with a forehead abrasion. It turns out it was DUI #3 for him. When I asked the Anne Arundel County cop who came in with them if the guy was going to be put into custody, he said (dead serious), "Hmmm, I dunno. I guess I should probably check into that..."

The guy was not put into custody.

I drove drunk for 4 years in college and did just fine. I guess the difference is that they don't make posters out of "driving while on cell phone" pictures.

trendon:
I live in NY and I talk on the phone all the time while driving. I doubt I am some sort of super-human driver and I have somehow pulled it off for ten years (or so) now.

Same here. I've never come close to an accident while talking on the phone. It's not a problem assuming you aren't a moron and are capable of keeping your damn eyes on the road.

/has no intention of buying some idiotic ear piece or other extraneous crap
//will have to get good at dropping the phone if cops are watching

I would happily support this if they also banned motorists from smoking, drinking, and eating while driving.

And maybe put in some laws about GPS use, in-vehicle DVD players, applying makeup, frequent changing of radio stations, and having bratty kids in the car.

I don't disagree that cell phones are a dangerous distraction for many drivers, but I think they're a bit of a scapegoat. In general, drivers have too many distractions on top of their already crappy driving skills.

Be it guns, fireworks or cell phone and driving, isn't the problem always with the morons?

I must be one of those rare people that only uses their cell phone in the case of emergency or otherwise actual important calls. The cell phone is a tool, IMO, and a Swiss Pocket Knife of a tool if you get a decent one. I both support and don't support bans like this, mainly because the person who was pulled over and ticketed might've been on a really important call - like, say, your child is choking to death in day care and you need to get there right away. Usually an okay reason to pick up the phone.

/You see what I did?
//I took 'THINK OF THE CHILDREN!' and used it against you
//farkers

Enemabag Jones: Be it guns, fireworks or cell phone and driving, isn't the problem always with the morons?

Legislation against morons would probably save the world.

If you can't safely drive and talk on the cell phone, you shouldn't be behind the wheel in the first place.

nstoppiello: Legislation against morons would probably save the world.

If it actually worked, you would only really need this one law.

The constitution could be summarized: "Hey, don't be a moron."

I oppose bans on cell phone use while driving if they don't also ban using headsets and speaker rigs. Research has shown time and time again that it's not holding the phone, it's talking on the phone via whatever means that is the risky behavior. Letting people use hands-free devices is just giving them a loophole to be morons -- either ban it altogether, or not at all.

Kensey: I oppose bans on cell phone use while driving if they don't also ban using headsets and speaker rigs. Research has shown time and time again that it's not holding the phone, it's talking on the phone via whatever means that is the risky behavior. Letting people use hands-free devices is just giving them a loophole to be morons -- either ban it altogether, or not at all.

I've heard that, but I think it only applies when people are involved in an intense conversation, like when they're arguing with the other party on the phone. People talk to passengers in the car all the time, which is just as distracting as using a bluetooth, and I don't know of any stats to show how many accidents this causes.

762: Guess what folks? This shiat doesn't work.

First off...research has shown that cell phones are the #8 cause of distraction-related accidents. #8. Farking around with the radio was #1, and I don't see those getting banned. Nor putting on makeup, nor eating in the car.

I would love to see that whole list. I would also suspect that people claim they were playing with the radio when asked after an accident, rather than admit they were using the phone. However, with MP3 and Ipod adapters in cars, I wouldn't be surprised to see this relate to a rise in accidents. I can find the presets on my radio, and the CD controllers, without even looking down there. But to mess with the MP3, I have to get a look at it. The more advanced we get with Nav systems and hard drives to look at on the dash, the more I could see this causing problems.

Let's face it, no one likes a cashier talking on a mobile, while being checked out at the convenience store. No one wants the guy at the table beside you running his mouth on the phone. Those are examples of only "rude" behavior. Why in the world would you want, an already low-skilled nation of drivers, distracted by someone that has no idea what the road conditions are?

It's hard to believe so many people here support this sort of legislation. Next time you want to complain about the government overregulating things? Do it in front of a mirror. You are the cause of all this political BS hobbling our race as a whole. The answer to fools taking attention off the road while talking on their cellphones is to teach them that isn't a good idea, not to throw them in jail for it.

Irritating. Our liberty really will end to the sound of applause.

does not approve

Walking, in crosswalk, with the light, almost hit by idiot on cellphone. I was able to grab it from her and break it. If it ever happens again, I keep it, call Burkina Faso, or some other far off places until it goes dead.

It takes years to take freedoms away. You cannot take them all away all at once...freedoms MUST be stripped away a little at a time...just like boiling a frog...put the frog in boiling water it jumps immediately out...put the frog in cold water and slowly heat it up to biol and the frog doesn't realize it until it is too late.

Start things out as voluntary, then make it mandatory with secondary enforcement...then gently ratchet up the restrictions and then make it a primary offense. Then put the teeth into it like instituting insurance surcharges, hefty fines etc. Once a generation or two gets "used to not having the freedoms to begin with", you got them.

example: I remember a time when it used to be legal to modify or work on the engine of your own car...can't do that today...EPA mandates factory stock and requires the same condition as brand new throughout its entire life without any wear whatsoever. Here in Vermont, we also have to comply with the demands of the California Air Resources Board and the California Bureau of Auto repair...in other words, California's actions have the force and effect of law in Vermont by automatic default.

Great. Another stupid nanny state law.

There's no point in banning cell phones while driving if they aren't also going to ban car audio systems, restaurants that allow food to be removed from the building, makeup, books, and passengers. They should probably also first ban convertibles, sunroofs, windows that open, cupholders, and cigarettes.

Come on, this is ridiculous. People in this country have no real choice but to spend large amounts of time in cars, and we'd really like to either get some work done while doing that, or at least make that time slightly more pleasant.

And I've been using a cell phone while driving for as long as I've been driving - and that's over 20 years, and probably over 400,000 miles. The phone has NEVER caused an issue.