What cell phone/driving laws should be enacted?

[The ClayTaurus]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5212254928997471526

 

[misterblu]

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Please contact your IMO

Damn government employees.

 

[misterblu]

Hey, you're the one that said you look at the road in front of you.. Screen your own posts for mistakes if you don't want others to point them out for you.

:read: It was implied. :

Don't you look at the road in front of you while driving?

I'll try to predict what you'll misunderstand better in the future.

 

[The ClayTaurus]

:read: It was implied. :

Don't you look at the road in front of you while driving?

I'll try to predict what you'll misunderstand better in the future.

1 post and you've already gotten into it. I'm impressed. Welcome to the mud

 

[Shattered]

:read: It was implied. :

Don't you look at the road in front of you while driving?

<b>I'll try to predict what you'll misunderstand better in the future.</b>

Thank you for your consideration, and potentially well thought out, and concise future posts.

 

[dmp]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5212254928997471526

Excellent!

 

[dmp]

:read: Join Date: 09-11-2004

I've been here a long time... I'm just not a post whore like some people.



If anything, I was a post virgin before today. :halo:

i know you've been here ahile - you neg-repped me in an Abortion thread. I chalked it up as you didn't understand the system yet.

 

[misterblu]

i know you've been here ahile - you neg-repped me in an Abortion thread. I chalked it up as you didn't understand the system yet.

Probably? I'll take your word for it.

 

[dmp]

Probably? I'll take your word for it.

You didn't comment, so I dunno what post in particular...It's aight...somewhere in this thread.

http://www.usmessageboard.com/forums/showthread.php?postid=179446

1 Nov 2004

You're still allowed over for pizza.

 

[Abbey Normal]

I think Abbey's right.. Talking to someone in the car with you is MUCH more distracting than talking to them on the phone.. While you're on the phone, your instinct is not to automatically look at the phone when the person speaks to you.. However, when someone sitting right next to you speaks, your first instinct is to look over. If they're a "babbler", it's even worse.

On SO many levels...

 

[Mr. P]

Drivers talking on cell phones were 18 percent slower to react to brake lights, the new study found. In a minor bright note, they also kept a 12 percent greater following distance. But they also took 17 percent longer to regain the speed they lost when they braked. That frustrates everyone.

The scientists also found previously that chatty motorists are less adept than drunken drivers with blood alcohol levels exceeding 0.08.

http://www.livescience.com/technology/050201_cell_danger.html

 

[Working Man]

Which choice do you support, and why?

if one is that important that they need to be on the phone, go home, go back to your office, or pull off the road to a safe place and make the call..

If your kids "need" you,, then they are retarded and should be left with a nanny, or other suitable guardians.

Otherwise SHUT UP, HANG UP, and GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!! :fu2:

 

[Annie]

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5212254928997471526

OMG!

 

[The ClayTaurus]

if one is that important that they need to be on the phone, go home, go back to your office, or pull off the road to a safe place and make the call..

If your kids "need" you,, then they are retarded and should be left with a nanny, or other suitable guardians.

Otherwise SHUT UP, HANG UP, and GET THE HELL OUT OF MY WAY!! :fu2:

Didn't get that hug for Christmas, did you?

 

[Gem]

While I've seen my share of asshole drivers chatting away on their cellphones instead of paying attention to the road...I'm hesitant to tell people what they can and can not do. Again, I'm going to have to tie this to personal freedoms.

If they ban cellphones they should ban drinking, eating, fiddling with the radio, changing cd's, arguing with your spouse, singing along with your favorite song, having to itch that spot on your ankle that is just driving you crazy, etc. etc. etc....all of which can be distracting enough to make you take your eyes off the road for long enough to cause an accident.

If someone causes an accident because of reckless driving like not paying attention while making a call...then perhaps we should consider increased fines, increased liability, more points on your license, as others have described.

 

[Hobbit]

See? it's not 'speed' that kills...it's 'poor driving decisions'.

For the record, my headlights shine for at LEAST 300 feet. My car stops from 70 in about 150 feet.

I'm surprised you've bought into NannyState regulations, brother...

I thought you knew me better than that. I'm never in with nanny state regulations. Over regulation causes abuse of power. However, I do think excessive distractions should be considered any time a traffic stop is made. Whenever a cop investigates a wreck, the fine may be increased by a number of factors that won't get you stopped by themselves, and cell phone use should be one of them.

Also, impolite cell phone use is fast becoming an epidemic. People won't hang up for anything, driving or otherwise. Now, how much the government should do is, I think, minimal at best, but few can deny the problem with a straight face. I've had to swipe cell phones from teenage girls at the theater just so I can actually hear the movie, and they thought I was rude.

 

[Bonnie]

What is astounding to me is people who are on their cell phones while doing grocery shopping, or at Macy's, at a restaurant...And they talk very loud about very personal stuff. All I can think is why does someone need to be on the phone like that discussing very private things that no one else really wants to hear.

I can recall a few times that I was startled by people who were standing near me yelling "hey" into their phones, and Im thinking I have done something to upset them???

 

[007]

“Hands free” has nothing to do with distance, nor two hands on the wheel. That is not what causes the problem IMO.

Multi tasking while operating a vehicle is something I’m very familiar with, in my case operating high performance aircraft. I’m here to tell you that hands free radio communication was much less of a diversion to the tasks at hand vs holding a mic.

We also had in-flight phones. I can’t give you any scientific reason for what happens when you place a phone to your ear, but I will tell you it seems to flip a switch that diverts most of your attention to the caller, it happened every time. I have no doubt this is what occurs on cell phones at your ear while driving as well.

What is it the Highway safety people say about cell phone use; it’s equivalent to driving while drunk. I have no doubt they’re correct. I think “hands free” would reduce this problem.

I have to agree with Mr. P on this one. It's the "multi tasking" that people can't handle. I spent some time in OTD while in the Air Force. (Operational Training Detachment.) I was invovled with all the written instructional packets that the pilots would receive, so I had the chance to read a lot of it. One point I read about that has stuck with me was "information overload". When things in the cockpit just become more than the pilot can handle. So, the Air Force spends a lot of time training pilots on how to "multi task", and not experience overload. Unfortunately, there's not one state in the union that includes any training of the kind for drivers education. People that can't chew bubble gum and walk at the same time should NOT be talking on cell phones while driving. The simple act of "holding the phone to the ear", and then "paying attention to the person speaking on the other end", takes way more concentration and multi tasking skill than some people have. It's clearly dangerous. However, I do agree that a hands free device makes talking on a cell phone much more safe. It frees up your hands to do what you're supposed to be doing... driving.

 

[pegwinn]

It's 'being on the phone' that is the problem....NOT holding something to one's ear.

I personally disagree even though the limited studies on the matter are not conclusive in either direction. IMO being on the phone and driving with one hand are the problem. At one time folks objected to radios in the cars thinking the music would overly distract the driver. The music doesn't distract you, but holdin a boombox to your ear would. :rotflmao:

In all seriousness, the risk has been found to be the same for both handheld or hands free devices. source

But, this is a free country. Pretty soon we might be debating whether we should be allowed to drive after dark. More accidents at night. Or cross state lines without a permit. Spontanious trips often have more accidents as well.

Good poll. All politics all the time gets boring.

 

[sitarro]

If you are the least bit observant and have been driving long enough to remember a world without ....
1.cell phones
2.DVD players
3.subwoofers and the garbage that they are needed for
4.cars that were the predominate vehicles on the road that you didn't need
cute little tricks to see around
5.a total lack of courtesy and a self absorbtion that is hard to believe
6.a complete lack of knowledge or a total contempt for the rules of the
road or any actual laws that guard them

...you probably remember a much simpler more pleasant driving experience.

Of course there were the hot rodders, the show offs, the dimwits that couldn't follow a direction if someone else steered for them, or the eating dinner in the car to save some time. The difference is that these people were in the minority and there was a much smaller population on the roads.

Now, from my observations, driving has become a very dangerous thing to do. If you trust a stop light turning green without watching for the line of assholes running the red, it is only a matter of time before you are broadsided. It doesn't matter how "in the right" you were. I have seen more rolled cars in the last 5 years than the previous 30 years of being on the road. That is me just coming up on a vehicle upside down on the highway, I can't imagine how often it happens where I don't see it.

Stop sign running used to be very rare to witness, now it is rare if you see someone that stops according to the law. It doesn't matter how many miles over the speed limit you are going, there is always someone with a perceived need to go faster that feels they have the right to get within inches of your cars ass( I rigged a small pump and reservoir under my last truck for those people. I would fill it with cat piss and squirt them in the grill and vent , it didn't stop them immediately but it always gave me a chuckle.I would imagine some kind of sulfur injection into the tailpipe would work also, I'll have to work on that) .

Add a generation or 2 that has been raised with MTV and video games and you have a huge group of drivers cruising around you with the attention span of a moth...add to them a cell phone to keep them from being bored for a nanosecond and you have one more recipe for disaster.

Laws are sometimes created to help people get a grip on themselves, and more are definitely needed with the personnel to inforce them. Then again, lately when I see police officers, they are talking on a cellphone and speeding along while rarely stopping at stop signs.

The end of the world as we know it today is approaching fast. Britain has cameras everywhere. They have speed cameras on the road, stop light cameras and now they are talking about satellite tracking every vehicle, driving is quickly becoming a huge pain in the ass. With all of the new rules that will nodoubt be passed because of the assholes that abuse the present ones it will suck big time. With the price of gas and everything else making it less fun we will end up welcoming trains before it's over.

Yes, I see no reason to allow cell phone use while driving. Just because other distractions occur doesn't mean another proven deadly distraction should be allowed for a little convenience. How many of those conversations are nothing but a rolling description of everything they are doing at the time. . . WHO GIVES A SHIT? All phones take messages and if you just can't take the suspense, pull your ass over. It is still a lot more convenient than being beeped and driving around looking for a payphone that not only stinks but is covered with the coughed up germs of the hundreds that have used it today before you got there. How spoiled have we become?:coffee3: