SHould cell phones be banned while driving?
 

I think it is about time we do ban cell phones. California already has. Why not the rest of the US? I can't count the times I've almost been run over by some lady on the phone who just decides to change lanes in her big SUV!!! Its nuts! They don't care either.

It has also been proven that cell phones are worse than driving drunk! So why do we continue to tolerate them?

Here is another road rage incident involving cell phones:

http://www.azcentral.com/community/w...rage21-ON.html

-S

Last year I was walking up a street and stopped for a car coming the other way, wanting to turn into a driveway I was about to cross. There was a hole in the uphill traffic (going my way), so I waited for him. He never went. Once the hole was closed I started up the sidewalk. Suddenly he saw a tiny hole and darted in, almost running me down. I called him a "moron", and he got huffy with me. When I told him he had ignored a big hole only to try for a tiny one, he yelled at me "I was talking on my phone! I was busy! It's not my fault!"

I agree, cell phones in cars should be banned. But then, probably so should eating in cars. Back when I was driving ski vans I once saw a guy with a cup of coffee in one hand, a doughnut in the other and a magazine propped on the steering wheel! And now they have plug-ins for laptop computers in the dashboard.:dead:

I don't think it's even worth a debate. It's as bad as driving drunk.

Hands free is the way forward.

Hands free actually offered no benefit in tests - the driver is still distracted with the conversation.

-S

I was rear-ended while stopped at a red light last month by a woman in a minivan who claimed to be busy adjusting her radio. Cell phone use and similar distractions proven to be dangerous should be forbidden in moving vehicles.

So how do you expect this could ever be done?

Simple posession of a cell phone in the car? That's not going to fly because people will want their cell phones when they arrive at their destination/

Posession of a cell phone that's turned on? Plenty of time to turn it off between the time the blue lights come on and the cop gets close enough to see anything.

Ban handheld use? People are just going to use headsets. Since it's the use thats distracting, not just holding it up to ones head, it will not solve anything and personally I would prefer to see whether a person is using one and using a headset prevents this.

So I'm curious. How do you intend to enforce this?

Worse, like I said above using handsfree mode makes it far more difficult for others to see whether a person is potentially distracted.

It is enforcable by HEAVY FINES. I see many talking on phones. Cops see them also. They also see when a seatbelt is not on. Now, stipulate that the local government imposes a $1500.00 fine for using the phone while in motion. No going to court and hoping for a reduced fine for showing up. Full fine is imposed. That is enough for me not use it.

Heck, if you are on the side of the road and drunk, a cop does not see you operating the vehicle, just sitting with the key in the ignition, this is enough probable cause to arrest for DWI. I believe it is enforcable on the end that what will happen if you do get caught is enough of a deterent.

We already have a law like this in the UK. It is pretty much unenforceable. I get really annoyed seeing people driving while talking on the mobile.

In fact I sometimes honk them, but only if there is no other traffic nearby. Makes them jump. Also hands free is rubbish, I have been almost hit by people chatting away on them too.

What about conversations with your co-driver? Are they less distracting than a phone conversation?

So they just go to using handfree mode and now neither you or the cops can see anything.

Personally i'd rather they use use their phone in non hands free mode. At least then it gives me a chance to see they might be distracted.

Yes, because a passenger in the car has the chance of seeing a potentially dangerous situation occuring and can stop talking whereas the person on the other end of the phone can not.

In that case interesting radio shows/interviews should also be banned, after all the radio also can´t see a potentially dangerous situation occuring and stop talking. :)

It´s the responsibility of the driver to drive carefully and not to be distracted too much by conversations, or the radio, your co-driver, crying children on the back seat, blinking advertisements and the myriad of other things that can possibly distract you while you´re driving.

Why not ban this technological annoyance of modern life altogether...? :up:

Cell phones are like hemorrhoids for ears. Lots of blabla that nobody would have missed if cell phones would not exist, and whereever you go these days it is beeping and howling and ringing and making noise, lots of noise, it is ridiculous, and nerve-killing. Makes people feeling very important, I guess, and if you don't have the latest giddy gadget, you're worth nothing. That's a problem especially with young ones. There are even services that ring you on your cell phone at a time and date you told them, so that in front of an audience you can leave an impression of being an indispensable person by letting yourself being called off via cell phone - the idiotic way of a western lifestyle for which the shiny outside is all, and inner substance does not count half as much.

When I'm not at home, I'm not at home. When I'm not at home, I'm unavailable, period. If they do not try a second time later on, it wasn't important anyway and I am glad that I escaped their call. I hate Telephones - the less phone calls I get, the better. :arrgh!: People I do value I keep in contact with in writing, and personally meeting them. Telephoning compares to that like cigarettes to pipe smoking, both are a quickie - easy, cheap, no investement, no effort. Only all-inclusive gift services are better: you don't select it, you don't write the card, you don't send it, you don't invest the slightest effort into it. Got such crap two times, both times it landed in the garbage bin - unopened, and the senders were scratched from my buddy list. Better no gift at all, that is okay for me.

My phone is at the bottom of Lake Washington in Washington state. I have no desire to replace it. I am much happier without that damn thing, and this is coming from a techie person no less. When I'm driving, I don't want to be bothered. I'm listening to my music , paying attention to where it is I am going and that is that.

Since that day, I do not miss my phone. Not a single day has gone by where I wish I had it.

-S

Funny this subject has come up as Tony Blair is tightening up on the law, yea right. In my view lock them up for 10 years for driving dangerously under the influence of using a mobile phone. We all got on with our lives before these things came on the scene and now they are all over the place. Two thirds of calls are just plain nuts.

Listening to your favourite music can be as distracting/"dangerous" as driving while having an important/interesting conversation on the phone or with your co-driver.

Makes sense to ban cellphones while driving, seeing as how the driver is somewhat immobile with a phone crammed on his shoulder. That's the only rationale that stands up. If it physically infringes upon your ability to drive safely, get rid of it. Use a hands-free kit.
How distracted a driver is while driving is an impossible scale to set. We'd have to ban billboards, license plate slogans, mudflaps, and of course, f*ckin dopes from getting behind the wheel.