Total Cell Phone Ban While Driving?

[fourstringdrums]

I don't see cops pulling people over for possible cell phone use. I can see it being used as leverage if you get pulled over for other reasons. If I'm obviously driving distracted and a cop sees me and pulls me over I can see them looking to see if I was using the phone.

I don't really understand the article talking about banning all hands free devices unless it's installed in the car. I have a bluetooth device that remains in my car that isn't technically "installed". Unless they mean those types of devices vs. an ear piece which I could see as being more distracting.

 

[Jinro]

Initially knowledge comes from experience. After that the knowledge gets published and anyone can learn from that first person's experience, thus making the experience obsolete. Exposure to something also leads to experience, and my being exposed to bad parenting is, in actuality, experience in a sense.

Didn't Einstein also say that a particle couldn't travel at the speed of light?

 

[MatticusMania]

Initially knowledge comes from experience. After that the knowledge gets published and anyone can learn from that first person's experience, thus making the experience obsolete.

People rarely learn from the experience of others. Sure some people do, but if that were the case we wouldnt have to constantly tell people "I told you so".

Didn't Einstein also say that a particle couldn't travel at the speed of light?

Well, this has been experienced by others, and published... why dont you know this?

http://www.talkbass.com/forum/f34/superluminal-neutrinos-apparently-not-827982/

 

[jady]

I've been a kid. I've seen many kids act out and watched their parents do nothing far too often. I personally know many parents that play a stay-at-home role and their kid is still nuts. I've babysitted. I've had to transport other people's kids in my car. I haven't walked 5 miles in a parent's shoes, but I have walked at least 1 mile in them.

I don't need to have a kid to know what parents have to go through. Experience is not a prerequisite for knowledge.

This is beside the point, but yes, we do live in an age where both parents have to work. However if you're having to work 3 jobs to keep your house then you can't afford kids and shouldn't have them. Or you can't really afford the house you're in and should have gotten something that you could afford. Factor in that there are 7 billion people in the world (and counting), what's the point of having kids anyway?

Lol, I have had this discussion with sooo many people who do not have kids and I am not going to have it again. You won't get it until you actually have kids, there is a reason so many parents say this, it is true. Babysitting does not = parenting............

As for the 3 job thing, again, you have no idea what you are talking about. I pay $1k a month in child support cuz I caught my 1st wife blowing another mans horn so to speak. I also live in CA where the average family of 3 needs to bring home $50k a year just to make ends meet with the highest cost of living in the nation. My wife and I gross around $51k together, take $12k off the top of that (I am still taxed for $51k though) and that is my gross pay. We have 2 modest cars and rent a 2 bedroom duplex for $750/mo. I also pay for insurance and the kids health costs.

All because my wife banged some dude.

I am glad you have it all figured out youngster, life will be all roses and puppies for you of course.

 

[kserg]

Problem with banning everything is people will stop worrying about safety.

So, i don't talk on the phone or text, however, i have a blue tooth in my car, so, when someones calls, i press button on my wheel and talk... hands never leave the place it should be (left on wheel, right on shifter.)

So if they say i can't do that anymore; well, i am breaking rules anyway, might as well text while i am doing that. Who cares, either way i am breaking the law...


Also my music is on my phone, my phone is attached next to my radio. What am i going to do, stop every time i press "next" on my phone? It's just like pressing next on my cd player that is in the dash. Somehow it wasn't a problem for 40+ years but now it is.

People need to find balance. I agree with texting and calls with out blue tooth or speakerphone, but give me a break... Talking on the phone with bluetooth is like talking to someone in the car. Are they going to ban that too? Driver must be in a plastic bubble if there are passages in the car.

But i guess we are "doing this for the children" so it will pass.

 

[Turock]

Actually, there are some studies that suggest that talking to a passenger does not result in the same level of distraction as talking to someone on a cell phone.

Also, with a passenger there is another set of eyes.

There was a show on network TV, maybe 60 Minutes, or Nightline, or... I forget, but one of those type shows, where several people claimed that they could drive just as well while using a cell phone. They were given the chance to demonstrate on an obstacle course with cones. Every single one of them was wrong. The show claimed that one's field of vision is reduced while talking on a cell phone.
Here's a similar Mythbusters demonstration:
Mythbusters - Cell Phones Vs. Drunk Driving - 2 of 3 - YouTube

 

[bassbrad]

Absolutelyfrakkingtime

Get off the phone or get off the road!

I have to admit my views are very harsh but I have a permanent debilitating neck injury cause by some idiot yakking on a phone, not paying attention rear ended me at a stop sign doing 35 MPH. He is lucky I didn't put that phone where the sun don't shine, or worse...
only because a police officer happened to be a witness.
The cop wanted to ticket the idiot for improper phone usage but it wasn't against the law, now maybe it will be.

 

[i_got_a_mohawk]

Initially knowledge comes from experience. After that the knowledge gets published and anyone can learn from that first person's experience, thus making the experience obsolete. Exposure to something also leads to experience, and my being exposed to bad parenting is, in actuality, experience in a sense.

Didn't Einstein also say that a particle couldn't travel at the speed of light?

[derail]

As someone who works in science and has a few interesting life tales. You study lots of science, think you know it, then you try to use it, and it all goes to pot! Reading something, understanding something and experiencing something, are three very different things!

He hypothesised that they couldn't go faster than the speed of light (light is both a particle and a wave, tho I shan't bore you with wave–particle duality) and he seems to be right so far

[/derail]

 

[kserg]

Mythbusters - Cell Phones Vs. Drunk Driving - 2 of 3 - YouTube

What about bluetooth

 

[tastybasslines]

Im not seeing the correlation between a passenger talking on a cell phone and a driver killing someone.

Please people, if you have a point we will listen, but have some sense of logic before making your case.

Read the message before that Mr Smarty Pants.

 

[tastybasslines]

This is far from a small problem. EVERYone has a smartphone these days. And they carry them everywhere. These have games, texting, emailing, news, etc....

This is not like you bought fast food and hit someone while looking down to eat your burger. This is so widespread that people are dying from it all the time. People cannot control themselves. You smartypants in this thread who think you can, great - most cant.

Oh yeah, not everyone dies, some just become vegetables instead.

AT&T Don't Text While Driving Documentary - YouTube

Maybe we should outlaw.. EVERYTHING!

I mean, things kill people all the time right? Who cares if they are useful, who cares if a huge percentage of people can use them without injuring somebody, who cares about peoples personal freedoms. If we just made everything illegal, nobody would ever get hurt, right!?

Why are cars legal? They kill people all the time, they are incredibly dangerous. It's like they are necessary or anything, it's just a convenience, you could function perfectly well without them. Lets ban them, lets do it. Everyone driving a car from today onwards gets a $10,000 on the spot fine.





No, you can leave the phone to ring, and then call them back when you get a chance, I do it most of the time when I am driving, as the distraction of looking for my phone IS an impairment to my driving ability that could prove fatal in a lot of situations. When I get on an road that I know, where I know I am not going to have to do anything except maybe keep an eye out for a dog jumping out on the road or something, I am quite capable of quickly grabbing my phone and making a quick phonecall, even if it is just to say "Yeah, is it important? I am driving at the moment."

People say texting should be banned also, from my perspective, I know there is no way I could send a text while driving, however I know plenty of people who can send a text, one handed, without even looking at the screen of their phone. Thats less dangerous that using a phone, less dangerous than eating a sandwich, probably less dangerous than changing gear.




Er.. the point is you choose to ride a motorcycle full well, knowing it is dangerous.

Saying "You shouldn't be able to use a phone because I want to ride around on two wheel with little or no protection and I don't want to risk getting hit by you" just doesn't make any sense.

It is nothing to do with freedom of choice, you can ride a motorbike as much as you want. You do however, have to accept that doing so is an unnecessary risk to your health and as such you might just have to accept the consequences of that decision. You want to have the freedom to take an unnecessary risk (riding a motorbike), and plenty of car drivers also want to take an unnecessary risk (talking while driving), the two are not mutually exclusive.

 

[Turock]

What about bluetooth

I don't know, but I would think it would also depend on the type of call. How much you have to deduce, how angry the other person is making you, etc...
I could see the guy getting a call that his wife just checked into a hotel with another man, not seeing or giving a damn about anything else going on around him.

 

[jmattbassplaya]

I don't know, but I would think it would also depend on the type of call. How much you have to deduce, how angry the other person is making you, etc...
I could see the guy getting a call that his wife just checked into a hotel with another man, not seeing or giving a damn about anything else going on around him.

Let me tell ya, if the guy is going to snap it's not gonna matter if he's in a car or not, but that's another thread all together.

 

[Turock]

Let me tell ya, if the guy is going to snap it's not gonna matter if he's in a car or not, but that's another thread all together.

Well, let me tell you, it does matter.

 

[Lee H]

And when already instituted bans on cell phone usage have proven to be ineffective we should still ban them for everyone because...?

Ok, once again, let's change the perspective...
Stop talking in hypotheticals. Take Einstein's quote about experience being the source of knowledge, to heart. If you really want to see how dangerous distracted drivers are, get a motorcycle license, and use that as your daily transportation. Because you are a little higher, and your view is not obstructed, you can see in car windows, and you will realize just how many people have phones in their laps. You will be amazed at how many drivers do not see you, or how many forget to look in a mirror or check blind spots because they are distracted
When on a bike you learn to look at people's mirrors. You know they can see you, if you can see their eyes in their side view mirror. It would absolutely amaze you at how many people are looking down at their laps.
If people cannot police themselves, it does fall to society to do it.

 

[jmattbassplaya]

I do have my M class, and I still believe this ban would do nothing to improve the safety of drivers on the road.

 

[totallyfrozen]

I'm for banning texting, emailing, and phone conversations without bluetooth -- anything that requires that you not have both hands on the wheel or that you have to look at your phone. But a ban of even hands free calls is a bit excessive. Not only is it an issue of realistic convenience but I don't see a phone call being any more distracting than talking to the person in the seat next to you.

I'm 100% opposed to banning cell phones while driving. That's what they're for! Why do you think the cell phone was ever brought to market? Specifically for the convenience of having a phone to use ANYWHERE...even while driving.

I'll never support a ban on using cell phones while driving. That's what they're made for.

 

[totallyfrozen]

...you can see in car windows, and you will realize just how many people have phones in their laps. You will be amazed at how many drivers do not see you, or how many forget to look in a mirror or check blind spots because they are distracted...

Are you really young? Let me tell you that drivers were doing that LONG BEFORE cell phones ever came around. People where driving like that back in the 80's when cell phones were still science fiction, man.

 

[sonic assassin]

So you never get a break at work?

What is stopping you from using a handsfree kit? (as Bassybill was talking about having the phone to your ear).

I'd also put money on there being more deaths caused by people using their phones while driving and not paying attention, in the last 5-10 years, than people smoking weed (in any situation).

i spend my breaks eating. and not gabbing on the phone in the breakroom like a dink. and if you start comparing every situation to my blatant bias against drug users, you're going to get a lot of threads closed. dont poke the bear.

 

[Lee H]

Are you really young? Let me tell you that drivers were doing that LONG BEFORE cell phones ever came around. People where driving like that back in the 80's when cell phones were still science fiction, man.

No,not young, but thanks for asking.
I have been dodging distracted drivers since before cell phones, and I do remember the cell phone "bricks" of the early 90s..
The phone in the lap, and the texting craze has gotten exponentially worse in the last few years. The fact that more and more kids get behind the wheel thinking it is OK, really makes motorcycle riding more dangerous then it has ever been.

I have to admit here that I do enjoy being a turd to people talking on their phones while driving. I love rolling up beside them, and rattling the pipes on my harley. I do have mufflers, but sometimes it is enough to get a dirty look or a finger