No. You shouldn't.
There would be no way to enforce the safety of the general public otherwise.
Is your "right" as passenger more important than killing someone? Because it's happening all the time.
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.
Several things come to mind here. First, correlation isn't causation, of course, and that's a very small sample size. Second, don't fiddle with the CD player while driving? I turn my changer on while I'm parked and rarely have to touch it while I'm driving--I might skip a CD, but it's very rare and I can do it at the light--whereas you have to answer a phone within a few rings. I'm also not continually distracted, as I would be if I was talking on the phone. The level of distraction is vastly different, IMO.
As for it not increasing our safety because some people will ignore it--you could say that about any law up to and including murder.
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.
so what you are saying is that you think others should give up their right to choose their own form of transportation, to enable those with dangerous habits?
In saying that you are picking and choosing who's rights or who's convenience you find more important.
Obviously I would not deny anyone that choice, but I think you get the point. In trying to dictate what motorcyclists should ride/drive You are removiung their freedom of choice based on your own self interest
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.
