Age has nothing to do with it. I’m 20 and I mostly agree with those who don’t much like cellphones.
I think that banning cellphones while driving is less important than making sure people are educated about the dangers of talking on the phone while driving and that they should limit it as much as possible. I think there are legitimate reasons for wanting to talk on the phone while driving, but people should know why they should avoid it during certain situations and keep it to a minimum.
Just banning cellphones while driving would be stupid, and just forcing people to use cellphones hands-free while driving instills a false sense of security.
I’ve never actually seen the bluetooth headpieces, but from the thread I don’t like them. For some people, I think they’re a good thing, but I still dislike them in general. It’s just one more thing that separates us from the people around us.
Maybe not always, but it makes everyone a worse driver.
With that type of logic, it seems that some people think drivers should sit motionless, stare straight ahead, no radio, no comments from or to passengers allowed, no looking at anything but the road and vehicles in front and in the mirrors and only complete and utter silence and dedication to the cause of driving
I agree. And again, I don’t think anyone has suggested that we do do that, but some of those ranting against cellphones while driving seem to have, or at least exhibit the attitude, of that sort of blatantly “all or nothing” mentality.
Again, I agree. What I was trying to say with my very badly written first post was basically “why this?”. People reading a city map book on the steering wheel (actually happened to me) or parents trying to turn around to scold fighting kids (Mooo HOOOOM, she’s TOUUUUCHING MEEE HEEE) aren’t being any safer than the guy talking on his cell phone from what I’ve seen.
How is talking handsfree on the phone any different than being in a conversation with your passenger(s),
I know, post # 44 was in answer to my first post, which is where I actually asked that question. Did I copy and post it again?
Did the study you read differentiate between hand held and hands free phones? And did it run actual field studies with a reliable number of participants?
That is, were there a number of drivers negotiating a course while being distracted by different things (cell phone use, fighting siblings, coworker discussing and asking questions about a project, spouse who just told you he was having an affair and leaving you…etc) and then compared to a control group of people with zero distractions?
Really? Then they’ve never met my coworker Rich, or my former boyfriend. Both of whom stop talking for several seconds while they mull.
or listening to an amusing or interesting radio program?
I know, because that post is the one that answered when I originally asked this question. If I reposted it after that, I apologize, I really do suck at coding.
I didn’t claim that there was no difference. I asked what IS the difference. That has been answered.
I can’t say that the quotes and “studies” provided have given a satisfactory answer, or proof, but I can see that there is some validity to the reasons given.
I’d have to agree, but again, I’d like to see exactly how those studies came to their conclusions. From what I can see, many drivers have poor abilities, cell phones or no.
As much as I have doubts regarding the studies (and only until I see what they actually entail as far as data rather than some psychologists’ suppositions), I have to agree, that is, with your cites regarding cell phone laws.
The military base at which I do most of my field work just made handheld phones off limits while driving, but handsfree are still allowed.
I had been meaning to get some sort of earpiece type phone for working on base, but then I ran over my phone (and no, I wasn’t driving and talking, the phone had slipped out of my pocket without me seeing it, and got itself smashed when I left the jobsite :D), and had to replace it that day, so I didn’t have any time to research the technology and such.
While I don’t agree with Epimetheus’ “you old farts don’t know nothin’” stance. And I agree that cellphones while driving pose a distraction, I’m just not yet convinced of its severity.
The following reply to him is just silly.
People in New Orleans do this, CONSTANTLY, without the benefit of either being on the cellphone, or being distracted by a passenger. That’s just the way they drive. Don’t decide what they’re doing, or where they’re going until the last damned minute. (what’s really weird, is that once you’re off of the highways and into the neighborhoods, it’s all southern charm and “oh no, after you”).
Doesn’t need a cellphone for some moron to be going 50 in the fast lane oblivious to anything outside of the car. They do it all the time just because they’re morons who go 50 in the fast lane.
Or the asshole reading the newspaper and fixing his coffee, so that only HE gets through the light, but everyone else doesn’t…
And no one ever cuts anyone off unless they are first talking on a cellphone?
[quote}What is ridiculous and inconsiderate is the yapping dipshit who locks up his brakes because he didn’t notice the car in front of him signal and slow down to make a turn.[/quote]
Or because he was leaning over to change the station, or grab something off of the floor…
You have.
Yes, because no danger or inconvenience ever happens while driving unless a person talking on a cellphone is involved.
Sweet fucking Og. CanvasShoes, I never said that cellphones were the only things that cause driver inattention. However, since the thread is about CELLPHONES, I am restricting my comments to CELLPHONES. Why is this so fucking hard to understand?
I have posted numerous anecdotes about stupid morons fucking up while yapping and driving, fucking period.
Feel free to start a thread titled “Reasons for inattentive driving besides talking on cellphones” if it fires your rocket.
I understand that. And as I said in earlier posts, I can see that some of what has been posted is valid.
However, cellphone ranters (not you, or just this thread), in general seem to go on and on and on and use actions that seemingly only cellphone users do as a justification as to why they’re so bad.
They may not mean to sound that way, but that’s how it comes off, as if only a person using a cellphone could ever possibly cause problems on the road. So far, I haven’t seen a single act that could specifically cellphone related.
That is why I said what I did in an earlier post. That is, why don’t we outlaw ALL acts that are inconsiderate, inattentive, too slow, rude or potentially dangerous?
And yes, I KNOW no one has suggested that, but when you look at the complaints against cellphone use, every one of them, even where their use poses potential hazards, can be applied to a myriad of other actions by humans.
There’s no question about that. The problem is that incidents of reckless behavior have jumped astronomically since the introduction of cell phones into daily life.
I think every driver takes calculated risks. “How bad would it be if I applied my make-up on now?” “How can I negotiate this burger and soda while steering?” “Oooohh! I love this song! Time to play air drummer!”
But I think most drivers who engage in this behavior engage in it sporadically. They take this calculated risk, but it’s usually circumstantial (“I’m late”, “I’m hungry”, “This song!”). It’s not pervasive.
Sure, there are some drivers who are horrible at driving in general and are a menace no matter what they do. Cel phones don’t make these drivers worse because they really couldn’t be.
The problems with cel phones is that people who use them while driving don’t consider them a calculated risk. The reader, the eater, the make-up applier all have logistical challenges that make it self-evident that what they’re doing is not the safest way of getting around.
But there are no observable “challenges” to talking on a cel phone, so the cel phone user/driver does it all the time. You can drive for two hours but you won’t be applying your make-up or eating for the entire two hours. But cel phone users/drivers will be talking the whole time. Under all conditions. No matter what their driving environment is like.
That’s why I rail against cel phones–because it has increased inconsiderate/reckless/dangerous behavior exponentially, but since most people don’t see what the “big deal” is (“I can talk and drive! I can converse and pay attention to the road”), they don’t even rationalize their behavior the way an eater or make-up applier might. They honestly don’t think they’re doing anything wrong, they think they’re still being good drivers, and they often appear to have no willingness to admit that something so “simple” and “harmless” is as dangerous (if not more so) than all these other behaviors that are so much more obviously “reckless”.
I wouldn’t have any idea since I don’t drive at all, but most people I know who have driven in the US and in Europe are of the opinion that in the US a chimp could get a driving licence, and that many have. This may be a possible explanation.
Personally bluetooth headsets are well down on my list of mobile-phone related annoyances. LOUD TALKERS, fuckwit ringtones, ‘must-use-all-5000-free minutes-by-talking-incessantly’ teenagers, and the latest craze of using your phone as a miniature boombox to play crappy tinny MP3s on loudspeaker for half an hour at a time. Thank god for sound isolating headphones.
Cell phone-using drivers are more dangerous because they are talking to someone who is not there. So the driver is not really there, either. I find that I am often not completely there either when I’m driving a car; I’m making a grocery list in my mind, practicing lies to tell my boss about why I’m late, thinking about where I came from or where I want to be, but I’m not HERE: in the car, in the traffic, on the road. I realized this when I started riding a motorcycle, because I am always Here Now when I’m riding my motorcycle. And I am acutely aware, when I’m on a bike, which drivers around me are yakking on cell phones.
I’m thinking about carrying a can of spray paint with me and pulling up alongside these idiots at stop lights and quietly writing “Hang the Fuck Up When You’re Driving” on the sides of their SUVs.
I have one and wear it in the car. It absolutely comes off my ear as soon as I step out of the car.
I was in a reasonable good restaurant a while ago. Dude walks in with wife and kids and sits down. He has an earpiece on and kept it on all through his meal.
Did he get any calls? No. I felt like calling him a douche but I had my family with me.
Don’t worry, It will simply be a passing annoyance. Just wait until Cingular comes out with it’s new telepathic bluetooth headset, then we won’t have to hear everyone’s annoying conversations again. But the intervening years will be difficult.
Just to reiterate, I’m not really opposed to the handset in general. I’m just freaked out when I see people walking down the street talking to themselves. When living in New York (where I lived for a while) it’s the sign of a fucking crazy. And living in New York, we are all forced to share the sidewalks, which would be a bit alien to all of you in California and other car-dominated cultures. The point is this, the fact that you are putting others on guard by your stupid idea that you can’t lift your god-damned phone to your face is a bit inconsiderate. We have to deal with enough crazies as it is to be bothered by these idiots. Living in the city sucks sometimes, especially when you think about how you have to be on guard the whole time. It just pisses you off when you think, “Oh great, another fucking crackhead…wait, it’s just some self-important doucebag talking about laundry to his wife.” This is why I’m very much opposed to cellphone coverage in the subway for non-emergency purposes. I am all for it for 911, etc…But if I have to sit on the train with these assholes? Not a chance.
Secondly, I disagree from a stylistic point of view. Maybe if you happened to look cool, then I’d oblige. But your normal borg wannabe is looks like he is taking fashion cues from the best buy employee handbook. Also overweight.
I agree 100% with the OP. I cringe when I see dirty fat old men standing in line at the grocery store to buy a twelver of PBR with the dumb fucking things in their ears or the kid in line at Gamestop who has it on while sifting thru the used Gameboy Color games or the G’d up homie with the baseball cap with the tag on it and a jersey 10 sizes too big has it on while wandering around the mall like its so much bling or the teenage boy in line at Hardees or pumping gas with it in. These people all look ridiculous. Take them out and if you get a call from your mom, homeboy, grannie, or whomever and cant (don’t want to) hold your phone to your ear then take the piece out of your pocket at that point and put it on. It takes about .02 seconds to do and will keep you from looking too much like an assnugget.
Oh, and those headsets sound like shit too. We know when you are on them even if we don’t tell you when we are talking.
Also, to the people in here justifying why they need a headset, none of us are saying that they are not useful. We are just saying that it is unnecessary for you to wear it everywhere you go because unless you are a…hell, I can’t even think of a single job where not being able to talk on your phone handsfree before the first ring even comes through would put peoples lives in danger.
You are NOT that important. Hell, the President doesn’t even wear a damn headpiece!
The OP reminds me of what people used to think about cell phones. A stock portrayal of yuppie ostentation was someone leaning against a pay phone and preferring to use their cell phone, even though it would be much more expensive.
Then cell phones got cheap.
Then most of the pay phones went away.
And before any of that…there were “car phones”, and people said the same thing about those. There was even an ironic song on KROQ about it in the 80s: He’s got a bitchen car phone /He thinks he owns the road….
Notwithstanding all that, Blueteeth always seem to make people look like corporate drone beings. I never seem to see anyone wearing one that doesn’t have that clean-cut, clean shaven corporate look.
Did I copy and post it again?
