# Stupid California and their stupid new Cell phone laws. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 23, 2008, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627 "2008-01-23T03:55:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 4:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/41 "2008-01-24T04:35:19Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] I guess I’m not a huge fan of the mandatory switch to Bluetooth, either [/QUOTE] I’m not sure if your were joking, but I don’t interpret the law as requiring a Bluetooth device. An ordinary, wired headset (earpiece and mic) would suffice, wouldn’t it? ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/42 "2008-01-24T05:06:39Z")
> [@elfkin477](#): > > I actually don’t think it should be legal for anyone to talk on the phone while driving You can’t be serious, can you? What about emergencies? And don’t give me that “well, OK, emergencies are fine” stuff, because it’s completely impossible to enforce the difference, and anyway the loss of liberty would far outweigh the lives saved. > [@elfkin477](#): > > This law effectively makes it illegal for a parent to be a smoker, doesn’t it? Or not smoke very much, since most serious smokers seem inclined to smoke while driving. All smokers in CA, serious or not, are quite used to refraining from smoking indoors and inside vehicles. Plenty smoke in their own cars, sure, but it’s not a big difference. I know I hated it when my dad smoked in the car when I was a kid, even though I grew up to be a smoker later. > [@elfkin477](#): > > If CA wants to outlaw smoking, they ought to just do it, not these strange quarter measures. You have no idea just how many strange quarter measures they are. For example, it’s now illegal to smoke anywhere in the city of El Cajon, CA except inside a residence. That said, the state government needs to build up to criminalization gradually, since CA is a direct democracy state. I’ve seriously wondered if they might want to make smoking illegal: on the one hand, a fair amount of state funding seems to go toward a government program called “Tobacco Free CA”, whose stated aim is, I shit you not, to rid California of every gram of tobacco, albeit through non-legislative measures; but OTOH, tobacco brings in a lot of tax money, and it’s an easy product to levy more and more taxes on when you need money for Proposition Whatever, since non-smokers are happy to heap all the financial pain they can on their addicted brethren. > [@squeegee](#): > > I’m not sure if your were joking, but I don’t interpret the law as requiring a Bluetooth device. An ordinary, wired headset (earpiece and mic) would suffice, wouldn’t it? No, but it was a quick and simple way to refer to hands-free wireless communications, like how girls and adults called every videogame-related-product “Nintendo” back when the industry wasn’t mainstream enough for anyone other than boys and young men to know anything about it. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/43 "2008-01-24T05:33:01Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] You can’t be serious, can you? What about emergencies? And don’t give me that “well, OK, emergencies are fine” stuff, because it’s completely impossible to enforce the difference, and anyway the loss of liberty would far outweigh the lives saved. [/QUOTE] Emergencies? Pull over and talk, if you must, on the side of the road. You speak as though you somehow _need_ a phone while in a car. Many people seem to do without one. Everyone managed to do without one up until a few years ago. At the moment you are not able to talk on a phone while in an aeroplane. Do you think that that should change as well because of all these emergency phone calls you _need_ to make? ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/44 "2008-01-24T05:39:43Z")
> [@1920s Style Death Ray](#): > > You speak as though you somehow need a phone while in a car. You post as though you somehow _need_ Internet access while in your house. Many people seem to do without one. Everyone managed to do without one up until a few decades ago. At the moment you are not able to use the Internet while in an aeroplane. Do you think that that should change as well because of all the Straight Dope posts you _need_ to make? ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 5:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/45 "2008-01-24T05:45:16Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] You can’t be serious, can you? What about emergencies? And don’t give me that “well, OK, emergencies are fine” stuff, because it’s completely impossible to enforce the difference, and anyway the loss of liberty would far outweigh the lives saved. [/QUOTE] How is the ability of you or I to talk on the phone while driving going to save any lives? I don’t know about you, but even though I’m pretty smart, people never call me and say things like “Shannon! Seabrook is about to melt down! How do we prevent a nuclear disaster?!” or even “Timmy stopped breathing! Walk me through CPR!” Never. If such a thing happened, what are the odds I’d be driving when the emergency happened? Hell, if you called me up and told me about an emergency that was happening elsewhere and there was nothing I could do about it, odds are greater I’d drive stupidly and cause an accident than be able to help you. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/46 "2008-01-24T06:19:00Z")
[QUOTE=Alice The Goon] ``` * The effect of distractions depends on when they occur. Interruptions to driving, such as answering a cell phone, are likely to be more dangerous if they occur during maneuvers like merging to exit a freeway (refer to the paper by Monk, Boehm-Davis, and Trafton). ``` [/QUOTE] Some moron nearly killed me at an exit this morning. There are three lanes - left left turn only, middle left or straight back onto 237, and right right only. Our friend, yacking on his phone, when straight ahead in the left most lane right in front of me as I was turning left. He’s lucky we didn’t collide, or I would have shoved that thing so far up hiss ass it would come out of his nostrils. Now, it would be nice to ban cellphones altogether, but we have to take what we can get. I pay particular attention to people being stupid - the vast majority are on phones. I’ve seen people putting on makeup and reading also. I believe these are already illegal as driving while distracted. I haven’t particularly noticed that many people with hands free devices being idiots, but it is a small number and I might not notice the Borg-like earpiece. And bringing up emergencies is bullshit. Unless you are a cop, and EMT, or Jack Bauer, what percentage of your calls are emergencies? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/47 "2008-01-24T06:32:19Z")
It’s a start. Stronger laws on their way, thank Og. I am tired of dogding and having to go around “driving while blabbing” drivers. Already teens (under 18, I think) can’t use cells at all while driving. Yay! Calling 911 (etc) is an exception, so if it _is_ a _real_ emergency, you’re OK. Currently AFAIK you can’t be stopped just for this violation, either- it’s an “add-on”. ---
**Author:** ![bufftabby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bufftabby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bufftabby)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 8:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/48 "2008-01-24T08:04:49Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] No, but it was a quick and simple way to refer to hands-free wireless communications, **like how girls and adults called every videogame-related-product “Nintendo” back when the industry wasn’t mainstream enough for anyone other than boys and young men to know anything about it.** [/QUOTE] (Bolding mine) Uh, what? Pretty sure I was playing my Atari before I’d ever heard of Nintendo, so I for-damn-sure did not call it a Nintendo because “lalala, I’m a girl, I don’t know what all these funny little buttons do, I need some man to explain it to me”. FWIW, no older brothers/male cousins/etc exist to have helped me “see the light”. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Captain\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_C)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/49 "2008-01-24T08:34:54Z")
How does the speakerphone option play into this? I use my phone constantly while driving, but I have memorized the button presses necessary to call anyone in my contact list and put them on speakerphone without looking down. I also keep the phone resting against my leg incase a call comes in, instead of keeping it in my pocket. Would I be violating any of these new laws? (if I were in California of course) And for the inevitable “You don’t NEED to be using your phone while driving” comment, you are right. I don’t, but I am **bored**. Expressway driving doesn’t thrill me like it apparently does for some of you people, and I don’t think that any more of my attention is going to make it all that more interesting. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 8:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/50 "2008-01-24T08:41:40Z")
> [@bufftabby](#): > > Pretty sure I was playing my Atari before I’d ever heard of Nintendo, so I for-damn-sure did not call it a Nintendo because “lalala, I’m a girl, I don’t know what all these funny little buttons do, I need some man to explain it to me”. FWIW, no older brothers/male cousins/etc exist to have helped me “see the light”. Take it easy, Master of Offense, I wasn’t talking about _you_, I was talking about my grade-school classmates in the early 90s. If you knew my history of supporting feminist causes here, or if you had an ounce of restraint (to be fair, I don’t think I do either), you would have been able to piece together the fact that, no, I couldn’t possibly have literally meant that not a single female and/or adult in the early 1990s understood gaming. Jeez, I’m usually perceived as a member of the so-called offenderati and even _I_ feel like I have to walk on eggshells in this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 8:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/51 "2008-01-24T08:56:16Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] You post as though you somehow _need_ Internet access while in your house. Many people seem to do without one. Everyone managed to do without one up until a few decades ago. At the moment you are not able to use the Internet while in an aeroplane. Do you think that that should change as well because of all the Straight Dope posts you _need_ to make? [/QUOTE] That’s bizarre. I don’t give a shit about the internet. You, on the other hand, seem to think you need to be able to use your phone while driving. ---
**Author:** ![Hostile\_Dialect](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e495f1/32.png) [@Hostile\_Dialect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hostile_Dialect)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/52 "2008-01-24T08:58:56Z")
[QUOTE=1920s Style “Death Ray”] That’s bizarre. I don’t give a shit about the internet. You, on the other hand, seem to think you need to be able to use your phone while driving. [/QUOTE] Whatever you need to tell yourself. Just keep in mind that it was you, not me, who used the word “need”. ETA: You also completely missed the point, FTR. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/53 "2008-01-24T08:58:59Z")
[QUOTE=Captain\_C] And for the inevitable “You don’t NEED to be using your phone while driving” comment, you are right. I don’t, but I am **bored**. Expressway driving doesn’t thrill me like it apparently does for some of you people, and I don’t think that any more of my attention is going to make it all that more interesting. [/QUOTE] Yes, driving is boring. I did it five hours a day in stop and go traffic last quarter. Let me tell you about bored! Yet somehow I managed not to yak on my phone while I was doing it. It’s called being a fucking grown up, and accepting that commuting is fucking boring. Personally I’m all for ticketing the Escalade-driving-USC-bimbo-trophy wife set for yakking on the phone while on the fucking freeway. I probably hone in instinctively on that particular subset of people, but it seems like 9/10 times that’s the type merging blindly into people without a turn signal or a glance in the mirror while blathering on the phone. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 9:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/54 "2008-01-24T09:12:41Z")
[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect] Whatever you need to tell yourself. Just keep in mind that it was you, not me, who used the word “need”. ETA: You also completely missed the point, FTR. [/QUOTE] You said “what about emergencies?” in response to the idea that talking on the phone while driving should be banned. That implies that you think there are times when you need to use the phone while driving. If that’s wrong then how about you clarify what you meant. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_C](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Captain\_C](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_C)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/55 "2008-01-24T09:43:46Z")
[QUOTE=Queen Bruin] Yes, driving is boring. I did it five hours a day in stop and go traffic last quarter. Let me tell you about bored! Yet somehow I managed not to yak on my phone while I was doing it. It’s called being a fucking grown up, and accepting that commuting is fucking boring. [/QUOTE] Well of course not in stop-and-go traffic, you’d hit something! There is too much going on, I think we agree on that point. I’m specifically referring to expressway driving, which is when I don’t see a problem with using my phone on speaker. Now on further contemplation, I realize expressways may be busier in other parts of the country than around here in central Michigan. For argument’s sake, let’s say 70mph, 2 lanes going the same direction, on-ramps about every 4 miles, and cars spaced about 10 seconds apart (or about 4 vehicles within visible range). Oh, and no weather problems like rain or snow. I base my argument on conditions similiar to this. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Bruin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/e274bd/32.png) [@Queen\_Bruin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Bruin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/56 "2008-01-24T09:56:38Z")
[QUOTE=Captain\_C] Well of course not in stop-and-go traffic, you’d hit something! There is too much going on, I think we agree on that point. I’m specifically referring to expressway driving, which is when I don’t see a problem with using my phone on speaker. Now on further contemplation, I realize expressways may be busier in other parts of the country than around here in central Michigan. For argument’s sake, let’s say 70mph, 2 lanes going the same direction, on-ramps about every 4 miles, and cars spaced about 10 seconds apart (or about 4 vehicles within visible range). Oh, and no weather problems like rain or snow. I base my argument on conditions similiar to this. [/QUOTE] The conditions you describe are not typical of California freeways in metropolitan areas. ETA: Or even in non-metro areas, like where I live. ---
**Author:** ![casdave](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c6cbf5/32.png) [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/57 "2008-01-24T11:58:13Z")
Yeah, we can all drive whilst on the cell phone :rolleyes: > **[The trendy US gear that costs double over here](https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-446004/The-trendy-US-gear-costs-double-here.html)** > > It is the hottest ticket on the high street, US fashion chain Abercrombie & Fitch has arrived in Britain with a bang and a risque marketing campaign. But the company is certainly not shouting about the fact that its UK prices are virtually double... > **[Latest news & breaking headlines](https://www.thetimes.com/)** > > The latest breaking UK, US, world, business and sport news from The Times and The Sunday Times. Go beyond today's headlines with in-depth analysis and comment. [http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/jail-for-driver-who-killed-man-while-text-messaging-691834.html](http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/jail-for-driver-who-killed-man-while-text-messaging-691834.html) > [@](#): > > Phone distracted driver gets two years > A driver has been jailed for two years after killing an 80-year-old pedestrian, Dorothy Andrews while trying to answer her mobile phone. Anne Foster-Chia was convicted of causing death by dangerous driving at Sheffield Crown Court and banned from driving for two years. > Daily Telegraph October 2007 from here > **[Brake | The Road Safety Charity](https://www.brake.org.uk/)** > > The road safety charity. Care for victims, safe and healthy journeys. [http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/tm\_objectid=17778247&method=full&siteid=50081&headline=death-crash-lorry-driver-reading-text-name\_page.html](http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/tm_objectid=17778247&method=full&siteid=50081&headline=death-crash-lorry-driver-reading-text-name_page.html) Sadly there are plenty more cases such as these. Use of a mobile phone whilst driving has been shown to impair driving as bad as drinking > [@](#): > > Burns, PC; Parkes, A; Burton, S; Smith, RK; Burch, D, How dangerous is driving with a mobile phone? Benchmarking the impairment to alcohol, TRL report 547 (TRL, 2002) [http://www.greenflag.com/news/press/release\_0702\_2.html](http://www.greenflag.com/news/press/release_0702_2.html) Here in the UK, if you have a crash, the police will check both your alchohol levels and they will routinely demand your mobile phone logs, because it is so common for accidents to be caused by these things. So to the OP and all those selfish fucking bastards who talk on their mobiles whilst drving, a big hearty **FUCK YOU!** ---
**Author:** ![THespos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8c91f0/32.png) [@THespos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/THespos)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/58 "2008-01-24T14:20:14Z")
[QUOTE=casdave] So to the OP and all those selfish fucking bastards who talk on their mobiles whilst drving, a big hearty **FUCK YOU!** [/QUOTE] A nice tall glass of FUCK YOU to you as well. Has it not occurred to you that some people might be capable of driving and talking at the same time, while others are not? I’d prefer that governments not paint everybody with the same brush. And I’d also prefer that they not miss the point entirely and mandate the use of handsfree kits when that clearly won’t solve the problem. If that’s selfish, then so be it. Sometimes a little selfishness is okay in my book. ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/59 "2008-01-24T14:35:10Z")
The thing is, some people could drive 120MPH safely, but other can’t, so you have blanket laws against it because you can’t have some doing it while others can’t. If poor phone drivers ruin it for everyone else, well blame them. As for emergencies, a real emergency could be easily explained to the officer, same as if you’re speeding for a good reason, like youre chasing a car who just stole your kid- a cop wouldn’t ticket you for that, same as he wouldn’t ticket you if you were on the phone with a real emergency. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2008, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627/60 "2008-01-24T14:55:33Z")
Any legislation that restricts our inalienable rights to right to yak on cell phones while operating a motor vehicle at 70mph in heavy traffic is obviously too onerous to complicate. Also, that legislation that restricts the free flow of cocktails while operating said vehicle are equally odious. I feel perfectly fine after five or six martinis and therefore any studies that scientifically demonstrate a causal link between alcohol levels and driving ability belong in the trash next to my children’s cigarette butts. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-california-and-their-stupid-new-cell-phone-laws/434627.md?page=4)