Stupid California and their stupid new Cell phone laws.

The BBQ Pit
101

Glad they let us talk on the radio while we are flying. Hard to pull over and stop.
Too bad there is not regular testing for drivers like there is for pilots.
How do you pull over on a 5 or 8 lane Calif. freeway to take or make a call?

Good music makes me drive faster.

How many SO’s of either gender refuse to have an argument in the car? How many stop yelling when the corner comes up?

the number of lives potentially saved with all this time, money, effort, & silliness expended is not cost effective compared to putting it into better education, training, & road building IMO.

No matter what people like to think, it is always about cost and risk management.

Guess what the law makers themselves are worrying about?

We do not need more traffic police or laws, we need better drivers…

YMMV

102

In the interests of safety, we should not only ban cell phones while driving, but also enact a nationwide 15mph speed limit, require the driver’s hands to be at the 10 and 2 position at all times and have his eyes focused forward. All radios and CD players must be removed from vehicles. Also any passengers shall be required to remain silent for the duration of the ride.

Any violation of the above rules will result in a civil summary execution of the driver, or the offending passenger.

Anyone disagree? Well, you must not care about highway safety…

103

[QUOTE=jtgain]
In the interests of safety, we should not only ban cell phones while driving, but also enact a nationwide 15mph speed limit, require the driver’s hands to be at the 10 and 2 position at all times and have his eyes focused forward. All radios and CD players must be removed from vehicles. Also any passengers shall be required to remain silent for the duration of the ride.

Any violation of the above rules will result in a civil summary execution of the driver, or the offending passenger.

Anyone disagree? Well, you must not care about highway safety..
[/QUOTE]

No, it all sounds fine to me. :smiley:

104

[QUOTE=pmh]
OBs can’t sign their names? Is that a “doctor’s handwriting” joke?

Oh, I see. You’re implying he’s the only doctor.
Why can’t he pull over to take the call?

I suppose if this guy is soooo important that he should be allowed to drive impaired just so he isn’t out of communication with the world that he alone is responsible for saving, then the courts would take that into account.
He should still get the ticket.
[/QUOTE]

You entirely miss my point. I was joking that if a husband expects to get off calling his preggers wife as “an emergency” he better also be her MD (which would be frowned upon). In other words, if you ain’t calling 911 it ain’t a real emergency. It;s just something you think is important.

105

Well, hey, it’s a good thing we all have kind, gentle mommies and daddies in Sacramento to decide that one for us.

106

[QUOTE=DrDeth]
You entirely miss my point.
…
[/QUOTE]

I wondered about that whooshing sound…

But, I have seen the same “doctor on call” argument advanced seriously and couldn’t contain myself.
By the time I realized I was preaching to the chior, the edit window had expired.

And that, kids, is why you shouldn’t post angry.

107

[QUOTE=Hostile Dialect]
Well, hey, it’s a good thing we all have kind, gentle mommies and daddies in Sacramento to decide that one for us.
[/QUOTE]

The same kind mommies and daddies that are responsible for the very existence of said roads we are (OK, you all are, I’m just lurking) discussing now?

108

[QUOTE=Donovan]
The same kind mommies and daddies that are responsible for the very existence of said roads we are (OK, you all are, I’m just lurking) discussing now?
[/QUOTE]

Eisenhower? No, I’m afraid he’s got nothing to do with this.

109

[QUOTE=pmh]
I wondered about that whooshing sound…

But, I have seen the same “doctor on call” argument advanced seriously and couldn’t contain myself.

[/QUOTE]

I apologize for the inadvertant whoosh. :smack:
In general I agree about the whole “Doctor on call” thing. :cool: There’s a whole damn hospital full of MD’s missing one generally can’t mean that much.

Of course, if there is some sort of mass casualty thing going, then that’s different.

110

Clearly, you haven’t spent much time in the Grossmont Hospital emergency room (yes, the one that serves pretty much all of San Diego County east of the 15). Consider yourself lucky.

111

I’m a little late to the party, but I wanted to mention something that struck me about the hands-free device exception to the cell-phone-while-driving ban when it was passed a while ago. The legislative discussion here admits that there are numerous studies showing that there is a danger from distraction that’s almost entirely caused by the conversation itself, and mentions nothing about studies showing the danger from hand-held devices. But the discussion goes on to say that the bill is intended to help make sure that both of the driver’s hands are free in case of an emergency situation. It’s as if they are saying “Yes, we admit there is a great danger of conversational distraction that we could help curtail by outlawing all cell-phone use while in the car…but there’s also this lesser danger of hand-held phone use, and we’re going to outlaw that instead”. C’mon lawmakers, let’s use a little logic and reason, huh?

112

They’re already using a little logic and reason. Outlawing cellphones in cars would be unreasonable bordering on fascist, so they’re using their legislative powers to find a harm-reduction-based solution instead. It’s like alcohol distribution laws: outlawing alcohol altogether would make us much safer than the piddly age/transport/sale restrictions do, but it would be fascist, and America is not (yet) a fascist nation, so we don’t do that.

113

[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]

posting on the dope isnt going to get another human being killed or maimed, your phone call to a friend about whatever is not so important that its worth risking lives over, the fact that you have even tried to equate the 2 is proof enough that you really dont understand the whole argument in the first place.

study after study shows that talking on the phone is an incredible distraction to driving, stop comparing it to having a passenger, its not the same thing at all.
first cell phones do not have perfect reception, its hard to hear tone of voice and the subtleties you can in a face to face conversation, also you passenger may actually be helping you drive by shutting up when needed and pointing out things you need to or may not have noticed.
second when talking on a phone your attention is focused on the conversation…remember you are DRIVING A FRIGGIN CAR.

I dont know, perhaps you have some how managed to live your entire life without losing a loved one to a car crash, you have never been injured or known anyone who has. Personally I have lost to many people and suffered to much pain to feel the need to put up with asshatery like people who cannot resist the urge to chat on the phone while driving.

that and I teach Drivers ed. I know more on the subject than your average person does.

114

[QUOTE=jtgain]
In the interests of safety, we should not only ban cell phones while driving, but also enact a nationwide 15mph speed limit, require the driver’s hands to be at the 10 and 2 position at all times and have his eyes focused forward. All radios and CD players must be removed from vehicles. Also any passengers shall be required to remain silent for the duration of the ride.

Any violation of the above rules will result in a civil summary execution of the driver, or the offending passenger.

Anyone disagree? Well, you must not care about highway safety..
[/QUOTE]

10 and 2 is a myth, anywhere from 10/2 down to 8/4 is pretty standard with the preferred position being 9/3

Eyes forward is also silly, you need to focus both very far ahead, close up, left/right, and behind, anyone looking straight ahead the entire time they drive is a hazard

Music is not the problem, morons who play with the radio/cd player while driving are the problem

passengers have never, ever been cited as a major source of driver distraction when talking about mature drivers. for teens many states have graduated licensing laws restricting teen drivers from having passengers because a car load of teens is a great way to end up with a car load of corpse’s.

I realize you are a bit tongue in cheek here but easily 99% of all collisions are caused by driver error (or Human error in a few cases that dont involve the driver) the unwillingness of people to simply not talk about pointless silly shit that they could hold off talking about for a few minutes or even hours with no consequence is just evidence of the “I never thought it could happen to me” syndrome. I know you think it cant…until it does.

I lost a friend to a woman who was to stupid to
A slow the fuck down while driving in a near blizzard
B hang up her fucking phone while driving in a near blizzard
C pay attention to the fucking road flares and hazard lights (and why cant she pay attention? oh yeah shes on the phone)

she hit my friend at 35 miles an hour in 15 mph conditions. he was standing behind a trailer when she hit him, he lost one leg below the knee, the other never healed properly due to long exposure to the cold, he died at the age of 39 as a result of health problems directly relating to that collision.

your phone call can wait.

115

Shortly after I got a cell phone, I answered a call while driving. I was on a bridge, so could not pull over. After about 10-15 seconds, I realized I had no fricking idea what my car was doing, or what any of the cars around me were doing, as I had completely lost any situational awareness of my driving. I hung up and have never used my cell while driving since then. If I get a call, I will pull over or let it go to voicemail.

Admittedly, I tend to focus very closely on phone conversations, as otherwise I can lose track of the conversation, but I doubt that I am alone in this. From observation, many of the people who share my problem don’t let it stop them from using their phone while driving.

116

I have to say, ever since the hands-free thing went into effect here, the number of idiotic drivers I’ve seen has dropped dramatically. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’d see someone doing something stupid, and then notice that they had a cel in their hand while trying to negotiate a merge or a turn or something that should be easy. I don’t see that anymore. Do I see people talking on hands-free? Sure. Are some of those people still going to get in accidents because of their conversations? Probably. But things are better and it is very very rare for me to even see someone breaking this law, and we’ve only had it around for a month now.

117

[QUOTE=ArchiveGuy]
I have to say, ever since the hands-free thing went into effect here, the number of idiotic drivers I’ve seen has dropped dramatically. I couldn’t tell you how many times I’d see someone doing something stupid, and then notice that they had a cel in their hand while trying to negotiate a merge or a turn or something that should be easy.
[/QUOTE]

Me too. I’ve seen only only guy driving like he was drunk since the ban, and when I managed to pass him I saw he was texting. There are a lot fewer people leaving 10 car lengths in front of them while chatting or weaving in their lane. U-turns are being made faster, since they’re hard to do while holding a phone.

I had a similar experience as Bookkeeper a decade ago. I was driving up 101 on my way back from Santa Barbara, and got a call about a job I was applying for. When I was done, I was right through San Luis Obispo, without any idea of how I drove 11 miles. I never called and seldom answered in the car since then.

118

Why did we resurrect this old thread?

Closed.