Feds seek ban on cell use while driving

[RkFast]

My car has a handsfree built in. Two buttons on the steering wheel. I dont take my eyes off the road, nor my hands off the wheel to use it. Operating it takes less physical steps than finding a song to play on the radio or turning on windshield wipers for the right setting.

 

If you cant manage to speak and press a few buttons while operating a car...or if you have to make that call and blab to your !@#$ing boyfriend while youre trying to operate the vehicle in bad weather or in a crowded parking lot or while trying to navigate a tricky piece of road youre not familair with...then yes...that makes you an idiot who doesnt belong on the road in the first place. Snowflake.

 

Like Tom said...the problem isnt the device, its how its used.

 

Gee, where have we heard THAT before?

Edited April 28, 2012 by RkFast

[Fezmid]

Of course not everyone does that, just as not everyone texts while driving. I'll tell you what though, I pay very close attention at stop lights during my commute to what other drivers are doing and the applying of make up, reading the newspaper, and eating bowls of cereal drivers are not at all uncommon. People are friggin morons. I've had to ask friends to pull over and let me out of the car before because they refused to stop messing around with their smartphones while behind the wheel. Still, I don't really see any way to effectively police this.

Yup - while driving to work yesterday, I saw a guy shaving in the car behind me.

 

Actually, it's only a matter of opinion in the sense that some people seem to have a distorted sense of their ability to drive while texting or talking on a cell phone, hands-free or otherwise.

 

http://www.aaafounda...utton=cellphone

 

Despite your perception of your ability to drive while engaging in such activities, you are no different than anyone else.

 

You are not a special snowflake.

Ummm, did you really just quote a study from over two decades ago as your "facts" that people can't talk on the phone and drive at the same time? You do realize that there were no hands-free devices back then, right...? :unsure:

[3rdnlng]

Yup - while driving to work yesterday, I saw a guy shaving in the car behind me.

 

 

Ummm, did you really just quote a study from over two decades ago as your "facts" that people can't talk on the phone and drive at the same time? You do realize that there were no hands-free devices back then, right...? :unsure:

 

 

Good find. Hell, back then the cell phones were so big you needed two hands and they were rotary dial up! Of course they would cause a distraction.

[Chef Jim]

Yup - while driving to work yesterday, I saw a guy shaving in the car behind me.

 

 

Ummm, did you really just quote a study from over two decades ago as your "facts" that people can't talk on the phone and drive at the same time? You do realize that there were no hands-free devices back then, right...? :unsure:

 

Is 2010 recent enough for you?

 

 

 

Inattention Blindness – Vision is the most important sense we use for safe driving.

It’s the source of the majority of information when driving. Yet, drivers using hands-free

and handheld cell phones have a tendency to “look at” but not “see” objects.

Estimates indicate drivers using cell phones look at but fail to see up to 50 percent

of the information in their driving environment. Cognitive

distraction contributes to a withdrawal of attention from the visual scene, where all the information the driver sees is not processed.49 This may be due to the earlier discussion of how our brains compensate for receiving too much information by not sending some visual information to the working memory. When this happens, drivers are not aware of the filtered

information and cannot act on it.

Distracted drivers experience inattention blindness. They are looking out the windshield, but do not process everything in

the roadway environment necessary to effectively monitor

their surroundings, seek and identify potential hazards, and to

respond to unexpected situations. Their field of view narrows

 

[Fezmid]

Is 2010 recent enough for you?

I see your study and raise you this:

 

http://m.wardsauto.c...uce-road-deaths

 

Specifically:

"U.S. highway deaths in 2010 fell to their lowest level since 1949, even though motorists drove nearly another 21 billion miles (33.6 billion km)."

[DC Tom]

Is 2010 recent enough for you?

 

And again, that's less because of the device than it is the moron using it. Anyone who properly uses a phone while driving suffers inattention "blindness" to the phone call, not the road.

[3rdnlng]

So, I was at a watering hole tonight and saw on tv that there are more deaths per year from the misuse of prescription drugs than car accidents. What do the rest of you think of maybe restricting cell phone use while misusing prescription drugs? I can't wait for crayonz's response.

[Chef Jim]

I see your study and raise you this:

 

http://m.wardsauto.c...uce-road-deaths

 

Specifically:

"U.S. highway deaths in 2010 fell to their lowest level since 1949, even though motorists drove nearly another 21 billion miles (33.6 billion km)."

 

At least my link had something to do with the thread topic.

[Fezmid]

At least my link had something to do with the thread topic.

You don't think that the fact that there aren't anywhere near as many people dying now on the roads as there have been in the past 60+ years (despite a LOT more driving) means maybe we're over-reacting just a tiny bit calling distracted driving deaths a national crisis?

[DC Tom]

You don't think that the fact that there aren't anywhere near as many people dying now on the roads as there have been in the past 60+ years (despite a LOT more driving) means maybe we're over-reacting just a tiny bit calling distracted driving deaths a national crisis?

 

We call three babies with colic a national crisis. And then call the babies "heroic". Overreaction is the American way.

[Chef Jim]

You don't think that the fact that there aren't anywhere near as many people dying now on the roads as there have been in the past 60+ years (despite a LOT more driving) means maybe we're over-reacting just a tiny bit calling distracted driving deaths a national crisis?

 

Who the hell is calling it a national crisis?? I'm just saying that studies show that people talking on cell phones hands free are distracted from the task at hand and. I never said we should even have a law banning them. My argument is with people who think they're not distracted when they talk hands free. The macho "I can multi-task" in my car **** doesn't fly with me. I've seen way too many distracted drivers (me included) while talking hands free.

[Adam]

And again, that's less because of the device than it is the moron using it. Anyone who properly uses a phone while driving suffers inattention "blindness" to the phone call, not the road.

So lets keep the morons off the road

[Fezmid]

Who the hell is calling it a national crisis??

LaHood did, which is the topic of the thread:

 

Tough federal legislation is the only way to deal with what he called a "national epidemic," he said at a distracted-driving summit in San Antonio, Texas, that drew doctors, advocates and government officials.

[DC Tom]

LaHood did, which is the topic of the thread:

 

Tough federal legislation is the only way to deal with what he called a "national epidemic," he said at a distracted-driving summit in San Antonio, Texas, that drew doctors, advocates and government officials.

 

When your point of reference is DC, then it's easy to think that every person in the country is talking on the phone while driving.

[Captain Hindsight]

I hate when I see people using their phones while driving. Right after I graduated from high school 5 girls were killed in a car accident because they were texting and driving. Haven't done it since.

 

But as other have stated. Its not a federal issue.

[3rdnlng]

I used to laugh off the right wing militia types. Not so sure now.

 

 

 

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/04/27/new-calif-law-would-ban-texting-while-biking-whats-next-eating/

[Fezmid]

I used to laugh off the right wing militia types. Not so sure now.

 

http://losangeles.cb...ts-next-eating/

 

I thought bikes had to follow all the rules of the road, no? Wouldn't that include phone use?

[jjamie12]

Is having a (hands-free) conversation on a cell phone more or less distracting than having a conversation with the person in the passenger (or back) seat?

[DC Tom]

Is having a (hands-free) conversation on a cell phone more or less distracting than having a conversation with the person in the passenger (or back) seat?

 

Usually more...because for whatever reason, people give their phone more attention than they do a passenger.