NTSB cell recommendation

[tevake]

Our local county Gov passed an ordnance out lawing the use of any handheld electronic devices while driving, There was little enforcement and after a couple months it seems to be mostly ignored.

[RWebb]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

There's no such thing as a gov't. agency "asking." ...

don't be silly rick

[jwasbury]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

So how are you going to make things different between the driver and passengers?

This just aint gonna work...

Some Jersey college kids have worked out a technology solution that block a driver from using their device but still allows passengers to use theirs...link follows

Stevens Researcher Detects Driver Cell Phone Use to Decrease Accidents

[jyl]

Some voice control, text to speech, and dictation software will take care of this. Suppose you could simply tell your phone "read me that text" and then talk your reply back, without ever looking at the phone. Texting wouldn't be any different from a voice call or a conversation with a passenger, which most people - admittedly not all - can handle.

[TheMentat]

Some voice control, text to speech, and dictation software will take care of this. Suppose you could simply tell your phone "read me that text" and then talk your reply back, without ever looking at the phone. Texting wouldn't be any different from a voice call or a conversation with a passenger, which most people - admittedly not all - can handle.

I agree with this... Unfortunately the NTSB does not... Their recommendation even rules out hands free calls!

[GWN7]

$280 fine up here for use of a cell phone while driving. They put a cop at a intersection and he radios the licence numbers of the phone users to the stop cars down the road. They pull them over 3 at a time.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

While I completely agree that texting/surfing while driving and IN MOTION (not stopped at a light for example) are bona fide hazards and should be prohibited, I question whether cell phones in general can/should be similarly prohibited and (2) if this whole rush to ban this or that is really glossing over the real problem. I'll explain:

To point #1, many states permit cell phone use so long as a hands-free device is used. While this is helpful, the most strident and outspoken safety types will say that even that doesn't go far enough - they demand that everyone should have NO distractions whatsoever while driving (even with a hands-free device the process of carrying on a conversation is a distraction, even if it allows you to keep eyes/head up and hands on controls). There's some merit to this point however it is a slippery slope...

Point #2 dovetails into this - the real underlying issue is that our roadways have become so monumentally inefficient as to be wastes of time and productivity for most people. Also, this is in a day/age when time management is absolutely critical to people being able to live anything resembling a normal life, much less actually being able to get ahead. We have more dumbed-down speed limits, more stop signs, more lights, more stupid laws and more traffic (and poor management of it) on more decaying/crumbling roads than ever before. Driving gets to be a bigger and bigger waste of time and for one, I can't afford to be totally unplugged for 2-3 hours a day sitting in traffic with my thumb up my ass. Clients get POed if you're not available 24/7/365. It's the expectation these days.

The REAL issue here is we need a comprehensive strategy to increase the efficiency of our roadway systems and overall transit infrastructure. We can't just legislate away everything to the point where it leads to millions of people sitting idling in cars on dead-stopped (or nearly-stopped) roads for hours a day unable to legally do anything except zombie out.

Ban texting and surfing while IN MOTION? Sure. Ban it while stopped at a light or ban talking with hands-free? Nope - goes way too far IMHO.

[Rick Lee]

They just need to ban ALL driving while distracted. Doesn't matter if you're putting make up on, texting, eating, whatever. If you're not paying attention, you need to be off the road. Absentmindedly piloting a 3000 lbs missile is no less dangerous than firing a gun into the air at a crowded shopping mall. If you don't kill anyone, it's by pure dumb luck.

[Joeaksa]

Originally Posted by Rick Lee

They just need to ban ALL driving while distracted. Doesn't matter if you're putting make up on, texting, eating, whatever. If you're not paying attention, you need to be off the road. Absentmindedly piloting a 3000 lbs missile is no less dangerous than firing a gun into the air at a crowded shopping mall. If you don't kill anyone, it's by pure dumb luck.

Cannot disagree with the above but the problem is, can we handle putting 80% of the female drivers on the road in jail? Everytime I get on the road it seems like most all of them have a cell phone glued to their ears...

[widgeon13]

So what is next, no talking in the car? What is the difference between talking to a passenger and talking w/ a no hands device?

Unless the driver's use can be electronically blocked, I don't see how this could be enforced.

[oldE]

So is this where we put the Pelican Brain Trust to work developing a campaign along the lines of:

HANG UP AND DRIVE! ?

After all, the MADD campaign worked hard to reduce DUI injuries and fatalities through public pressure. It has been pointed out in this discussion and in many others that many cel phone users don't accept their practices are dangerous.

Do we take the lead? Do we spread the word to family, friends and co-workers that ANY use of a communications device by the operator of a motor vehicle in motion is stupid and dangerous?

Laws themselves do not work. We all resent the enforcement which often turns to revenue-generation. We need a societal change to make people aware that when they are behind the wheel there is NOTHING which is more important than safe operation of their vehicle and awareness of the environment around them.

How do we accomplish this?

Les

[widgeon13]

Respect for others and personal responsibility. But some how I think we are 50 or 60 years late.

[VINMAN]

Originally Posted by Joeaksa

Cannot disagree with the above but the problem is, can we handle putting 80% of the female drivers on the road in jail? Everytime I get on the road it seems like most all of them have a cell phone glued to their ears...

Men are just as guilty of this. If not worse. When i go to work in the morning, I'll get a car in front of me on the road and see the guy on the phone for the whole 45 mile drive. Who the fugg are you talking to at 5:30 in the morning?? I see it everyday.
Again, if this was realistically enforceable, I would have no problem. but unfortunately, you cant police common sense. Also to blame is the evolution of the " i'm so important i need to be accesable" attitude. Thats why you see all the nutjobs walking around 24 hrs a day with that idiotic bluetooth inplanted on the side of thier heads.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by widgeon13

Unless the driver's use can be electronically blocked, I don't see how this could be enforced.

It's very easy to enforce. The whole problem is that it is not enforced. Make it a primary offense for a traffic stop to witness a driver with a cell phone in their hand and/or against their ear. Treat it like a DUI, which means mandatory court appearance, must appear with a lawyer, mandatory jail (in some states), must attend classes, thousands in fines and three years of SR-22 insurance. If they treated this like the public danger it is and really enforced it, the problem would slow to a trickle real fast. It's already illegal in a lot of places, but not enforced. I may come across a drunk weaving all over the place once or twice a year. I see distracted cell phone drivers at least once per minute. Riding a motorcycle most of the time, I can see a lot more stuff on the road than the cagers can. You'd be amazed.

[944Larry]

remember guys, the NTSB can only make recommendations. They cannot make anybody do anything. It is up to the federal agencies or the states to follow up and pass the laws. I don't look for this to happen on a national scale. Local or state would be more appropiate.

[9dreizig]

you guys don't have a 4 hour commute 2 x a day.. While I agree that phone pasted to the ear is dangerous. Hands free driving on the highway is a way of life for me.. If they banned it, I'd still do it. It's just too productive for me not to...

[widgeon13]

Some states have laws but are not enforcing them. NY has a law against driving and talking on the phone w/o hands free but they don't enforce at all. Everywhere you drive you see people blatantly conversing on the phone, they just don't care.

[VINMAN]

Widg, they have been pretty good with it here in NYC.

[Rick Lee]

Originally Posted by 9dreizig

you guys don't have a 4 hour commute 2 x a day..

Not anymore, but when I did have a serious commute or pretty much lived in my car while working, the world still worked just fine before cell phones. Last night my dad called both my phones while I was driving. After I ignored my Blackberry, the iPhone started ringing. I wasn't even tempted to answer either of them. Once I got to the restaurant, I emailed him that I'd call him when I got home. When I had to call the wife on Sat. and realized I had left my earpiece set at home, I pulled over in some residential area, put it in park and called. It's really not that hard.

[mikester]

Did you notice that they exclude cars with hands free built in? They are trying to sell new cars...