Legislature to consider banning not just texting but phone use while driving
By adamg - 6/11/09 - 12:40 pm
Channel 5 reports. What about eating, drinking coffee or hairbrushing while driving?
Hey, there! Log in / Register
Comments
I agree
I agree, we have to get ban it.
I like talking on my cell phone, I enjoy texting. But you know what? I know that I can't concentrate on both driving and my conversation at the same time. Trust me, I've tried.
And I'm sure everyone else knows this as well. Unfortunately, the gov't has to get involved when we need to be protected from our own stupidity.
this will be the smoking ban
this will be the smoking ban of the next decade.... soon most states will do it, like it or not. And I happen to love it.
A Long Time Coming
This is something that should have been done long ago.
I have nearly been run off the road by chatting, texting and even reading drivers.
BAN these distracting devices now.
And - totally serious here - let's license everyone EVERY YEAR. Teach people how to drive. Teach people how to park. If people don't use signals, throw them in jail. If they tailgate, throw them in jail. If they camp in the fast lane, pass on the right, park more than a foot from the curb, stop over the stop line or ten feet short of it, and so much more; take away their licenses and throw them in jail.
This state is jammed with Fidiots (the F DOES stand for something bad) who can't drive and don't understand it's not a right.
Ooooh, I need a taller soapbox!
We should up our standards
None of the proposed legislation calls for banning non-emergency *talking* on a phone while driving? Distraction is bad.
Also, banning "Internet use" is too vague (just going from the news piece; I haven't seen the legislation). If too vague, we might inadvertently ban future music, maps/directions, emergency broadcasts, security systems, traffic monitoring, toll collection, data synchronization, and other near-term innovations we can already forsee as well as many we cannot.
Nothing wrong with using internet while driving
I frequently run Pandora on my iPhone, using wireless internet, and plug it into my car stereo. No different than listening to the radio.
I also use the quasi-GPS thing on the iPhone. I type in the address and stuff while stopped of course, but yes, I've glanced at it while driving, much as I use maps while driving. No, I'm not studying them while driving at full speed or anything.
http://1smootshort.blogspot.com
No shoes, no driving
Driving while eating is already illegal, unless things have changed since I last read a handbook. So is driving without shoes.
Re: No shoes, no driving
Is it illegal? I thought that was one of those things
people think is illegal but actually is not (i.e.
there is no law in force/in place which specifically forbids
people in Massachusetts to drive without wearing footwear).
Can you quote a source?
I'd be curious to know if there are states that actually
have a law against it. (But how to officially verify that
I'm not sure.)
It used to be
I remember having a good laugh over it when I first came here - 1980s - and was still a teen. It was in the driver's manual that you weren't allowed to eat and had to wear shoes, but that made no sense, and clearly was not enforced. It very well might have been one of those antiquated laws that the legislature bundled up and summarily voided.
There are still admonitions against eating as a distraction in the current handboook, but no prohibitive statements about shoes or food.
It is not illegal to drive with no shoes
It is one of those myth-laws. "I'm sorry officer, I do not own a pair of shoes." The state can't make me buy shoes.
I suspect ...
... that it had to do with 1930s driving conditions. If you have ever driven a pre-WW-II car, it does make sense because you had to drive a clutch without a synchromesh, hit the brakes a lot harder without the brake booster, and the pedal materials were not what they are today.
Driving a modern automatic with cupholders? No problem to eat and drink (save for the distractions) and drive barefoot.
So it was hard when you were a kid?
Driving your flivver down to the soda shop?
But seriously, it's neither illegal nor an impediment to control to drive a car without shoes. Your control is better, not worse - especially in a standard where you have more control. That's why driving shoes have such thin soles.
Not illegal now ...
But the purported prohibition was in the manual through the mid-80s. Like I said, my bet is that these 'rules' or 'laws' got bundled up and wiped out along with any number of restrictions on horses in public restrooms and such.
When I was a kid, it was 60s and 70s land yachts ahoy! Followed by my parent's mid-70s microtoyotas. However, my uncle collected cars from the 40s and 50s and let me drive them, and my godfather taught me to drive some of his "car friends", which are now nearly a century old! Those thin-soled driving shoes were for the 1960s sports cars - try a car built in the 20s or 30s and you need something thicker because you will need to stomp the brakes and do funky stuff with the clutch - if there even is much of a clutch! That's how I learned to shift by ear - wicked handy when I busted a clutch cable once.
Ridiculous!
I have driven plenty of pre-WWII cars at various amusement parks over the years. The sturdy, welded metal rail in the middle of the road kept the car perfectly on course whether I was wearing shoes or not.
Sounds like a myth to me.
Heck, even a child could do it!
(note: these are not my nigels ... I stole these nigels off the internet!)
(No subject)
Simpler?
A driver must at all times have the ability to put both hands on the steering wheel unimpeded - i.e. - no eating, drinking, smoking,newspaper reading, make-up applying, texting, phoning (hands free ok), etc.
The only exception is to call 911 in an emergency or obligatory reportage of the all too numerous masshole driving 97 mph and weaving between traffic.
That's the best way to do it - but not a pol in the world has the courage. It's not what you might do to yourself - it's what you could do to lots of other people.
yahoo, it is about time
I bet there is no one here who has not witnessed at least 50 dumb maneuvers made by people who are either dialing or texting while driving. You can't do these kinds of things while driving without looking away from the road. And, we all remember RULE #1 of driving right??? RULE #1= KEEP YOUR EYES ON THE ROAD!!! I hope this is a $500 fine too. (You can tell I ride a bicycle right?)