Full ban on cell phones while driving a car?

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deep

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NTSB recommends full ban on use of cell phones while driving - CNN.com

No texting.
No calling.

Will this happen?

Should it happen?
 
Seat-belts seemed like a far-fetched idea a couple of decades ago.

Cellphone use in cars is much more of a direct threat to other drivers than buckling up.

I am fine with this.
 
Isnt it already banned? I know its like a $200 ticket here for talking on a cell phone while driving.
 
It won't happen, how would you enforce and question what constitutes an "emergency call"?

I'm all for banning novice drivers, I'm all for curbing texting while driving, but this wouldn't work.

Right now certain media outlets are leading with headlines like "US calls for total ban..." it's totally misleading, it is just a recommendation from the transportation department.
 
In the future most cellphones are going to operate like Star Trek communicators anyway. I see stuff like Siri becoming the norm. I use Siri while driving all the time.
It's illegal here, but not enforced.
 
Isnt it already banned? I know its like a $200 ticket here for talking on a cell phone while driving.

I am sure when you drive you see many, many people using their phones.
I know when the state law went into effect most people complied.



That is not the case anymore. I am cheating a bit now. If the penalties were more severe and certain, I would quit. I remember driving in the late 70s and 80s, drunk driving was not that penalized or expensive. Once that changed, compliance went way up.
 
It won't happen, how would you enforce and question what constitutes an "emergency call"?

I'm all for banning novice drivers, I'm all for curbing texting while driving, but this wouldn't work.

Right now certain media outlets are leading with headlines like "US calls for total ban..." it's totally misleading, it is just a recommendation from the transportation department.


yeah, here is the tid bits

The new recommendation, if adopted by states, would outlaw non-emergency phone calls and texting by operators of every vehicle on the road.
It would not apply to hand-free devices or to passengers.

I would like to see this happen, I do think the hands free, is not much safer.
 
We have texting banned but I've been in other states that have signs saying ALL use is banned in construction zones.

My dad travels a lot for work and has never been allowed to use a handset in a company car, he has a fancy headset and before bluetooth he had some large/weird speaker phone thing, otherwise he'd pull over (his boss is crazy and could just hear if he was on his Blackberry while moving).

It doesn't really matter to me either way I guess.
 
All research I've ever read of found that hands-free setups do not reduce the increased accident risk. Basically, the brain is hardwired to prioritize language tasks, especially talking/writing, so a significantly reduced focus on simultaneous spatial tasks is inevitable. Quite a few countries ban all cell-phone use while driving.

I don't get the emergency exception--why can't you just pull over if you need to make an emergency call?
 
yolland said:
All research I've ever read of found that hands-free setups do not reduce the increased accident risk. Basically, the brain is hardwired to prioritize language tasks, especially talking/writing, so a significantly reduced focus on simultaneous spatial tasks is inevitable. Quite a few countries ban all cell-phone use while driving.

I don't get the emergency exception--why can't you just pull over if you need to make an emergency call?

How does it differ from conversation with a passenger?
 
How does it differ from conversation with a passenger?
That's considered a distraction too, and drivers talking with a passenger are more likely than people driving alone to have accidents, but the increase is much less than with cell phones. Apparently that's because when you're talking with a passenger, the driving conditions effectively become part of the interaction--based on research, conversation tends to subside when the driving gets tricky, the driver talks less than s/he would in a phone conversation, and passengers sometimes even help prevent some of the classic 'cell phone accident' scenarios, such as failing to notice your exit is coming up and winding up veering suddenly out of lane.
 
I know the article's about the US, but it's banned here in Canada (definitely in my province, but I'm pretty sure it's nationwide). A friend got pulled over and got a pretty hefty ticket recently for talking on her phone.

It makes sense to me. I've never talked/texted while driving - it's just too damn distracting.
 
I'd support it, but it's not going to solve anything, because people do all sorts of other types of distracting stuff while driving, from the innocuous (fiddling with the radio, talking with a passenger) to the WTF (eating cereal, putting on makeup, reading the newspaper).
 
Yeah, but that's like saying we shouldn't require seatbelts because people are still going to die in accidents anyway. It's a question of identifying reasonable limitations that should result in significant improvements based on available data.

I've seen students putting on mascara while driving several times. :coocoo: Now that's stupid.
 
It's forbidden in my country, I live in central Europe, and I support the ban. Using a cell phone means a double distraction, a. you need to use your hands, i. e. you don't have the hand on the wheel and b. you are additionally distracted by dealing with the call and the conversation. Only hand-free sets and headsets are allowed in cars. Texting is even worse because you take your eyes of the road in order to be able to see the phone display. In spite of the ban, I see a lot of people still using their phones while driving or while waiting at a red light. I know that police is quite strict; once caught, tickets aren't exactly cheap, but most of the time no one's controlling.
 
We have the full ban here in New Brunswick, Canada. You need to have a hand's free device and NO texting is allowed. I fully support it - I've almost been killed by idiots on their phones who aren't paying attention to the road.

A young man was killed a year ago (before the ban went in) because he was texting while driving. It was a senseless waste of an 18 year-old's life.
 
That's considered a distraction too, and drivers talking with a passenger are more likely than people driving alone to have accidents, but the increase is much less than with cell phones. Apparently that's because when you're talking with a passenger, the driving conditions effectively become part of the interaction--based on research, conversation tends to subside when the driving gets tricky, the driver talks less than s/he would in a phone conversation, and passengers sometimes even help prevent some of the classic 'cell phone accident' scenarios, such as failing to notice your exit is coming up and winding up veering suddenly out of lane.
exactly. i know if i'm the passenger and i see the person driving is about to miss the exit or something, i can be like "oh hey, here's the exit" - i can't do that if i'm on the phone with them. instead i'd just keep blabbing about unimportant shit that can honestly wait until they're in line at starbucks or at the grocery store. :giggle:

for the record, it's illegal in new zealand.
 
As a Libertarian, I usually dislike governement intervention,

but I would agree on this ban.

This is one law I would to see enforced.


Why are these people talking or texting while driving?

Why can't the conversations wait?
 
No, this topic is disturbing to me.

A mite inconsistent.

Why not ban BMW's while were at it?

Their drivers are uniformly the most ignorant, obnoxious, law-breaking, bovine, of all road users. Without exception, BMW drivers are the pigs of the road. They are despicable pig-like creatures in their cheap nylon sales rep shirts and nasty ties, and they deserve to be whacked on the head repeatedly with a stick. And probably, in most cases, deeply unpleasant people in their personal and professional lives also. We all know it.

But, even still, I would not ban them from driving or purchasing their overrated cars.
 
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