Well, I can’t say I didn’t see this one coming.
Chapel Hill, North Carolina puts their note in the tech history books as the first town in the US to completely ban the use of a phone while driving; this includes both hands and hands-free methods. If you’re caught doing it, the fine is $25.
There are, of course, exceptions to the law. If it’s an emergency call, that’s allowed. But for pretty much everything else, nope. Talk on the phone while driving, and you’re twenty-five dollars poorer.
Where did we go wrong with phones and cars?
I don’t think those who developed mobile phones ever thought that the technology would cause so many car accidents, but that’s the way things happened.
What we could have done – but obviously didn’t (or not until it was far too late) – was put into effect some simple education concerning mobile phone use and driving.
Would it have been that hard for phone manufacturers to put a "WARNING: USING THIS DEVICE WHILE DRIVING MAY CAUSE SERIOUS INJURY OR DEATH" sticker on the box the phone came in? Sure, a lot people would have ignored it, but just that little sticker could have probably prevented thousands of accidents. Why? Because it puts the thought of, "Gee.. this big red sticker on the box must mean I should pay attention to what it says." Yes, some people would have paid attention.
Or how about a simple safety guide included with the phone documentation on the dangers of using the phone while driving?
Or how about some multiple-choice questions (even just 3 would do) on driving tests to test whether you know anything about phone safety while driving or not?
Is any of this too difficult to put into effect across the board everywhere? Not at all.
We could have avoided bans like the one in NC, but instead we just waited around until enough people got crunched up by car accidents to actually do anything about it.
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How about a minimum $200 fine to the first mofo caught on a phone or texting!? If you’re too stupid not to realize that it’s dangerous, you’re too stupid to read a warning label.
It seems to me that trying to prove someone was actually talking on the phone by accessing their records will cost more than the actual fine…but that’s not the point with these types of laws.
“[..]Well, when there aren’t enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a
nation of law-abiding citizens? What’s there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt. Now that’s the system, Mr. Reardon,
that’s the game, and once you understand it, you’ll be much easier to deal with.” (‘Atlas Shrugged’ 1957)
A warning label wouldn’t have made any difference, because the mindset of people + cell phones just isn’t the same as, say, smoking (even though it’s apparently just as addicting). Even when presented with the evidence, many still don’t believe it’s dangerous, or at least, not when _they_ do it.
Also, FWIW, the Chapel Hill ban is a secondary violation. I.e., you only get a ticket if you were driving poorly for some other reason while using your cellphone. You won’t get pulled just for using the phone. Which all sounds perfectly reasonable to me.
I personally think it’s inevitable that cars will be required to be equipped with jamming equipment activated when the car is in gear.
I seriously doubt a jamming device will ever come to be in any car, but I can totally see motion-sensitive cell phones roughly doing the same thing. I can see a future where if the phone detects you’re traveling over 7mph (average jogging speed), it will not allow a call to be placed or received (save for 911 calls). The speed can be easily known by existing technology that’s already in every phone – GPS (even if the phone doesn’t have a GPS feature, GPS is there via E911). This means you can walk and talk, but not drive and talk. Problem solved. States mandated well over a decade ago that every new mobile phone sold must have E911 (the only ones that didn’t were “bag phones”, more less), and the motion-sensitive mobile phone would essentially be put into effect the same way. In less than 5 years, nearly all mobile phone users would be on a motion-sensitive phone.
That would work too, but rules out use on most forms of public transportation. Not that that would be all bad either…
That can be overcome by creating zones through the use of short-range beacons directly installed inside buses and trains. If a phone “sees” a beacon, it allows use even when in motion. Wherever the beacon goes, any phone near it is allowed in-motion use. The technology is essentially the same as one of those auto-pay toll booth cards (sorta/kinda used in reverse but you get the idea).
I am annoyed that (in Aust) all the discussions on this topic, bundle texting and talking on a phone, in the same category.
I have no problem with banning a driver for life, if they text whilst driving (in fact I would vote for that law).
However using a hands free phone, or even a phone with it’s speakerphone on, is 50 times less dangerous than texting.
I guarantee that talking on a phone (not in your hand), is less dangerous than using a navigation device.
So before you ban me talking on a phone, ban use of all navigation devices.
Rob (Down Under)
For the past twenty-five years I have been writing letters, and talking to as many as possible on this. You see, I found that we all have three eyes in our heads. We have the right eye, the left eye, and the mind’s eye. While both the left and right eye focus on a subject together, and at the same time, the mind’s eye does not. It tends to focus most on whatever the mind may be thinking about at the moment. It also dedicates much of our body into that focus at times. Unfortunately, while talking on a telephone most of that focus is dedicated entirely to the phone conversation, and nothing else. The telephone isn’t like a 2-way radio. With the radio our mind and body remain focused on what we are
doing, and not the radio. It just isn’t the same with the telephone.
Early on in my writing letters I received many in return thanking me for my concern, but most all telling me that where my idea had merit, there just had not been any studies to support it. However, over the years there have been studies for as long as twenty years that do prove the mind’s eye to be focused on the telephone conversation, and not on driving. This causes many accidents, injuries, and death.
Therefore, when driving a car a person should have three commandments:
1. Never make, or answer a call while driving.
2. Pull off the road and stop to make, or receive a call.
3. If a call is missed by not being able to stop at the moment, find a place to park and
return the call if it is important.
I hear that Chapel Hill is going to ban passengers next. After all, the driver can talk to them. And radios are distracting as well. When NC was talking about building a state zoo, the late Senator Jesse Helms said we had a zoo. Just put a fence around Chapel Hill and charge admission.