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Cell Phone while driving

Do you support a ban on cell phones while driving?

  • Yes, I support the ban

    Votes: 21 52.5%

  • No, I do not support the ban

    Votes: 19 47.5%
  • Total voters
    40
  • Poll closed .
creativedreams

creativedreams

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Do you believe there should be a ban on cell phones while driving?
If this is done then fast food drive-ups should be banned because eating while driving is on the same plane (level).

This coincides with my belief of the "evolution of laws and the snowball effect"!
 
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Yes cell phone use while driving should be banned. Acording to studies that I have seen it makes a teen driver drive as bad as a 60 year old.

And yes eating while driving should be banned also. Whenever I go to a fast food resturant like BK I will go park the car while I eat or wait until I get home to eat.

While driving your whole attention should be on driving. Not on anything else.
 
The option I would choose is not there. Driving while using a cell phone should be banned unless you are using a hands free device. In several states (including mine) you will get ticketed if you are caught talking on a cell without being hands free.
 
Kal'Stang said:
Yes cell phone use while driving should be banned. Acording to studies that I have seen it makes a teen driver drive as bad as a 60 year old.
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I would support banning all cell phone use while driving if we also ban all those over the age of 60 from driving.

And yes eating while driving should be banned also. Whenever I go to a fast food resturant like BK I will go park the car while I eat or wait until I get home to eat.

While driving your whole attention should be on driving. Not on anything else.
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The problem here is that you would need to eliminate so many other things. No radio while driving. No conversations with passengers while driving. No driving while you are tired (studies show that extreme exhaustion is just as bad as driving while intoxicated). To me, anything that takes your hands off the wheel should be grounds for a violation. Anything else, no.
 
I put 40K to 50K miles a year on my work vehicle and 2000 to 3000 minutes a month on my cell phone talking to customers as I drive around town. Obviously, these two activities overlap.

The first and last time I caused an accident was in 1987, long before cell phones were invented, when I ran a stop sign and got broadsided.

So, tell me again why using a cell phone while driving should be banned?

Oh, I remember: The state budget is in the red so they have to conjure some new "crimes" into existence so they can balance their budget on the backs of honest workingmen who are just trying to do their jobs. That was it!
 
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Onion Eater said:
I put 40K to 50K miles a year on my work vehicle and 2000 to 3000 minutes a month on my cell phone talking to customers as I drive around town. Obviously, these two activities overlap.

The first and last time I caused an accident was in 1987, long before cell phones were invented, when I ran a stop sign and got broadsided.

So, tell me again why using a cell phone while driving should be banned?

Oh, I remember: The state budget is in the red so they have to conjure some new "crimes" into existence so they can balance their budget on the backs of honest workingmen who are just trying to do their jobs. That was it!
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Although I neither drive as much as you, nor use as many minutes, I too drive and talk on my cell with work related issues, often. Due to time constraints, it is necessary. So far, I have never gotten into an accident nor a ticket when using my cell.

I do believe, however, that anything that occupies your hands and takes them off the wheel, is dangerous and should be cause for a violation. Hands free is a must.
 
Eh. Cell phones are just an underlying issue. The real cause is distractions. That includes eating, changing radio stations, kids...the list goes on and on.
 
If I need to make or receive a call on the cell when driving, I pull over to the side of the road and talk. It is too dangerous to talk and drive at the same time, especially in the crowded urban environment where I live.
 
obvious Child said:
Eh. Cell phones are just an underlying issue. The real cause is distractions. That includes eating, changing radio stations, kids...the list goes on and on.
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Talking on a cell phone has been shown to be more of a distraction. I can push a button on my car radio, ear a burger, whatever and it uses absolutely NONE of my attention. I don't have to think about it. However, carrying on a conversation on a cell phone required you to focus on the conversation, taking a significant amount of attention from the road. The stupid things I see people do while talking on cell phones has convinced me that the ban in place in Taiwan (though inadequately enforced) is needed.
 
ludahai said:
Talking on a cell phone has been shown to be more of a distraction. I can push a button on my car radio, ear a burger, whatever and it uses absolutely NONE of my attention. I don't have to think about it. However, carrying on a conversation on a cell phone required you to focus on the conversation, taking a significant amount of attention from the road. The stupid things I see people do while talking on cell phones has convinced me that the ban in place in Taiwan (though inadequately enforced) is needed.
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how to you put a burger in your ear? :shock:
 
ludahai said:
Talking on a cell phone has been shown to be more of a distraction. I can push a button on my car radio, ear a burger, whatever and it uses absolutely NONE of my attention. I don't have to think about it. However, carrying on a conversation on a cell phone required you to focus on the conversation, taking a significant amount of attention from the road. The stupid things I see people do while talking on cell phones has convinced me that the ban in place in Taiwan (though inadequately enforced) is needed.
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I agree but it has not been shown that cell phones are any worse than some other distractions.

As for the worst distraction...

Chatting to passengers is the greatest source of driver distraction - worse than using new technologies such as iPods, DVDs and car navigation systems. - Passengers worst driving distraction - drive.com.au

PS I voted yes as driving is a privilege, not a right.
 
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CaptainCourtesy said:
Although I neither drive as much as you, nor use as many minutes, I too drive and talk on my cell with work related issues, often. Due to time constraints, it is necessary. So far, I have never gotten into an accident nor a ticket when using my cell.

I do believe, however, that anything that occupies your hands and takes them off the wheel, is dangerous and should be cause for a violation. Hands free is a must.
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Why do you believe that? By your own account, you've never had an accident.

This is a point that I've made elsewhere. I trust only in what I see with my own eyes.

Onion Eater said:
In sharp contrast to your videos, the following ones show uniformed IDF soldiers using human shields. The frame in the first video where the boy is at the door and the soldiers are sighting their rifles over his shoulder really doesn't need a narrator to explain it for us. Similarly, in the second video, the boys sitting on the hood of the Humvee aren't there because their feet are tired.

Unlike in your videos, we are not asked to trust an anonymous narrator or an anonymous translator. We are only asked to trust our own eyes.

YouTube - IDF using Human Shield

YouTube - Israeli IDF commander uses Palestinian Human Shields
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living in a rural setting, I don't think this law is necessary and is why we need to allow local government greater control of laws and regulations.
 
CaptainCourtesy said:
The option I would choose is not there. Driving while using a cell phone should be banned unless you are using a hands free device. In several states (including mine) you will get ticketed if you are caught talking on a cell without being hands free.
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Hands free devices are no help. They have the same degree of distraction.
 
CaptainCourtesy said:
Although I neither drive as much as you, nor use as many minutes, I too drive and talk on my cell with work related issues, often. Due to time constraints, it is necessary. So far, I have never gotten into an accident nor a ticket when using my cell.

I do believe, however, that anything that occupies your hands and takes them off the wheel, is dangerous and should be cause for a violation. Hands free is a must.
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Gee...I wonder what in the world people that worked before cell phones ever did! :roll:

In other words why not make the time? Are those buisness deals really worth a life?
 
ludahai said:
If I need to make or receive a call on the cell when driving, I pull over to the side of the road and talk. It is too dangerous to talk and drive at the same time, especially in the crowded urban environment where I live.
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The smart way of doing things. Thank you for your consideration to not only yourself but to other drivers. :2wave:
 
CaptainCourtesy said:
The option I would choose is not there. Driving while using a cell phone should be banned unless you are using a hands free device. In several states (including mine) you will get ticketed if you are caught talking on a cell without being hands free.
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I think studies have shown that holding the phone is not the problem. There is no significant difference between holding the phone while talking and using a hands free device. It's concentrating on the conversation that causes the distraction.
 
Is having a cell phone pressed to your ear while behind the wheel the equivalent of driving while intoxicated? According to a study by University of Utah psychologists, the answer is, unfortunately, yes.

"Just like you put yourself and other people at risk when you drive drunk, you put yourself and others at risk when you use a cell phone and drive," writes David Strayer, a psychology professor and the study's lead author. "The level of impairment is very similar."

The study, published in the June 29 issue of Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, found that drivers talking on cell phones, either handheld or hands-free, are more likely to crash because they are distracted by conversation.

Using a driving simulator under four different conditions: with no distractions, using a handheld cell phone, talking on a hands-free cell phone, and while intoxicated to the 0.08 percent blood-alcohol level, 40 participants followed a simulated pace car that braked intermittently.

Researchers found that the drivers on cell phones drove more slowly, braked more slowly and were more likely to crash. In fact, the three participants who collided into the pace car were chatting away. None of the drunken drivers crashed.

"This study does not mean people should start driving drunk," said co-author Frank Drews. "It means that driving while talking on a cell phone is as bad as or maybe worse than driving drunk, which is completely unacceptable and cannot be tolerated by society."

Preliminary results from the study were announced three years ago.
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Cell phones as dangerous as drunk driving

If we don't allow drunk driving why should we allow using cell phones while driving? Hands free or not?
 
TOJ said:
I think studies have shown that holding the phone is not the problem. There is no significant difference between holding the phone while talking and using a hands free device. It's concentrating on the conversation that causes the distraction.
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it is a little more complicated then that because you can have conversations with passengers and not have the same level of incidents.
 
Everyone car pool and don't talk! :mrgreen:
 
ARealConservative said:
it is a little more complicated then that because you can have conversations with passengers and not have the same level of incidents.
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I was only commenting on the studies comparing hands free vs non-hands free.
 
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