Driving while on cell phone?

pjhawks

it's crazy how cavalier some people are behind the wheel. I guess being inside a car makes them seem invincible. can't believe anyone can ever defend being on the phone in the car.

and people with their cell phones and taking selfies has become ridiculous. saw 2 different couples on Saturday night in a local bar taking selfies. do you really need to take a pictures of having a beer in a local fucking bar?

Go Beavers

There's always a lag for morals to catch up to new technology, and cell phone use in the car is a good example of this. While most everyone understands intellectually, that texting and driving is dangerous, it's with talking on the phone and driving that you get the whole range of opinions and behavior. It's also confusing because depending on what state your in, you can blab away with no restrictions, some have hands free only laws, some ban any cell use with "novice drivers", and some states it's still legal to text and drive. This confuses the issue, because the actual distraction is having a conversation with someone who's not in the car. The brain uses up space reserved to create visual images when in a conversation with someone. When you're not using this brain power to focus on the road, your brain doesn't see things. Also, auto makers aren't helping by having all the distracting technology integrated into the car. This and the mix of laws suggests to people that being on the phone while driving is fine.

brianlux

Go Beavers said:

There's always a lag for morals to catch up to new technology, and cell phone use in the car is a good example of this. While most everyone understands intellectually, that texting and driving is dangerous, it's with talking on the phone and driving that you get the whole range of opinions and behavior. It's also confusing because depending on what state your in, you can blab away with no restrictions, some have hands free only laws, some ban any cell use with "novice drivers", and some states it's still legal to text and drive. This confuses the issue, because the actual distraction is having a conversation with someone who's not in the car. The brain uses up space reserved to create visual images when in a conversation with someone. When you're not using this brain power to focus on the road, your brain doesn't see things. Also, auto makers aren't helping by having all the distracting technology integrated into the car. This and the mix of laws suggests to people that being on the phone while driving is fine.

That's an interesting observation, Go Beavers. I found the chart in the link that follows and it does, indeed, show that the laws vary state by state. My home state, California, has some of the most restrictive laws and yet on my short commute to work in a semi-rural area it is not at all difficult to spot people talking on their cell phones or texting. When I occasionally drive down to the greater Sacramento metropolitan area it is very easy to spot people on their cell phones. So this brings into the picture another factor: enforcement of the cell phone laws... or lack of enforcement.

http://www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html