Cell Phones and driving

[alohabear]

Rep. Joe Souki's bill to ban use of hand held cellular phones while driving is slowly making it's way through the House. It would make using a hand held cell while driving a crime( except for emergencies)punishable with a$200 fine.

In my opinion like the couqi frog.... it's a loss cause.... an unenforceable law.

How do feel about this?

[1stwahine]

Re: Cell Phones and driving

Unlike the Couqi Frogs and Dog and Cat our Legislators busied themselves with just a few weeks ago...this one is much more sensible on spending time with. I know of several persons who have the habit of using their cell phones while in their car driving and are lucky not to have caused an accident. An automobile can be a weapon when not used properly and carelessness is the top of the list as to why? Being distracted.

Yep, I hope them fools past this one!

[pzarquon]

Re: Cell Phones and driving

Unenforcable? Maybe, but it certainly adds a strong disincentive considering the implications of what might happen if you actually get into a wreck while yakking. Before you're just being an idiot, probably negligent. After, both the criminal and civil systems will have much sharper teeth.

I can see where this kind of law is misguided, since talking on the phone while driving is, for many, no more distracting than having an animated conversation with a passenger, or listening to trunk-rattling crap music, and certainly the "slipperly slope" angle would have us required to drive in complete silence with our hands at 10-and-2. On the other hand, it seems an inordinate proportion of the "dumbass things" I've seen on the road lately are definitely related to DWY. Someone I know (I won't name names) has actually been known to lean out and yell, "Hang up and drive!"

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Cell Phones and driving

My wife had to do a position paper on a topic so she chose cell-phones as a distraction while driving. This was done about a couple of years ago and the data she pulled was amazing!

The data found that there were more accidents on rural roads than in city roads when a driver was using a cell phone. The reason? The brain tends to selectively focus on more critical judgements in it's attempt to rationalize sensory input. In the city, external stimuli is greater simply because there's a lot to be aware of: traffic lights, intersections, a multitude of specific lanes, walk lights, and lots of other cars. In a rural setting it's pretty much a two lane road, lots of gravel and an occasional road-kill on the side.

With less external stimuli to focus on in a rural setting, the brain will gravitate towards the more strenuous thought processes: dialing that stupid number on your cell phone, finding that FM station that plays oldies, figuring out which button on your new Ford is the cruise control.

In the city the brain is forced to focus on driving safely as opposed to driving on a deserted or rural road.

Then you have those exceptions like the tiny woman driving a Cadillac Escalade trying to cater her son's first birthday on her cell phone while driving down Kapiolani BLVD Ewa bound and obliviously trying to make a left onto Keeaumoku and wondering in the back of her mind between shoyu chicken or Korean chicken, why cars are barrelling straight down at her in her lane never once considering the contra-flow traffic cones on her passenger side.

Okay...in a rural setting she would have had her entire party catered within a quarter mile run. In the city a normal person on a cell would be ordering a full on carnivore platter for a vegetarian convention. The mind focuses on the more important things. In the city it's driving safely, in the country, it's avoiding that swollen mongoose that got whacked from the other driver on his cell phone.

Using hands free accessories aren't the answer, because it's not the dialing that causes the distraction, it's the conversations that cause it. Really, if you're gonna put restrictions on cell phone use while driving, it really should be a total restriction on the use of a cell phone while operating a motor vehicle. Like drunk driving. It's not the act of drinking a beverage that causes an accident. Alcohol diminishes the brain's abilty to think and focus on the road ahead. Same holds true for those who cannot hold a conversation and drive. You've heard them: Don't talk to me while I'm driving, I can't concentrate on the road!! The sign above the and behind the bus driver tells all passengers not to talk to the bus driver while he or she is driving it. Distractions.

Now comes the reality...some people are polycronic and some are monocronic. Any restriction is a bias against polycronic people and guess what? Women are found to be better at multi-tasking than men, so restrictions on cell phone use would statistically be biased more so against men than women making that unconstitutional.

So in conclusion...(let me put on my raincoat to protect me from the foray of tomatoes flung from pro cell phone banners) any restriction on cell phone use while driving a motor vehicle is unconstitutional and therefore I cannot support any ban on cell phone use simply because I'm a guy and if a ban is put in place, it forces men across this beloved country of ours to dress in drag for the simple desire to drive and talk, something women tend to do often to their male counterparts which results in the autonomic nodding of the head and the muttering of: uh huh, uh huh, while being totally engrossed in the batting average of Pete Rose's final season before being kicked out of baseball for gambling, meanwhile agreeing to purchase a Dodge Durango in Fuscia instead black...the only color meant to go on a hemi powered vehicle that exudes testosterone!

Yeah...no ban please, I don't think I can drive my BMW in high heels.

[1stwahine]

Re: Cell Phones and driving

"Yeah...no ban please, I don't think I can drive my BMW in high heels."

You are so funny!

[808blogger]

Re: Cell Phones and driving

Unlike the Couqi Frogs and Dog and Cat our Legislators busied themselves with just a few weeks ago...this one is much more sensible on spending time with. I know of several persons who have the habit of using their cell phones while in their car driving and are lucky not to have caused an accident. An automobile can be a weapon when not used properly and carelessness is the top of the list as to why? Being distracted.

Yep, I hope them fools past this one!

well then we better ban eating hamburgers in the car, playing with the radio, drinking anything, and ANY OTHER ACTIVITY that takes 2 hands off of the wheel....... infact lets make it a law that removing 2 hands from the wheel a crime. infact.... lets make it a law that you must have your hands @ 10 and 2 on the wheel at all times.....

you have got to be kidding me. This is just liberal propaganda....
no cell phones while driving.... but of course hands free devices are ok right?
well than what is the difference.... no i will be on hands free eating my whopper with one hand!!!! ha! dont fall for the propoganda........

2 hands on the wheel at all times or have your license revoked by your friends in the big square building......

That would stop all accidents from hapening ever right!!!!?????

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
liberals........ SHEESHHH

[Kilinahe]

Re: Cell Phones and driving

I'm sorry; I must be dense. What is so "liberal" about banning hand-held cell phones? Only "liberals" want that? Care to provide any data?

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Cell Phones and driving

Kilinahe, I think 808blogger must think that "liberal" is the opposite of "libertarian".

[808blogger]

Re: Cell Phones and driving

I'm sorry; I must be dense. What is so "liberal" about banning hand-held cell phones? Only "liberals" want that? Care to provide any data?

yes LIBERALS, think the government knows best and must enact laws to protect us from ourselves. Hence no driving while using cell phones is a liberal plan.

[Kilinahe]

Re: Cell Phones and driving

Oh, I see. So it's "liberals" who have enacted draconian drug laws (if you put down your Ann Coulter book and pick up a dictionary, you can find out what that word means) and want the supreme court to overturn Roe v. Wade. How silly of me.

[808blogger]

Re: Cell Phones and driving

Oh, I see. So it's "liberals" who have enacted draconian drug laws (if you put down your Ann Coulter book and pick up a dictionary, you can find out what that word means) and want the supreme court to overturn Roe v. Wade. How silly of me.

I cannot account for the modern "NEOCONS" that are sort of conservatives that like to use liberal tactics on social issues. I completely disagree with them....
Many MANY conservatives think that our drug laws are wrong ( i am one of them) I would rather speak in terms of classical constitutional conservation. Now you bring up and intersting issue OFF TOPIC but interesting.... DISCLAIMER: I am prochoice.
however as far as a true conservative position on R V wade... There is nothing in the constitution re: abortion. Just like gay marriage. These are issues to left up the individual states to decide. Not the Jusrisdiction of the federal government. So many people want the federal government to intervine on so many issues that have nothing to do with the federal government.... and this over time has led to the decreasing rights of states to create there own legislation.



and I do not read nor own any Ann Coulter books.

[1stwahine]

Re: Cell Phones and driving

RING! RING! Hello? Uuhh, No, Kimo is not here. No, it's not boring...it's getting pretty intense. Komo mai, come, join the fun. Miulangs back. today, dey talking liberials, conservatives li dat. I no undastand dat kine so I stay away from da topic. If you see kIMO, tell um come back already. tanks yeah? Horn: beep beep Oh! No! Crash! Stupid cell. ring ring. yeah, yeah, call back lata, just banged my car. Shut-up...(throws cell phone out the window).

Love ya' all,
Auntie Lynn

[pzarquon]

Re: Cell Phones and driving

808, it's good to have another conservative voice on the board, and I think everyone here enjoys a spirited debate. Just be careful to not fall into the same instinctive trap that sadly ensnares... some of your ideological colleagues, which is simply branding any position on any issue opposite to yours as that of the slimy, dirty, leftist liberal.

After all, there are some Republicans for this kind of ban, just as there are some Democrats against them. Even locally, even on the hot, divisive issue of light rail and mass transit, there are divisions within parties. From what I've heard, it's actually been surprising to some legislators when they hear their own same-party friends take a differing view. The fact of the matter is, people are not two dimensional. I've got some opinions that make my hardcore liberal friends shudder.

I'm open to different opinions, and just playing Hatfields and McCoys won't educate, or entertain, anyone.

I'll try not to counter every assertion of yours as that of a lockstep conservative, if you can grant the same courtesy. Besides, I'll call myself a dirty leftist liberal for you if it's called for!

[pzarquon]

Re: Cell Phones and driving

Pressing the reset button here...

So, in the crosswalk law thread, Pomai asked about the status of the cell phone driving ban law that was proposed a while back. Well, it was shelved last April.

But the last update I found was this one last month from KGMB:

Supporters of banning cell phones for drivers in Hawaii may have received a boost from a key senator who buried a similar bill in her committee last year... we had that serious accident with the people text messaging as they were driving, so this time I believe if it makes it to the judiciary, we will hear the bill," said Sen. Colleen Hanabusa, Judiciary Committee Chairwoman.

Here's the bill: HB1805. And here's its status page. I guess it's still sitting in the Judiciary Committee. Any legislature watchers know how this bill is faring? Crossover is Thursday.

The questions remain:

• Is this law enforcable in any practical way?
• Will its passage at least lead to stiffer civil and criminal penalties in accidents where cell phone use is cited as an aggravating circumstance?
• Are hands-free devices any better than handheld phones in terms of the level of distraction caused? Studies have shown they're still significant distractions.
• Is it reasonable to single out cell phone use, when lots of other activities engaged in by drivers are just as, or even more, distracting? From an excited conversation to reading a book to putting on make-up, what a driver is doing seems less important than the fact that the driver is doing anything besides driving.

[mel]

Re: Cell Phones and driving

The Feb. 16 date on the last action taken is a good indication that the bill is dead. The bill did not get a third reading vote in the House yesterday. Maybe it is on the calendar for tomorrow, but most bills crossed yesterday.