Slashdot Mirror
State Bans Texting While Driving
netbuzz writes "The state of Washington yesterday became the first in the nation to ban text-messaging while driving. The law could use sharper teeth, but it's a natural and necessary progression of the movement to clamp down on those who find the need to constantly communicate more important than the safety of their fellow travelers."
Whatever happened to common sense?
-b.
That there was a need for the State ban such moronic behaviour in the first place.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
He said a long time ago we have to get rid of the keyboard. He STILL hasn't done it. Dammit, Bill, or billg, or whatever you want to be called, because you didn't get rid of the keyboard all these nice people are going to jail. Oooooh, I could pinch you!
I keed. I keed.
If Nalgene water bottles are outlawed, only outlaws will have Nalgene water bottles.
how exactly are they going to know if you are texting? there are just about a hundred million things you can do with modern phones these days. what about taking videos/pictures/checking your voicemail/dialing/etc. etc.
all of these things require typing stuff in your phone, right?
This reminds me of the time I got a free dashboard sun-shade at Road Atlanta one year. (These are the accordion-fold things you sit on the dash and stretch out across the entire windshield to help keep the sun from getting the interior of your car too hot in the summer).
It had a safety label: "Do not drive with sun shade in place!"
The law could use sharper teeth, but it's a natural and necessary progression of the movement to clamp down on those who find the need to constantly communicate more important than the safety of their fellow travelers."
Nonsense. There are already laws on the books which deal specifically with driver inattention. They have been there for some sixty or seventy years.
Why is it that anything involving a cel phone demands a special law prohibiting it? It's all feeling rather moralistic.
Tell you what, I'll let you ban cel phones in cars if you'll also ban coffee, donuts, makeup, radios, small children, pets, smoking, chewing tobacco, notepads, newspapers, and passengers, all of which can distract a driver.
Once every car contains only one hermetically sealed individual we should be 100% safe.
Three Squirrels
This is just more liberal do-gooding and interference with our everyday lives. This is by the same people who want to ban smoking, force our kids to learn junk science, and stifle honest American toil.
We can only pray, before these nannying socialists force us to use inferior and dangerous operating systems.
I am guilty of the offense and I also believe it's a potentially deadly and definitely stupid thing to do.
Sure, texting while driving using today's technology is pretty stupid. It takes forever, and it definitely distracts from the road.
But... this law probably doesn't specifically ban "text messaging on a hand-held cellular telephone using a numberpad based text input method", instead it probably bans all text messaging while driving. I'm sure some of you will say that "anything that distracts from the road is unacceptably dangerous, I'm willing to trade your freedom to use new technologies in the future for a warm feeling of safety now". Well - I'm never willing to make that trade. I can think of a number of interfaces that would make text messaging way safer than a kid in the back seat, and I don't need to have my ability to use that technology nanny-stated away today.
-- The act of censorship is always worse than whatever is being censored. Always.
Most people come up with the non-excuse "I've never had an accident, I'm a good driver". Remember whilst this may be true,the person in front of you may be an awful driver, so you will need to apply your full attention at all times.
"I am not bound to please thee with my answers" [William Shakespeare]
In Europe, it has been forbidden for years to use a cellular for text messaging or calling while driving.
According to wikipedia, Israel, Japan, Portugal and Singapore all prohibit mobile phone use while driving.
Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, the Philippines, Romania, Slovenia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom require the use of a hands-free kit.
1. Using a cellphone and/or texting is far more dangerous than drinking a cup of coffee. People have done research into this - these devices are just about as dangerous as being legally drunk. We don't ban coffee drinking in cars because while a small minority becomes a hazard while drinking it, EVERYONE is a hazard when using their phone. See #3.
2. We had reckless driving laws already, but we still passed impaired driving laws. Why? Because it's a lot harder to automatically say "hey, he's texting, he's reckless". With a law like this, there are no ifs, ands, or buts. No defense. You're caught, you pay. No "but really, Sir Judge, I'm not actually a reckless driver when I text" (which, incidentally, is how people used to get out of impaired driving charges - until we made a law specifically for the behaviour).
3. To those that honestly and truly believe THEY are safe drivers when using a cellphone and/or texting, please, just stay off the damn road. I've been nearly hit by you far too often.
4. It's about damn time we started seeing laws like this. Of course we shouldn't need them, but in my experience 90% of the bad drivers on the road are either yakking on their phone, or texting, or in some cases both. Seriously, how hard is it to just (GASP!) go without talking to your sister for a few minutes? We invented voicemail for a reason!
Endless arguments over trivial contradictions in books written by ignorant savages to explain thunder in the dark.
Frankfort, KY - Kentucky deputy director of the Department of Motor Vehicles, Melvin P. Snitzonpants has announced a new program to stop drivers from chewing their toenails, making love and shoving coins up their noses while driving.
"It's a serious problem." Snitzonpants said yesterday. "We have people weaving all over the road while they chew their toenails, make love and shove coins up their nose."
The new program would see a $15 fine be levied, as well as a stern lecture by a state patrol officer. "We feel that we have to make it absolutely clear that you can't chew your toenails, make and shove coins up your nose while operating a motorvehicle." Snitzonpants commented.
When asked why this doesn't come under existing dangerous driving laws, Snitzonpants merely shrugged and said, "This is different. Have you actually seen someone chewing their toenails, making love and shoving coins up their nose when they're coming at you. It's a terrible thing."
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Jeff Gordon, is that you?
I come here for the love
If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
I have done it, many times. I read blogs, email, etc. on my phone, studied for tests, read magazines, and so forth while driving too. I even change clothes -- everything except my boxers -- while driving. I've done so regularly for years. And how many accidents have I had?
Zero.
It comes down to prioritization and common sense. I didn't say I read *efficiently* while driving -- I certainly don't operate anywhere nearly as quickly on my reading/writing/etc. while driving as I do when I'm not engaged in driving. I check the road ahead of me and to the sides once every second or two, then glance down at my text to be read, get a line or sentence, then look up again at traffic while I process that line/sentence. I don't do these things at all in severely-inclement weather: snow, ice, heavy rain, high winds. Nor do I do them in situations where traffic conditions are changing rapidly: at high speed with lots of merging traffic, in crowded downtown streets with lots of pedestrians, along twisty mountain roads, etc.. I do it primarily in bumper-to-bumper, stop-and-go, sub-10 mi/hour traffic where, if an accident were to occur, it almost certainly would not be serious.
The simple fact is that we are not all created equal and we do not all evolve equally-fast or in the same directions. Some people are competent to perform actions which are dangerous if managed poorly, while others are not. I'm not competent to do something as dangerous as landing an airplane -- but plenty of trained pilots are; the mentally insane (as the VA Tech shootings exemplified) are not competent to use firearms safely, and nor are (IMO) people convicted of any violent crimes - but most other people are, or would be with sufficient training & education.
A better approach, rather than banning an activity outright, would be to test an individual's competence to perform the activity. An outright ban is too broad and inspecific; it has all the surgical precision of the Bush administration's "it's for national security" argument used to justify its actions...
Is Capitalism Good for the Poor?
Here's why it sucks. Washington also just passed a law banning talking on cell phones while driving. This law, you can get pulled over if an officer sees you talking with the phone up to your ear, in other words it's a primary offense. This means if you're looking ahead, and actually can drive while talking, you'll get a big fat ticket.
The texting while driving bill makes texting while driving a SECONDARY offense. This means if you are looking down at your phone, typing out a message, NOT LOOKING AHEAD, you CANNOT get pulled over! You can only get ticketed if you've been pulled over for another offense.
So what message is Washington state trying to send here? It's NOT okay to look ahead at the road while on the phone, but it IS okay to send a text message and look at the screen instead of the road, so long as you're not swirving. Never mind the HUGE increased risk of accident.
I expect texting while driving to increase here pretty soon.