"Phone In One Hand, Ticket In the Other"

Hugh Pickens writes "The NY Times reports that federal regulators plan a pilot project to test 'high visibility' crackdown efforts to curb cellphone use by drivers in two cities, Hartford and Syracuse, spending $200,000 in each city, while each state would contribute $100,000 more. The Transportation Department says it wants to send the message: 'Phone in One Hand. Ticket in the Other,' and plans on ramping up enforcement on state bans of hands-free phones by motorists, advertising the campaigns and undertaking studies to see if the efforts curb behavior and attitudes. Safety advocates say that curbing the behavior requires enforcement and education, which they say has been clearly evident in past efforts with seat belts with the 'Click It or Ticket Program' (PDF) that helped increase seat belt use to 83% nationally. 'It's time for drivers to act responsibly, put their hands on the wheel and focus on the road,' says Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, who last year called distracted driving an 'epidemic.'"

Comments

Re:Or...

[drinkypoo]

Put the money toward a decent public transit system so people don't have to choose between keeping in touch and traveling.

This is a good idea. The rest of your comment is silly. The difficulty of proving that some jerkoff crashed because they were talking to their cubicle mate about the former night's American Idol "results" is the reason we have no-handheld-cells-while-driving laws. So keep the cell phone laws, but put the funds towards public transportation. Maybe jack up the fine while we're at it, so there will be enough money to accomplish something.

Re:Ummmm.

[Atario]

Guess what else. Having passengers in the car and conversing with them is the exact equivalent of talking hands-free. Are we going to ban talking with one's passengers next?

Before the inevitable response comes of "but the people in the car with you see what's happening and stop talking when you need to pay attention to driving": Apparently, your passengers are way more attentive (and considerate) than mine.