Statewide Ban on Cellphones While Driving

Stupid.

You might as well ban people from talking to the passengers in the car too.

 

I can see where they're coming from.

70-80% of Austin drivers out there are morons.

 

Seems to use the same logic as the smoking ban.

 

I was wondering if this had been posted yet (haven't dipped in this forum much since the election ). Someone had told me that this was going into effect in February, but I couldn't find anything on it. Obviously, it's all speculation right now. Do you guys think this will pass?

 

You could still do hands free.

DD

 

I'm guilty of this but I understand why there is a need for the ban.

 

I am not for this idea, and this is coming from someone who was the procuring cause for an accident while messing with the cell phone. People need to stay off the phone if its for casual use. I don't hold casual conversations on the phone unless im on an open road.

 

Which is more dangerous -- eating while driving or talking on a phone ?

 

Very first sentence in the article...

Some Texas lawmakers are trying to ban drivers from talking on their cell phones while on the road – even if they’re using a hands-free device.

 

I guess I kinda support this. I don't think it's something worth a law necessarily, but damn if I don't constantly see people on the cell phone in their cars trying merge and PAYING NO ATTENTION.

 

My own personal experience is that it's OK. There are many times when I've seen people almost wreck because they were chatting away with the cell phone up to their ear and not paying attention.

I think a blue tooth device should be OK, because that seems no different than talking to a passenger in the car.

 

That was the point I was emphasizing.

I don't see much of a problem with using a hands free or a blue tooth device, to me it isn't much of a distraction.

Is there a ban against getting road head?

There are plenty idiots out on the road these days, and more often than not you see them on their cell phones after they merge right into oncoming traffic going 15 MPH under the flow.

 

How about looking at a map while driving as well ?

 

I just drove 1037 miles from Tucson back to Houston yesterday (with help from the fiancee) and I can safely say that you can get away with doing some pretty interesting stuff while going 90 through the vast nothingness that is West Texas.

 

Anne Hatheway?

 

I think the problem here is that most of the research suggests that what causes people to not pay attention is not the act of holding the phone to your head, but the actual conversation with the other person - which makes sense if you think about it. It's easy to drive with one hand - so holding the phone is not the "distraction". It's getting involved in whatever you're talking about.

So a ban of just the hands-using part, I think, doesn't address the primary cause of the wrecks.

 

if they outlawed texting only I would be satisfied.

they should make the law hands-free like in NY and California.