I live in Connecticut where the law makes hand held cell phone usage illegal while driving. I drove back from New Hampshire yesterday, passing though New Hampshire (cell phone usage is illegal currently for all drivers), Massachusetts (for all drivers as of 9/30/10) and Connecticut (all drivers) and could not have kept track of the number of people I passed (yes, I exceeded the speed limit and am therefore qualifying my hypocrisy upfront) yapping on their phones. Not only did I pass other drivers distracted by their cell phones, but I passed one woman applying makeup, a man balancing a dip cup and a woman reading a book (all while talking as well). This all happened at some point as I raced (with these and other drivers) south on I-93, I-290, I-90, I-91, I-84 and the US15 (all major highways). As I drove, I wondered how many accidents occur each year as a result of cell phones in the car and why people don't realize they are awful, managing just one task - let alone two.
Think about it. We work on a trading floor where one has to be able to carry on a conversation or typing a Bloomberg/email, while at the same time listening to traders and trades around to us ensure we are not missing a key event or price action. We are, generally, the exception that proves the rule, and I have worked with some people who could barely manage even one of those tasks. If you ask my wife, she does not believe that I can manage more than one task (as I generally ignore her, or so she thinks, while glued to some garbage television unwinding at the end of the day). So, how does Joe or Jane Doe think that while barreling down the interstate that they can manage dual tasks?
A car at 75 miles an hour is a speeding bullet of steel (well mostly aluminum and plastic depending on which brand of Amero-Asian garbage you drive these days). At any given moment you are forced to decide on lane changes, speed differentials and directions, as routes converge and diverge. You, generally, have plenty of time to decide your path and speed but, as we all know, you will also, generally, on a moderate to long trip, find yourself faced with a split decision (forced by someone else who is distracted by something other than driving) which requires your full faculties in avoiding some fender bender, or worse.
So, why throw a cell phone into the mix. Let's be honest, there should be an I.Q. test as part of the driving test, and if there was, most people would fail. I know this would result in taxing an already overburdened mass transit system, if we were to force all the citizens who failed a certain measure of intellect, to hop a bus or train or plane instead of driving. Needless to say the auto manufacturers, and now by extension, the US Government as well, would scream at the impact on car sales and thus jobs and votes from such garden spots as Ohio (my usual unwillingness to pass on a jab at Ohio and its contingent cities like Cleveland). But, until they invent cars which drive on their own (they park on their own now - the effectiveness of which I have not personally witnessed), I remain committed to the thought of eliminating a slew of current drivers, especially those who choose to try to drive and talk (on their cell phones), or better yet text (have you ever been behind one of those idiots?).
I also have to ask why can't one spend the $100 to buy a Bluetooth ear piece or a parrot insert for your car, and what the heck is so important that one needs to be talking on his/her phone and driving? I will guarantee you that those who will say buying a Bluetooth is too expensive (These are the same people who have a 60 inch flat screen in their house. The house which they lied on their application to finance, and which they are now one of the many risking default and further financial consequences). I will also guarantee that these people are discussing such wonderfully inane topics as to make my 7 year old daughter seem like Rhodes Scholar (and that is giving "them" credit as she is pretty darned smart).
Why don't we give law enforcement a real ability to enforce the "no cell phone" law? We could allow for immediate incarceration and huge fines for release and expunging of "driving while handheld talking" records. Think of the benefit to local municipalities, who currently, and notoriously, post end of the month speed traps to ensure a top up of revenues. We could force people caught driving and talking to be "named and shamed in the local papers, forced to share the all important topic of their conversation when pulled over (think how embarrassing that could potentially be). We could also send repeat driver/talkers to cell phone drivers' anonymous or some group therapy session to eliminate and reform their need to talk while steering. [I would not advocate, as a friend of mine does, giving drivers the free pass to shoot drivers using cell phones, as I think guns should be even further up the I.Q, cut off chain].
In the end, why don't people just put the phone down and realize that the amount of carbon emissions from all their yapping is not helping the environment, or the highway.
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