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While driving, the use of cell phones should be banned !!!

ron7624

ron7624

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Oct 14, 2011
2,228
437
Houston, Texas area
:mad:
I just got off of a 3 lane country road just outside of Houston, Texas. The middle lane is a safety/turn lane. Speed limit is 60mph. Signs all along the 9 mile stretch prohibiting passing and lots of curves so you can't see for more than 3/4 of a mile.
So 2 miles out side of the town, I see a stretch of 3 pickups going my direction and as I catch up I'm throttled to 45. I follow at 45 for 7 miles. Not late for anything, but I just bought a new bass guitar and wanted to get home to plug it in my amp.
7 miles later, we all then make a turn onto a modern highway- with 5 more cars behind me by now and after following a bit, one of the vehicles in front roars around the driver on her right and she then puts her blinker on and moves right going about 30.
Needless to say, as I pass, I see that she's got a cell phone to her ear and she is oblivious to the world around her. This is a young woman. Gurrrrrrrr
Thx, I feel better now.
The bass sounds great.:cool:
 
Last edited:
Cell phones suck! Everyone likes to pretend they have a sense of self-importance.

Is the World any better with cell phones? No. Are you happier than you were without a cell phone? I doubt.

I have a tracfone that I am going to let expire.

When I go out I enjoy my freedom. My wife doesn't have to know where I am every second of the day! That's why I started leaving it at home, but my wife, "You forgot your cell phone!"
 
Cell phones are not the problem. They are quite useful, and could be considered emergency equipment.

The problem is the user, not the device.



Now let's see how long before this turns into a gun thread...
 
U are right. It is the user - but it is always the case the slow person in the left lane is gabbing, not driving. I love my tech. I love cell phones - but mainly for the data - and it is equally as many men as women. Today just happened to be a young girl but old men are just as bad. This problem knows no boundaries. :(
 
Shrink said:
Cell phones are not the problem. They are quite useful, and could be considered emergency equipment.

The problem is the user, not the device.



Now let's see how long before this turns into a gun thread...
Click to expand...

Indeed, this has the ring of truth...

Meister said:
People should be banned.
Click to expand...

Um. Perhaps, this might be regarded as a little - ah - over-stated?

To the OP: Actually, (clears throat) I have a question. Is your complaint with cell phones per se, or with the people who use (abuse) them, or, with the people who insist on their right to use them while driving? A question inspired by the fact that, of course, although we descendants of apes will claim to have mastered multi-tasking, I still harbour dark doubts that one can drive safely while attempting to concentrate on what is doubtless, a deeply meaningful conversation on a cell phone…...
 
Scepticalscribe said:
Indeed, this has the ring of truth...



Um. Perhaps, this might be regarded as a little - ah - over-stated?

To the OP: Actually, (clears throat) I have a question. Is your complaint with cell phones per se, or with the people who use (abuse) them, or, with the people who insist on their right to use them while driving? A question inspired by the fact that, of course, although we descendants of apes will claim to have mastered multi-tasking, I still harbour dark doubts that one can drive safely while attempting to concentrate on what is doubtless, a deeply meaningful conversation on a cell phone…...
Click to expand...

I don't have a real answer for you.... I was just grumbling cause this mindless rude person chose to be a mindless rude person. I have a 92 mile round trip that I make to work every day and I often see people talking on the phone while in the fast lane holding up traffic. I do not think laws regulating that usage would do any good, besides we have enough government in our lives.
Maybe the answer is C. The people that insist that they have a right to use cell phones while driving because surely they've noticed what they have done after the conversation is over but don't care.
 
Mobile phones are banned while driving here and quite a few other places, hopefully everywhere will do the same soon.
 
Frisco said:
Is the World any better with cell phones? No.
Click to expand...

Yes, for more reasons than I can list, but this is the basic gist of it.

I can go out and if people want to reach me and make plans they can. I'm not stuck sitting at home waiting for someone to call me and make a plan. I don't need to have every aspect of a meet up planned to a T because it's easy for us two people to communicate with each other at whim.

A cell phone allows me to keep and touch and make plans without making a plan.

Improving the ease of communication has historically made people's lives much better. That's why we invented the semaphore, telegraphs, telephones because fast communication is valuable to people.

If you want to claim that cellphones don't make people's lives better you're just being a curmudgeon, not clever.

Can cell phones have their downside, is it sometimes good to put them down and walk away from them? Certainly but don't act like they haven't improved many aspects of people's lives.
 
Scepticalscribe said:
To the OP: Actually, (clears throat) I have a question. Is your complaint with cell phones per se, or with the people who use (abuse) them, or, with the people who insist on their right to use them while driving? A question inspired by the fact that, of course, although we descendants of apes will claim to have mastered multi-tasking, I still harbour dark doubts that one can drive safely while attempting to concentrate on what is doubtless, a deeply meaningful conversation on a cell phone…... [/SIZE][/FONT]
Click to expand...

Though there seems to have been something edited out, it speaks to the real issue here. People do believe they can do more than one thing at a time. Well, they can, but not efficiently. One of my pet peeves is people listening to something while working. You can't give 100% of your attention to your job if you have something else in your ear. It's just not possible. Whatever part of your brain is occupied by the music, news report, talk radio, brain teaser or even commercials cannot also focus on the task at hand. Those buds in your ears, unless they are for protection from noise, are in fact a distraction. It is simply not true that "some people work better if they have music playing in the background". People only want this to be true, but the desire does not make it a reality.
 
Not that I'm condoning that driver's actions, but at least she wasn't trying to do 20 over the limit and passing where it was illegal while gabbing on the phone.
 
Shrink said:
Cell phones are not the problem. They are quite useful, and could be considered emergency equipment.

The problem is the user, not the device.
Click to expand...

Love that, so true.

My buddy in college was addicted to playing games and fooling around with his smartphone whenever he could - sneak it in class, during work, and whenever we were out. Luckily he noticed his own problem (and I can't remember as it was 4 years ago, but I think a water incident may have been involved) and got a $10 burner candy bar phone from RadioShack to cut the smartphone cord.

We laughed at it and figured he'd be crawling back in no time. He went over two years with that stupid phone - even washed it twice with no issue. Eventually it fizzled out and he's back to using a smartphone, but he is much better with it now.
 
ron7624 said:
I don't have a real answer for you.... I was just grumbling cause this mindless rude person chose to be a mindless rude person. I have a 92 mile round trip that I make to work every day and I often see people talking on the phone while in the fast lane holding up traffic. I do not think laws regulating that usage would do any good, besides we have enough government in our lives.
Maybe the answer is C. The people that insist that they have a right to use cell phones while driving because surely they've noticed what they have done after the conversation is over but don't care.
Click to expand...

Well, yes. But why not amend your thread title to reflect this, rather than putting such an overarching statement "cell phones should be banned" as your thread title?

Actually, many of us encounter 'mindlessly rude' and extraordinarily selfish people on a daily basis……yet do not make threads to vent about this.

I suppose that I am surprised at the excess of emotion (and, invariably, an emotion which ranges all the way from spluttering anger to incandescent rage) that erupts on these threads sometimes, and excess of emotions which are prompted by what seems to me to be relatively minor matters.

My question is does the marvel and miracle of instant communication, and instant gratification lead to a sort of infantilisation of the expression of emotion, whereby any thwarting or frustrating of a goal leads to an outburst online?



Gregg2 said:
Though there seems to have been something edited out, it speaks to the real issue here..
Click to expand...

I can assure you that nothing was edited out. On these fora, I am quite clear that I write whatever it is I wish to say. However, I do plead guilty to the use of euphemism……….as the art of understatement is one that is somewhat under-utilised, to my mind.
 
ron7624 said:
i see that she's got a cell phone to her ear and she is oblivious to the world around her. This is a young woman. Gurrrrrrrr
Click to expand...
She's got the cell phone to her ear, the cell phone does not have itself to her ear.
Don't blame the poor little innocent cell phone.
 
I have to admit, I really do not like people talking with their mobile phones to their ears and texting while driving is also really annoying.

I went to Florida last year and I was astounded of the amount of people using their phones whilst driving, it did seem that about 40% of the drivers were texting/calling scary!

In the UK more and more often these days people are doing the same, and, I hold my hand up a couple of times I did it myself, but following having to deal with a patient at work who had suffered horrific injuries and eventually died as a result of a car accident from the driver texting I decided that my BT handsfree in my car is good enough and that text I got can wait for 10 minutes for a reply.
 
Why ban a tool (and toy) when its people that are the problem?

As bad as it is, people won't change their habits, but banning the phone outright isn't the answer either.
 
I must say tha I am amazed that it is not illegal to use your phone whilst driving in the US!!! VERY dangerous, not just annoying!! In UK it has been and driving offence for some years now and people do get fined and points on their licence if/when they are caught. Does this stop the fools? NO not generally, although on the occasion you pass someone getting done for the offence it does generate a smile upon ones face. :) As has been mentioned in previous posts, it is the people that need to be re-educated or even educated!

We will just have to realise, there are plenty of numpties (idots) out there and they breed!! :rolleyes:
 
Truth be told, all distractions increase the chance of accidents. Handheld cell phones are probably worse than hands-free units because the user has to use the keyboard or look at the display to make or receive a call, but both are distracting, as are entertainment and nav systems. For that matter, so are unruly kids in the back seat.

So it all comes down to where on the slippery slope of driver distraction that we think achieves a reasonable balance between risk and convenience. I suspect that most drivers underestimate the risk.

This is why I'm very supportive of tech like auto emergency braking, lane following, blind spot detection, and others that mitigate the risk to some extent, though there's a chance that those will make drivers too complacent. Ultimately, fully autonomous cars may be the solution, but they have a way to go, Google notwithstanding.
 
Fully autonomous cars :eek: Where is the fun in that, I love driving and would hate to have that taken away from me. Also, the thought of letting a computer drive me around is...frightening, just look at the problems that spring up with the computers we have now!!!!
 
Fiendishone said:
I must say tha I am amazed that it is not illegal to use your phone whilst driving in the US!!! VERY dangerous, not just annoying!! In UK it has been and driving offence for some years now and people do get fined and points on their licence if/when they are caught. Does this stop the fools? NO not generally, although on the occasion you pass someone getting done for the offence it does generate a smile upon ones face. :) As has been mentioned in previous posts, it is the people that need to be re-educated or even educated!

We will just have to realise, there are plenty of numpties (idots) out there and they breed!! :rolleyes:
Click to expand...

It varies by state but here is an extract on the position.

California, Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Washington, West Virginia (plus Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands) prohibit all drivers from using hand-held cell phones while driving. 36 states and Washington, D.C. ban all cell phone use by newer drivers; while 19 states and Washington, D.C. prohibit any cell phone use by school bus drivers while children are present.
 
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