Drive Now, Talk Later

Don't have time to answer now, I'll sent a text message while I'm driving home.

Every time some maniac almost hits me, invariable it is a dope on a cell phone!

But even worse, is listening to some fat, white-trash momma, yacking loudly in line at the supermarket, about, god knows what moronic topic, and you can't escape... god, if ONLY I had a cell phone jammer!

Hey its not just white trash talking mommas doing this at the grocery store. Just as many men have cell phones and are seen by all yakking away!!!

Yeah, I know, but I live in a redneck logging town, and most of the men are in prison, so it's mostly young girls and women with five kids and no teeth driving dented Geo Metros with bald tires and duct taped "windows".

I think I'd rather see that than those riced out cars with 10 times more money put into their stereo systems than the car is worth.

LOL, nothing like a $500 honda civic with a 40,000 watt stereo system and 22" spinner wheels.

I'm sure you and a few others will get a kick outta this site:
http://www.ricecop.com/

That's funny stuff.

Actually, to be fair to cell phone talkers, there are plenty of activities that should probably be avoided while driving, as they could be a tad distracting. Just off the top of my head, an (incomplete) list would include:

- Attempting to explain algebra I to a 7th grader

- Sorting your entire CD collection by the birth-date of the drummers

- Reading anything by James Joyce

- Preparing your income tax return (unless using the short form)

- Attempting to explain Finnegans Wake to a 7th grader

- Attempting to catch you kid's pet rat that is running up you leg

- Repeatedly listening to Subterranean Homesick Blues, attempting to remember all the lyrics

- Attempting to understand any of the lyrics of your kids gangster rap CD

- Attempting to explain who Bob Dylan is to a 7th grader

- Tossing your kids gangster rap CD out the window after they recite the lyrics

- Sticking your head under the passengers side dash trying to locate the source of annoying squeak

- Making PB&J sandwich

- Eating PB&J sandwich

- Attempting to remove kid's pet rat from under the passengers side dash

This is an incomplete list, but you get the general idea.

Driving with kids in the car is roughly equivalent to 0.7 BAC.

Yes, we were nudged in the rear at a stoplight lightly and thankfully without damage by a lady on a cell phone. I gave her a piece of my mind. Apparently she could not see, brake and talk on her phone. I wonder how good a job she was doing with her phone conversation with all of that steering and braking to do.

Even when they don't cause accidents, inattentive drivers are a public nuisance. They don't keep up with traffic and get in everyone else's way. I don't cut them any slack.

Then there are those driving well under the speed limit on the motorway just to talk on the phone and still drive. Try passing one of these people with tons of traffic!!!

We all need bumper stickers that say shut up and drive or have a law like NY that doesnt allow you to talk and drive unless its hands free (still somewhat dangerous)

I think we should blame the real problem rather than the scapegoat. It's not cell phones. It's not eating. It's not changing CD's. It's crappy driver training. Our driver training system in the USA is attrocious, and it shows by virtue of the vast numbers of moronic drivers out there.

Look at pilots. They can talk on the radio while *flying*. No one suggests they should put the radio away until they land. I have never read an FAA post-crash report that said "pilot was gabbing on the radio and crashed." The difference is that pilots are well trained and must prove it in order to get their pilots license.

We have a lot of fun in this country blaming scapegoats in a desperate attempt to fool ourselves into thinking we're doing something about the problem while not actually having to change things we don't want to change. Having to actually learn how to drive would take effort. Much easier to scapegoat the phones - that'll stall it for a few years, right?

Banning cell phones won't solve anything, and it is 100% possible to talk while NOT driving like an idiot.

Ask the pilots. They do it all the time.

Exactly, that was the point of my earlier sarcasm. Without going into details, most of us found some found some VERY distracting things to do while driving decades before cell phones were invented (not proud of that).

Cells phones, like everything else require some common sense. I spend about 6-700 hours per year driving and I talk on the phone when it's safe. There is a big difference between talking while driving in city rush hour traffic and driving on a deserted interstate. Trying to regulate specific types of distractions is silly, just enforce the current laws.

I agree with you completely. Driver education does not exist. Here's the brake, here's the steering wheel, here's the radio, see you later. No one is ever trained in emergency handling, how to avoid a collision, what to do with a blowout, how to drive when you've been hit from the side the back or sideswiped. The governor of New Jersey was nearly killed when his driver could not control an SUV that was sideswiped at speed. Spinouts and rollovers are not inevitable in those events, but they are if you yank the steering wheel trying to stay on the road. Did anyone ever tell you what do then? I doubt it. There's no place to practice emergency control and no information about it available. Cell phones are simply a symptom of a completely unrealistic view of driving.

Airplane pilots have a fairly concentrated subject matter to talk about and can do that with hands free equipment, no telephone numbers to look up and are talking to people who are also limiting their subject matter, not to mention that an airliner has a copilot. Both pilot and controllers have no things to discuss beyond aiming the airplane safely. Car driving requires intense concentration all of the time to stay between the lines and to avoid random unexpected events. Auto drivers on cell phones with a variety of things to discuss and airplane pilots on radios, in my view, are not similar enough to make this a valid comparison.

Pilots have another advantage. Things happen much more slowly in most airplanes. Except during takeoff and landing, a pilot can devote a few seconds to a conversation without crashing. In an automobile, you are, at all times, just a second away from disaster.

Airplane pilots have a fairly concentrated subject matter to talk about 

You've never fired up a scanner down at the local airport have you? ;)

and can do that with hands free equipment, 

I have a bluetooth headset for my phone. Check.

no telephone numbers to look up 

No, they just have to flip through frequency books (or a flight computer if they're lucky enough to have one) to look up radio frequencies, and they have to change those frequencies quite a bit. 3-7 times within 20 minutes of takeoff.

and are talking to people who are also limiting their subject matter, not to mention that an airliner has a copilot. 

A cessna does not necessarilly have a copilot, and many's the time I've heard both airline and private pilots chatting about lunch, the football game, etc, over the radio.

Car driving requires intense concentration all of the time to stay between the lines and to avoid random unexpected events.  

And flying an airplane doesnt? You're on the radio the most where your concentration must be the highest - takeoffs, landings, and transiting airport airspace.

Auto drivers on cell phones with a variety of things to discuss and airplane pilots on radios, in my view, are not similar enough to make this a valid comparison. 

We disagree. The primary difference between the two activities is that the pilot has been highly trained and is thinking about flying first, talking second. The driver has been barely trained and probably is thinking more about the conversation than the car.

It's not the cell phones' fault, it's the idiotic way in which they're used.
 

The pilots are getting steering instructions when they are on the radio. That is part of "driving" the plane.

Also, pilots have autopilots and collision warning alarms to help them when they are not near airports.

What you are hearing on that scanner is not pilot talk over air traffic control frequencies. Such talk is banned.

You are hearing the airport maintenance, luggage, and plane towing crews on their frequencies. You will hear them identify with the planes they are servicing at the time, for location purposes. These people are often waiting to be used at the time they are yakking.