approve:sagapo more on more on Silliness in Action: California Poised for Cell Phone Ban

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: steven cherry <steven () panix com>
Date: August 27, 2006 4:31:22 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: Re: [IP] more on more on Silliness in Action: California  
Poised for Cell Phone Ban

From: Miles Fidelman <mfidelman () meetinghouse net>
> Of course, cell phones pale compared to the distractions of, say,  
> spilling coffee in your lap, unwrapping a sandwich, managing  
> children in the car, and so forth.

To my experience, they're not. There are no social conventions that  
keep you from just ignoring the spilt coffee or from tossing the  
sandwich onto the passenger seat.

I drove a 104-mile-per-day highway commute through northern New  
Jersey for more than two years, about six years ago. During that  
time, I myself ate breakfast, drank coffee, did word puzzles, fiddled  
with the radio, and wrote stray notes into a notebook I kept in the  
car for that purpose. I also got pretty good at driving with my left  
leg and also with driving with cruise control in traffic and steering  
with my knees.

My fellow commuters did pretty much the same things and more,  
including applying makeup and reading broadsheet newspapers draped  
across the steering wheel.

None of this, in my opinion, did much to impede our abilities to  
drive safely.

Driving with a cellphone, on the other hand, is an interactive  
experience, one that has long years of social norms attached to it,  
social norms that were developed in offices and living rooms and are  
ill-suited to high-speed mobile situations, or any mobile situations  
for that matter. On the streets of Manhattan, where it seems every  
other person is on the phone, I've seen pedestrians walk into other  
people and even trees and newsstands because they're so involved with  
their phone calls.

I know I myself am a much worse driver when on the phone, indeed, I'm  
not as good a driver when I have a passenger, and the cellphone  
interaction is much more involving and distracting. I honestly think  
if the average IP reader looked inward he or she would see the same  
thing. I agree with Lauren. The hands-on/hands-free element is the  
least of it, and either we ban all driver cellphone use or none of it.

 Steven


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