Don't Overreact To Driving While Yakking

from the is-it-that-big-of-a-deal dept

Mon, Feb 10th 2003 12:58am — Mike Masnick

Mike Langberg is arguing against the idea of banning driving while yakking, by saying that driving is boring - and if we ban the ability to talk on the cell phone while driving, people will just end up doing other distracting things. In the end, he figures, there's no difference. He thinks that educating people on how to drive safer would be a lot more effective.

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4 Comments

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dorpus, 10 Feb 2003 @ 2:08am

drunk driving analogy
So, would "educating" people be better than outlawing drunk driving? Do we have to wait for some asshole yakking on his cell to plow into a school bus unloading school children?

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MWAF, 10 Feb 2003 @ 3:32am

Re: drunk driving analogy
Too late! The assholes have already ploughed into the school buses -- or at least into unsuspecting pedestrians and other road users.
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Chris, 10 Feb 2003 @ 8:28am

No Subject Given
If they look close, its not talking on a cell phone while driving that is dangerous. It s trying to dial a number on the tiny keypad while keeping your eyes on the road that is the danger area. That probelm can be solved with voice dialing and a variety of other hands free options.
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msykes, 10 Feb 2003 @ 2:13pm

Re: No Subject Given
I have to more or less agree with that... for a lot of people I think the actual act of talking isn't the problem at all, I mean we are all pretty used to talking in the car to our passengers (arguments about paying more attention to cell phone calls aside). It's the fumbling for the phone, looking at the caller ID, dialing numbers, punching in voicemail passwords, looking to see what kind of signal you are getting, etc etc that cause problems.

Of course sort of hard to outlaw just those aspects of the experience.

msykes
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