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New Jersey Politician Adds Most GPS Devices To Driver Distractions To Ban

from the sigh dept

Thu, Jul 2nd 2009 11:59am — Mike Masnick

We've pointed out time and time again how silly it is for politicians to run around trying to ban each and every driver distraction, rather than just focusing on beefing up laws for reckless driving. There have been laws or proposals against driving while talking on a phone, texting, viewing a video screen, faxing, eating, shaving, playing video games and even having sex. And now, Comboman alerts us to a proposal in New Jersey to ban drivers from using GPS devices that require manual programming. Instead, drivers could only use those with voice control features. Next up? Who's going to ban adjusting the radio dial or the air conditioning?

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Filed Under: driving distractions, gps, new jersey

27 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2009 @ 12:19pm

What they should really do is ban the most distracting parts of driving, like manually adjusting all knobs and wheels (including what some people refer to as a "steering wheel"), changing lanes, and pushing down on the gas and brake pedals. That way, no one will ever get distracted and we'll never have any car accidents.
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The Cenobyte, 2 Jul 2009 @ 12:21pm

Prohibition doesn't work anyway
Prohibition of an action never works, look at drugs, Alcohol or eating fruit in the garden of eden. People will do what they want to do. The only sensable laws are ones that enforce only crimes that directly effect another.

I personally can talk on my phone and drive. I am fully aware of which one is more important, and people on the other end of the phone are often forced to repeat themselves as I will ignore them to pay attention to the road. However others can't seem to keep themselves in their lane even when they are not on the phone, or us a turn signel, or not tailgate. Yet I am not allowed to talk on my phone but they are still allowed to drive on the road without tickets and fines.
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Dark Helmet (profile), 2 Jul 2009 @ 12:28pm

Re:
Are you kidding???!?!! If you actually enforced those rules you wouldn't have ANYONE on the ro-

....oooooooh, I see what you did there...
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Rob, 2 Jul 2009 @ 12:33pm

That's funny -- I have always thought of my manually programmable GPS as a wonderful safety device, I can think of numerous times that I have almost got into a wreck while fiddling with a map while driving. Why don't they just make it illegal to play with the thing when your car is moving? You get in an accident and the name of a town is halfway entered on the GPS it counts against you in determining fault. That would make too much sense though...
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2009 @ 12:36pm

distracted driving ?
If we're going to push for laws banning driver distractions then there must be an absolute ban on allowing any child in the car with a driver. They are the most prevalent distraction ever invented.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2009 @ 12:42pm

I had more close calls reaching into the back seat to whack one of kids upside the head than I've ever had talking on a phone. Do me a favor and make it illegal to have kids in the car with me.
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Brendan, 2 Jul 2009 @ 1:05pm

Stupid People
As a human who was raised and educated in New Jersey and now reside elsewhere I firmly believe that what should be the focus in New Jersey and Staten Island and Long Island is education and common sense. The region is overflowing with ass-backward thinking, uptight, self centered, STUPID people to include the politicians and it's these people who are the problem not electronic devices.

Get a Clue New Jersey!
Brendan
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Rosedale (profile), 2 Jul 2009 @ 1:09pm

What about Google Maps?
So I don't own a GPS, but I have used them. Sure you have to enter input by hand, most people know to do this while not moving or before crunch time. But even if someone were dumb enough to enter in the location while moving that is far safer than the many times I've used google maps printed out. I mean the GPS dictates directions. Google maps you have to read, how is that for distracted. Of course eventually all this just becomes absurd. Common sense is not too much to ask for, and I think we have find laws in place for the people who just being reckless.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2009 @ 1:33pm

Re: Stupid People
Ahhh Staten Island... The land of Hummers, men who wear velour, and the most disgusting accent every applied to any language.
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another mike (profile), 2 Jul 2009 @ 1:40pm

yeah sure yankee spell this...
I'd like to see voice recognition software get my street name right. Telemarketers can't get it right even when it's spelled out for them. Not a bad thing really.

"What... is your company?"
"What... is your product?"
"What... is the correct pronunciation of Conicogegue?"
sproing, into the chasm every time!
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SageAnt, 2 Jul 2009 @ 1:44pm

Can we ban politicians from NJ? Please?
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Alicia, 2 Jul 2009 @ 1:51pm

Re: distracted driving ?
I totally agree! Also, mothers should not be allowed in cars. OH and billboards. And bad weather. Fuck it, if it is raining or too sunny or dark out, complete fucking ban on driving. For tha safety.
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Helter, 2 Jul 2009 @ 2:04pm

what about steering wheels?
I find them very distracting. Their use should be banned while driving.
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AnonCow, 2 Jul 2009 @ 2:05pm

I'm waiting for the ban on passenger side and back seats since passengers can be incredibly distracting...
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bubba, 2 Jul 2009 @ 2:06pm

ban hot girls
the few times i have almost created an accident was when some hot girl was around, either in the seat next to me, crossing the street, or in the next car. ban them...oh wait, its staten island...never had a problem there...carry on...
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2009 @ 2:33pm

Can we just ban stupid people instead?
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2009 @ 2:37pm

Re: ban hot girls
Funny thing you should say that. I totaled my girlfriend's car while looking at a some hot young thing walking down the street in a short skirt and very small underwear on a windy day.....the view was worth the wreck.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2009 @ 3:22pm

Soon we won't be able to drive, it will be too distracting to sit in a car.

Funny how the stupidest people always come up with those ideas are always the rich people sitting behind a driver that hates their guts.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2009 @ 3:23pm

I ban sitting in the car while it moves.
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Avatar28 (profile), 2 Jul 2009 @ 3:55pm

next up...
...using a car sound system that isn't voice activated. Good for Ford (Sync), bad for pretty much everyone else.

Or we could just mandate that by, say, 2015 every new car sold must have the ability to drive itself with little or no input from a human. If your car can't do that then you'll just have to take public transit.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Jul 2009 @ 4:17pm

No sex while driving?
What am I supposed to do on a date?
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Andy, 3 Jul 2009 @ 2:06am

Re: next up...
Please don't even go there. We already have GPS and radar-guided systems that companies such as Volvo and Mercedes have demonstrated which aim to do just that.

Clearly we have become so collectively moronic as a species that we now need to hand over control of our activities and our fates to machines. Great idea, as everybody knows, machines NEVER fail!!!
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Anonymous Coward, 4 Jul 2009 @ 12:07am

Re:
That would be a very trouble prone way to determine fault... what if someone else is in the car? Did they enter the half-name? What if the half-name was entered before they started driving and he stopped there? What if the electronics malfunctioned during the impact? Try to think things through a little bit more; your suggestion makes no sense really.
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Hephaestus (profile), 5 Jul 2009 @ 10:45am

New Jersey Drivers ...
Last year a national study found that New Jersey Drivers are the worst in the USA ...

.... Okay maybe it was second worst It made the News.
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TwoWords (profile), 5 Jul 2009 @ 2:59pm

ban all vactioning people and idiots
I was driving through Pa from MD on Friday and alsmost got hit head on at intersection while turning right because the four idiots from NY who were going golfing(followed them) turned from the other side in front of me because they were in a hurry. Then another driver from NY gets in front of me and is doing 35 in a 45 because he is watching his GPS more than the road and when we get into the small town we start doing 20 in a 35 and then he stops where it tells you to for the stop light but then pulls up the other road(about 20 feet up, you stopped back at the line so trucks can turn frommthe other road after leaving the dairy farm) and then sits there then turns right on red with 3 signs that say no turn on red and about gets hit. I have seen more and more people reading books, magazines, sudoku, crosswords, DVD's, phones, blackberry/palm, computers, and more while driving. The roads are becoming full of the type of people who think that they can do all of this and drive. We need to have a big wake up call and make it hard to have a DL and to keep a DL. Also if a truck driver needs a special DL how the people driving RV's do not. They are more dangerous behind the wheel than a truck driver. I seen a RV'er with a long trailer take out the gas pumps trying to leave a gas station because he did not know how to turn properly.
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MiSoFine, 29 Jul 2009 @ 3:29pm

Re:
When you rent with Hertz they have a GPS built into the car--it doesn't allow you to operate it while the vehicle is in motion. You have to be at a full stop. I have to admit, I have drifted from lane to lane programming my GPS while driving.
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Ward Dorrity, 27 Mar 2012 @ 9:39am

Re: Prohibition doesn't work anyway
Actually Prohibition does work. The aim is not to ban or prohibit a specific item or behavior. The aim is control; that is to say, the aim is the acquisition, retention and EXTENTION of power. Power over thee and me.

Look at it that way, and it all begins to make a terrible sort of sense.
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