[StarWarsIsUs]

This is a topic of serious 'debate' among many people. Some say talking on a cellphone when driving is ok, and some people think it should be banned. Personally, I don't have a standpoint. I'm neutral. Though, some of you may have a standpoint on the subject.

What is your standpoint?

[jariten]

its dangerous. theres no situation that warrants it. it should be banned, wiht fines in place for offenders.

[Laughlyn]

Something that always seems harmless to a bunch of collective idiots until they hit someone. Handsfree kits aren't an option either, since you're still distracted from driving the car. Anyone who whines about not being able to answer the phone in their car should turn the clock back 10 years.

[Slade]

I don't even own a cell phone. I think it's needless and dangerous because you need to shift your attention away from the road, and when you're in control of a two ton hunk of steel going 60 miles an hour, you can't afford to let your attention slip.

[srmoore]

Said as he adjusts his radio...

I think all the attention that is given to cell phones is kind of rubbish.
Just about anything in the car is distracting. And yet we all deal with it.
I just feel most people shouldn't be allowed to drive anyway.

(But then again I live in Massachusetts, USA.. where people claim we have very very bad drivers.. BUT i see bad drivers everywhere man!)

I think only I should be allowed to drive.. but then everyone would want to bum rides off me.

[Emu]

I think it's a terrible idea. Whenever I see a driver do something really stupid that nearly results in an accident, he or she is invariably talking on a cell phone.

[J m HofMarN]

I think this problem will sort itself out via a lot of gorey car wrecks.

[Kirby]

gorey carwrecks happend and still people check their voice mail. Damnit people were bad drivers before, now they will rival old people in their ineptitude.

[Mnesymone]

If you have a passenger with you, and you are chatting you are a bit distracted - but the passenger still pays a degree of attention to the road and so it all works out in the end.
When you are chatting on a mobile phone, you aren't talking to someone who can pay any attention to the road, and you are missing a hand on the wheel - a handsfree kit is slightly better, but your attention is still missing in action.

I say bad... bad bad bad. If someone calls you while driving, miss the call, give it to a passenger (if you have one) to take it for you, pull over and take it, or pick it up at a red light and have a brief and businesslike conversation. Don't just take the call and keep driving, cause roads and driving are dangerous enough as it is.

[StarWarsIsUs]

Thanks for replying guys. You have stated your stances well, and have backed them up, for the most part. I'm proud of you all.

[barend]

i've seen alot of accidents both near and bumbs caused by some dumb young bimbo on her phone...

i'v enearly been hit several times.

they should have toughter laws on it...

not only the distraction factor, the ill-employment of steering/contoll aparati, but there is also the loss of peripheral vision.

This post has been edited by barend: 15 May 2005 - 09:26 PM

[srmoore]

I have been hit.. by someone fumbling for their cell..
So I understand that outlook..
But I also feel that it isn't just the cell phone. those have been picked out as the scapegoat.

I've also been nearly hit by someone who was talking to their passenger.
I've also been nearly hit by someone who was reading the paper!
I've also been nearly hit by someone repremanding their kids in the car.
I've also been nearly hit by someone who just wasn't aware of the road conditions around them.

I really believe that if everyone had to take a motorcycle training course, they'd get the picture that you really do need to pay attention to everythign on the road. To stay alert. Not to be idiots.

Making it harder to get a license would help this. It would also have lots of other side benefits which I could gladly go into, and also give you the reasons why it'll never happen.

Yes I've used the phone in the car. I stay very alert to the driving conditions. if there is traffic i get off the phone. if the weather conditions are even slightly bad i get off the phone. if for any reason i think i would be too distracted i get off the phone. If i'm at a dead stop with all the other cars.. well I'll stay on the phone, but thats because i'm not moving. It is all in the mental ability and training of the driver. too many people take the task of driving for granted. And I say that the cellphone has become the scapegoat.

[srmoore]

Oh.. and i use a hands free kit that is installed in the car. (Or I used to till i switched phones.. and will again once i get the new one installed.)

[Jane Sherwood]

A girl who sat behind me in one class of my senior year of high school hit and killed a little boy and injured his father with her car.

In all the stories I heard for how it happened, she was messing with a cell phone.

[barend]

i remember a kid at my school got killed because a truckdriver droped his cigarette...

there's probably alot of things that shouldn't be done while driving...

but a cell phone is just one step to far...
it's like doing the ironing while driving...

it's a seperate device all together...
your receiving information from someone (as mnes already outlined) who is in a seperate situation, which quite frankley means you have to engage a different thought pattern... it may sound stupid but it's true.

these are huge fucking chunks of metal traveling at high speeds.

and people wonder why we don't have hover cars!