Wednesday, March 10, 2010

THE (auto) MOBILE PHONE


Lots of noise has been made as of late as to whether or not it should be illegal to operate a motor vehicle while talking on a cell phone. I do not agree with this move towards banning cell phone use while driving, not because I want to protect people's civil right to talk on cell phones, but because I think it is a waste of time. Speeding is illegal, but it is largely ignored. Plus, the problem is not the phone, but the driver.
As a society, we require the bare minimum of training for our licensed drivers. We let 16 year olds drive around for a couple of months, pass a road test, and then grant them a license for the rest of their lives, hoping that they will get better at driving on their own.
Truckers drive 50,000 pound trucks on our highways at speeds of 100 mph for 12 hours at a time in a cab full of fuzzy dice, girlie pictures, and neon lights while talking on a hand-held CB radio without ending up mowing down regular people enough to warrant as much public outcry as banning cell phones. Why? Because truckers are good drivers. I myself can drive with one hand while opening up a juice-box for my screaming two-year-old while carrying on a heated discussion with my ten-year-old regarding the similarities between Percy Jackson and Harry Potter. Why? Because I am a good driver.
If we ban cell phone use while driving because we are concerned that this may distract drivers than we may as well just go ahead and rip out all the radios and cd players and heat controls and power mirrors and seat controls and make all cars one seaters so that there will be no other distracting humans around and get every driver their own private roads, etc, etc, etc.
You want to ban BLOGGING while driving, I'll consider it.


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