DoT Wants a Cell Phone Kill Switch

Json23 said:
I think it may be time to revolt. Next they will tell us only those who have a 4 year degree in automobile navigation will be allowed to obtain a drivers license because the masses are just too stupid to know how to do it.
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Not a bad idea... ::writes congressman::
 
while everyone is whining against this idea I have no problem with it.. how long were people driving cars WITHOUT PHONES? a long ass time, so it's not necessary for them to work inside the car ok, and having stupid passengers inconvenienced by no cells while driving is worth the reduction in cell related accidents.. everyone is a whiner until it's your loved one who's killed by some twat who had to text or talk on their cell while driving a vehicle...
 
I believe there is not enough emphasis on educating drivers to being aware of the act of driving. We require and/or give discounts for Drivers Education or Defensive Driving. Yet both of these two activities are very broad and largly classroom based. And these are mostly formal education. Such as who has the right of way or what a sign means. There is very little emphasis on actual driving behaviour.

However, no insurance company that I know of will give you a discount for taking part in a SCCA/NASA autocrossing event, nor for a High Performance Drivers Education event. In fact its the opposite, many insurance carriers refuse to cover you should something happen at one of these events. So I can go speeding 90 MPH down a 2 lane backroad and go off into the trees totalling my car and they will cover it, but if I spin out at a turn with an in-car instructor learning how to know the limits of a machine, insurance will not cover the cost of a bent control arm.

Americans don't take driving seriously because there is no reason given to.
 
Nanny statist bullshit. Are they going to pay me the time I don't use from my contract because I'm being jammed? Fuck them and anyone who goes for this idea. I'm the master of me, I bought the phone and I choose how to use it. I know it's against the law to hold a phone or text when I drive, that's why I don't do it because I personally believe its unsafe. But heaven help me if I try to impose that same idea/belief on someone else and if they do it and it hurts or kill someone, then the pay the price.

There are enough problems with automobile accidents in the US that don't involve any of these things and yet DOT isn't going out into America duct-taping giant foam on everyone cars now are they? Are they going to decide that I can't wipe my own ass either and force to buy a designated ass-wiper in the future too? This is not the America I grew up in. These ideas are anathema to the foundations of the basics of liberty and freedom. Enough.
 
RedBeardMcGee said:
Is it the act of conversing that is the distraction? I can agree with this but talking to someone on the other end of a cell phone is no less distracting, perhaps even less distracting that conversing with someone in the car next to you.
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There have been several studies done that show that hands free phones cause MORE accidents than cell phone people hold up to thier ears.
The reason was that people with hands free phones used them alot more while driving. It was the conversing that caused the distraction, not the act of holding the phone.

Out here in California, all they need to write you a ticket, is to see you have the phone in your hand. Even if you are stopped at a light, you can get a ticket.
 
Yup - IIRC the study revolved partially around the fact that if something crack is happening on the road the passenger pause the conversation to reflect that whereas a person on the phone will not.
 
Json23 said:
I think it may be time to revolt. Next they will tell us only those who have a 4 year degree in automobile navigation will be allowed to obtain a drivers license because the masses are just too stupid to know how to do it.
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I'd be all for this. One thing we definitely need is more stringent driving regulations. Want to reduce accidents? Take the retards off the road. Driving is a privilege, not a right.
 
halo000008 said:
Maybe they should test it in movie theaters first.
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what if theres a fire in the theater and you need to call 911? what if a family member gets hospitalized and the hospital is trying to get a hold of you? etc

phide said:
I would rather the DOT explore methods of affixing bombs to cyclists that explode should they decide to swerve into traffic for no apparent reason fifty feet in front of me when I'm doing 45 miles per hour.

That I would like. I'd take the fucking cellphone killswitch as a compromise if the cyclists have to wear explosive devices to keep their dipshit habits in check.
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well here in Florida they have full use of a lane, so you passing them in the same lane would get you a nice ticket

Cannydog said:
I have an Idea. Make it mandatory to have a video camera installed, and functioning, in all vehicles. That way when an accident occurs they can see if it was caused, or contributed to, by being distracted while talking on your cell phone, texting, playing with your MP3 player, or eating a sandwich. All of which would constitute Reckless Driving. And if the accident results in a fatality you should be charged with Vehicular Homicide.
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wow really? you want government mandated cameras? maybe you should move to London...

demingo said:
The willingness of some people to give up their rights for a false sense of security is fucking frightening. I don't wish to ever live in a nanny state. What happened to personal responsibility.

As others have pointed out, if you were to outlaw everything that "might" be a distraction while driving, the list would be incredibly long.
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thank you god for someone having their head on straight here...
 
I was under the impression that this hasn't happened already due to it be against the law to jam cell signals, regardless of the reason to do so. The FCC takes a very dim view to jamming devices in general, that's why they haven't yet done so in movie theaters or jails, as its against the law to do so, even if it was another agency mandating this the FCC would over-rule it.
 
FLECOM said:
what if theres a fire in the theater and you need to call 911? what if a family member gets hospitalized and the hospital is trying to get a hold of you? etc
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Leave the theater...THEN call 911. I know most genius types sit in a burning building calling 911 first. Actually, you would probably tweet it "LOL, i'm a burning movie theater". Next "My shrt is one fire, what should I do"..."Thanks for the idea to stop drop and roll", "now I have a burning beam pinning me down..this sucks". "Why can't I feel pain anymore".

If you can't afford to be unplugged from the world for 2 hours, then leave your phone at the front desk. But, everyone on this planet is as important as important can be. No common courtesty anymore. But a lot of things that were "common" are no longer common.
 
Oh the sheer amusement from reading the comments on this story!

Talk of "rights"...I have a "right" to a cellphone? Really? What is that "right" derived from? L

Life, liberty and oh yeah, communications perhaps?

The "right" to use a communications device whenever and wherever you choose and the public good be damned sir? IS THAT WHAT YOU'RE SAYING?

What about other "rights"? I daresay that most on this forum have found themselves in public faced with a full bladder, or worse, and yet haven't demanded their "right" to defecate or urinate in public and yet bodily functions are much closer to a fundamental "right" than the voluntary (note: voluntary) use of a communications device, its sole purpose to hold forth in public, idle conversation that the rest of us would much rather not hear.

What of our "right" to be free of your boring and burdensome self?

What of our "right" to be free of the additional risk of a motor vehicle accident caused by your "right" to freely communicate while driving a 4000 lb death machine?
 
This is just too frigging much. What idiot came up with this stupid idea?
 
Hopefully it won't be you that needs critical medical help when the person trying to call and get it for you is being blocked by their friggin' Hyundai.

Techx said:
while everyone is whining against this idea I have no problem with it.. how long were people driving cars WITHOUT PHONES? a long ass time, so it's not necessary for them to work inside the car ok, and having stupid passengers inconvenienced by no cells while driving is worth the reduction in cell related accidents.. everyone is a whiner until it's your loved one who's killed by some twat who had to text or talk on their cell while driving a vehicle...
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I don't like this. What about people with the blue tooth piece and a car dock. I use my Droid as a gps. Without cell tower service is does not work well.
 
TechLarry said:
Hopefully it won't be you that needs critical medical help when the person trying to call and get it for you is being blocked by their friggin' Hyundai.
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Time to put a bit of Fight club on this one.

How many peoples lives are "saved" when using your cell phone that is in motion? Call this A.

How many lives are lost or serverely impactd due to talking on a cell phone that is in motion. Call this B.

If A-B > 0. But no...this doesn't matter. The Nancy Pelosi "think of hte children" trumps all logic.
 
The amount of idiotic comments recently in some news threads (the "Do you need AV?" was a mass of sheer stupidity) is scary.

While I don't like the idea of cell phone blockers something has to be done. I live in the DC Metro area. I see shitty drivers every day of the week. The ones busy texting or talking are even WORSE then the typical shitastic driver. The texters/talkers are speeding up/slowing down, swerving, slowing everybody else down, following too closely, ignoring merge lanes, and are oblivious to everything and everyone around them. When you lean on your horn, after nearly getting hit by one of those jackasses, they don't even look at you to see your middle finger.

Personally, I think the way to deal with this are highly enforced tickets with steep fines that are not able to be challenged. The state of Wisconsin did something like that last week although it is still way too weak and has too many loopholes. http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=13584282
 
Json23 said:
Next they will tell us only those who have a 4 year degree in automobile navigation will be allowed to obtain a drivers license because the masses are just too stupid to know how to do it.
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I know you were joking and referring to it as a big brother dystopian concept, but actually, requiring more training in the process of obtaining a driver's license is really not a bad idea at all. People really do need a boot camp for this stuff. It's not just about the rules of the road, it's about the respect for the machine and the people around you.

I can tell you from personal experience that getting my driver's license was entirely too easy. My 4 weeks of professional driver instruction & "crash course" in defensive driving had absolutely no bearing on whether I'd actually get the license or not -- it was just something my dad decided would be better for me than him teaching me and risking missing some important detail or causing me to be a nervous wreck because he's in the car with me. I would definitely say that had I not gone through that course I'd be a pretty shitty driver.

$400 spent on your driving education will save hundreds if not thousands in paying insurance premiums & deductibles & medical bills and whatnot from accidents you didn't avoid because you had no clue how to react. That should be a requirement just as much as insurance should be. None of these restrictive proactive ideas like cell phone blocking will work nearly as well as just tightening up the process of getting a driver's license so that only the people who do make it through the crash course are allowed to drive. You'll have a lot more people on the road driving without a license, and maybe that will make it even more dangerous for a time, until those people slip up and get pulled over and thrown behind bars.
 
There are already plenty of reckless driving laws, how much control are we just going to hand over?
 
I enjoyed reading this post while knee-driving and eating a Whopper. I immediately tweeted it to all my followers and then called my buddy. I'll post more later, my exit is coming up.
 
halo000008 said:
Maybe they should test it in movie theaters first.
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I've been to plenty of shows at the theaters but honestly I've never seen anyone talk on the phone during the movie. Is this in certain areas where jackasses thinks it's a cool thing to do?
 
Kaitian said:
I've been to plenty of shows at the theaters but honestly I've never seen anyone talk on the phone during the movie. Is this in certain areas where jackasses thinks it's a cool thing to do?
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Yes. I'm glad I'm not living in one of them. I don't remember the last time a cell rang during a movie. I'll forgive vibrate + run out to take a call, that's normal.
 
I wouldnt need a fucking cell phone if I sat home all day. WTF is going on with this country? Soon I wont be able to take a shit without the government telling me how often I can flush.
 
Ur_Mom said:
Hope I don't get in an accident and have to call 911. Or my wife doesn't need to call or text that we are running late. Or use my phones GPS.

I have an idea. Let's get rid of cell phones, car stereos, GPS, OnStar, radar detectors, and cup holders. They distract us while driving.
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I found your problem.
 
Nightbird said:
If only the person on the phone causing the crash is the only one who gets killed...

Disabling cell phones on a moving vehicle should be simple, the radio transmission from the cellphone will give off a detectable red or blue shift to cell towers, allowing them to cut the call off if it's not to 911. It's basically marking the person's relative velocity like a radar gun.
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Not possible.
 
About friggin time! I've nearly been killed by these idiots driving while on a cell phone several times.

They need to make this law and I mean right NOW!
 
How about not focusing on stupid little things like cell phones for the moment, and work on something the government already has billions flushed into.......... cars that drive on electric....... by themself.

Then we will be backtracking and unblocking this law once these new cars are out...... since we don't need to focus on the road as much.

Brain waves.... brain waves.......... is anyone catching them lately? ):
 
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