DOT to ban phones in cars

[karamazov80]

And make no mistake that whether some people like it ot not...talking on the phone in a car...as well as a million other trivial day-to-day activities that are regulated by the federal government...is a right.

What kind of rights are you referring to, then, and where do you draw the line? Do you think that drinking while driving is also a right? What about assaulting someone? Again, you are potentially taking away one's right (as I conceive of them) to go about their daily business without fear of injury with any of these acts. Having the ability to do something (even within the law as it exists) is not having the true right to do so in my mind. It may be a legal right, but to me, those are really privileges because the government can take those away as easily as it grants them.

If government exists, in part, to preserve our natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness (as John Locke of Lost fame once said), then I've gotta figure that that role includes prohibiting texting while driving as a potential imposition on these rights.

 

[mr.thrifty]

Bloody phones. What did youse do before mobiles? Wait until you arrived at your destination. No need to have it on in the car. Nothing is that important that it can't wait. If you're on a long trip, then pull over and check. Bloody mobiles. They're a health hazard all round.

 

[CelticPredator]

So...what if i'm going to someone's house, and I get lost? I cant call them....I cant check my iphonewhatever, I cant do anything. Even if I printed out directions when I left, what if they got sucked out the window?

This is moronic.

Next they're going to ban the usage of the radio right? I mean, you have to focus on that for the same amount of time as you would dialing a number.....


PS- I always pull over when I have to text.

 

[creecher]

 

[nash]

Then people will just start "jail-breaking" their cars now.

I have a better idea....how about the DOT let the police do what us tax payers are paying them to do instead.

 

[nash]

I agree with this. Driving alone is a privilege, not a right. I shouldn't have to be afraid of having someone crashing into me while I'm driving to the grocery store. I've seen so many people reading their texts while driving, that I don't think people care about whatever laws are already in place.

I see what you are saying but I don't agree. If theyre going to ban cell phone users in the car, then they should ban idiot drivers from getting a license in the first place. go straight to the root of the problem, instead of taking people's conveniences away from them.

 

[darthviper107]

Texting and driving is bad--but these days it's important to be able to contact people at any time, so making it so phone devices couldn't work in a car is just not a good idea

 

[galactiboy]

Bloody computers. What did youse do before computers? Wait weeks for your porn to arrive by mail.

Bloody porn tapes in your home. What did youse do before VHS? Go out and pay for a live show?

But I will agree that mobile phones are evil... but like any addiction I have no idea how I'd get along w/o one

 

[ProgMatinee]

Still don't own a cell phone.

Regarding emergencies....remember a time when professionals were trusted to do their job without alerting a loved one first? I'd like to think if I dropped my kid off somewhere that the teachers/daycare provider would call the appropriate medical services if my kid got hurt, then call me with their location once in the hands of professionals.

All my co-workers carry their cellphones into important meetings under the guise of "if my kid's daycare needs to call me" bs, instead the cell phones go off for non-emergencys all the time. Never once has there been an emergency.

What do these parents think they're going to do if there was an emergency? Leave work at once, drive 10 miles, and give CPR to their own choking child?

 

[KitFisto]

Oh this is genius. Now if I'm a passenger in a car I can't even use my phone either.

More government control under the name of "safety".

 

[ProgMatinee]

Oh this is genius. Now if I'm a passenger in a car I can't even use my phone either.

More government control under the name of "safety".

I agree, the government should also remove their safety requirements and allow companies to put exploding batteries in phones. I mean, the government just has too much control.

 

[KitFisto]

I agree, the government should also remove their safety requirements and allow companies to put exploding batteries in phones. I mean, the government just has too much control.

I'm sorry if you're too blind to see that the government is slowly working its way into every aspect of your life. Those tiny little things like controlling health care and such are just so hard to notice. Then there is the virtual strip search at airports. Now they want to enforce a way to prevent you or even a passenger from using a phone. They are printing money like it grows on trees that's backed by nothing to buy our own debt from ourselves which trashed the value of the dollar.

It will be less than 10 to 20 years before we are in a position where the government controls the people fully and we end up in some "unified" government with many other countries.

 

[ProgMatinee]

Dude, its called discernment. Not every rule is bad and not every rule is good. Only the weakminded would side on either extreme.

Not being able to use a cell phone while driving (or even riding as a passenger) is hardly the government putting their control on your life. There are already laws saying you're not allowed to have a TV installed in the front seat of a vehicle. Do you also believe that law is controlling your life?

 

[karamazov80]

Having fear of government encroachment is definitely a healthy attitude to have, IMO. There is no excuse for the allowances of the Patriot Act in our society, IMO. However, government does have an important role to play here, and its duties include protecting its citizens. Protecting minorities from the tyranny of the majority, protecting citizens from powerful economic interests that may exploit them or put them in danger, ensuring our security from domestic and foreign threats to physical safety, etc. The debate (which, again, is a good one to have, and one that I surely don't have the answers to) is where they should draw the line. It is tough when you want to simultaneously maximize freedoms while ensuring protection of folks' well-being and other "rights," however you want to define those.

 

[DinoLast]

In the UK it's an offence to use a non hands free phone in a car, plus you can't text. I still see people doing it though. However if you have an accident and cause injury or death while on a phone you get put in Jail, personally I would throw away the key

 

[KitFisto]

You're not just telling a driver he can't use his phone. You're telling everyone in the car they can't. The law about the TV in the front seat is much like the hands free laws which I have no issue with. Put hands free laws in place an enforce them, but DON'T FORCE me to have crap installed in my car that disables my phone. THAT is control.

 

[karamazov80]

You're not just telling a driver he can't use his phone. You're telling everyone in the car they can't. The law about the TV in the front seat is much like the hands free laws which I have no issue with. Put hands free laws in place an enforce them, but DON'T FORCE me to have crap installed in my car that disables my phone. THAT is control.

Government already has scores of restrictions on how cars are produced and used: how much CO2 they can pump out, how fast they can go on the roads, that they need to have seat belts, they are even moving to have restrictions on gas mileage, etc. This wouldn't be much different, except that people are so accustomed to talking and texting on the road that they don't want to give up that privilege. If cell phones were never legal in cars to begin with, then people would just accept it as the law and not complain much about it. If a law does effectively ban cell phones, then eventually, it will be just like the seat belt law, and folks won't even think twice about it.

 

[devilof76]

Government already has scores of restrictions on how cars are produced and used...

And they have no right to. You cannot prosecute a perceived threat before it has actually happened. Where on earth is that just? Because I could cause an accident, I am not permitted to act freely--by my own judgement? Not because I will cause an accident, or ever have caused an accident: just because I might?

People need to take responsibility for their judgement back before they forget how to judge. Judging by the receptivity to regulations like every one you named, I have to wonder if they haven't already.

 

[KitFisto]

Government already has scores of restrictions on how cars are produced and used: how much CO2 they can pump out, how fast they can go on the roads, that they need to have seat belts, they are even moving to have restrictions on gas mileage, etc. This wouldn't be much different, except that people are so accustomed to talking and texting on the road that they don't want to give up that privilege. If cell phones were never legal in cars to begin with, then people would just accept it as the law and not complain much about it. If a law does effectively ban cell phones, then eventually, it will be just like the seat belt law, and folks won't even think twice about it.

Keep drinking the government kool-aid and watch freedom after freedom continue to slip away. Watch more and more of your personal choices become the goverments. This issue isn't just about cell phones in cars, but if they can keep people thinking every issue is JUST about that issue they they have already won.

 

[devilof76]

We only gave them every thing. We didn't give them everything.