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Feds seek to jam cell phones in cars

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Rainsford said:
Speaking as someone else who lives in a highly congested traffic area (Washington DC and surrounding area has some epic fail traffic), I'd say the biggest problem is that we're putting together a whole bunch of people who are just terrible drivers. Cell phones make them worse, but seeing how the average driver fails at the simplest of tasks, with no distractions, makes me realize how dangerous driving is always going to be.

My main concern is that idiots are idiots (and most people seem to fall into this category behind the wheel). You can't force them to pay attention and make smart decisions, no matter what distractions you take away. In other words, I'm not sure cell phones are the problem so much as they are A problem. Which is fine, but taking it away won't help as much as people think it might.
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THIS. Exactly. Ban idiots pls. And no I'm not being sarcastic, I wish there were a way!

Tell me, were those bad Boston (or anywhere) drivers just as bad before everyone and their grandmother got a cell phone? They were weren't they?
 
I'm in favor of this however it needs to be a bit more robust than it sounds. There must be some intelligence bulit in for you to universally dock your phones so you can only accept calls coming through the integrated speaker phone system of the car. If the phone isn't docked it would lose all access.

If they are going to incorporate this then they also need the built in breathalyzer as well.

Technology can accurately solve problems if we implement it correctly.

Ideally all our vehicles and roadways should be outfitted with intelligent traffic controls to have semi auto pilot on based on a gps destination. You can over ride auto pilot by disabling distractions (cell phones) and pass breathalyzer test.
 
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JSt0rm said:
they sky is falling! the sky is falling! Grow some. Little whiny bitches are like a fucking womens circle on a saturday night no less.
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Says the douchebag whose team has been crying like women since 2000.

Waaaah! Republicans! Waaaah!

Grow a pair yourself, Sally.
 
BoberFett said:
Says the douchebag whose team has been crying like women since 2000.

Waaaah! Republicans! Waaaah!

Grow a pair yourself, Sally.
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I've always been against the big brother aspects of the government. I used to live in washington dc. I remember but but buuuush telling everyone to put plastic up on their windows. lmao. Neocons acted out of fear. History will print it as such.
 
JSt0rm said:
I've always been against the big brother aspects of the government. I used to live in washington dc. I remember but but buuuush telling everyone to put plastic up on their windows. lmao. Neocons acted out of fear. History will print it as such.
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Yeah, because all those Democrats voted against the PATRIOT Act. Whoops, you fail again.
 
JSt0rm said:
I am disappoint he is continuing those same policies. What do you want me to do about it?
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You could start by stopping your religiously zealous cheering for the Democrats over the Republicans. For all intents and purposes, they're the same.
 
Fuck that. One's car is one's property. There should be penalties for talking on one's phone while driving, but it shouldn't be impossible to do. I'm sure people will just find these jammers and rip them out anyway. Sometimes people really do need to talk on their phones in emergencies, too.
 
Craig234 said:
And note that hands-free has the *same risk* as hand-held phones - this ic because the danger is the attention the conversation demands, not the hands being occupied.

For this reason, I support bans on *all* non-emergency cell phone use, hands-free or not, while driving, and educational efforts to get people to not use them.
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So I guess you also support a ban on the driver talking to passengers and I guess you support a ban on all CB radios.
 
So. We enacted seatbelt laws to save lives, and the vast vast majority of people now wear them. Some states enacted helmet laws, and now the vast majority of people in those states wear them.

Someone will have to explain this to me like I'm clueless, because I obviously am. What's wrong with letting municipalities enact their own driving laws that state quite simply - no talking on the cell phone while driving? The police can enforce it just like they do seatbelt laws or any other law, and we're done.

Instead, certain people (who are always the people to suggest this sort of thing) want a technological answer to a problem. They want mandatory devices placed in cars. This will increase the price. Those devices will have to be built and certified, most likely by some government agency or a contractor thereof. Then the vehicles will need to be certified in some manner that the device works. Then states like California will quickly include it in their emissions and safety yearly tests as well, so we can have yet more money and fees taken in by the government while intruding even more in our lives.

I'm sure I could go on for several more paragraphs about the lawyers this would employ, the time it would take for our government to pass it, the regulators whose salaries it would pay, etc etc.

Instead, I'll simply look at the people advocating this and say in a very loud and clear voice:

Fuck. You.
 
If a person does behavior that imposes danger onto other people is that behavior a matter of "personal responsibility"?

Does texting and or using cell phones increase the chances of having an accident and hurting other people?
 
Siddhartha said:
If a person does behavior that imposes danger onto other people is that behavior a matter of "personal responsibility"?

Does texting and or using cell phones increase the chances of having an accident and hurting other people?
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Are you really that clueless? The act of being on the road "imposes danger onto other people" as you are driving a 2 ton piece of metal/plastic. Maybe we should just let you libs outlaw cars... since it seems to be what you are aiming for. :roll:
 
So, has there been a recent spike in the number of traffic fatalities per capita in the US. A quick google search brings up washington state http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/planning/wtp/datalibrary/Safety/MVFatalities.htm and I don't see anything. I would expect that if such a large percentage of the population was acting in a manner equivalent of drunk driving to see the trend going up, not down. So, without an increase in deaths, why are we pretending their is a crisis we need to solve?
 
Zargon said:
and how will this jammer know you are a passenger and should be allowed to use the phone...?

worst idea. ever.
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Thats not the most difficult engineering problem that the world has faced. I'm sure they could quite easily create a robust system to accomodate all these obvious caveats.
 
The site is blocked here at work, is there any evidence that this is an actual problem, or has the government invented a problem that it can solve by forcing yet more safety "features" on us?
 
CADsortaGUY said:
Are you really that clueless? The act of being on the road "imposes danger onto other people" as you are driving a 2 ton piece of metal/plastic. Maybe we should just let you libs outlaw cars... since it seems to be what you are aiming for. :roll:
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I asked a question about personal responsibility and behavior that imposes danger onto others. Is the best answer you can come up is "Maybe we should let you libs outlaw cars"?
 
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