Put down that cell phone

July 1 in Virginia is the day when new laws take effect, and today is no different. The most significant of the new laws is the one banning texting (or emailing), including the reading of emails or texts, while driving. The law was implemented as part of a larger failed effort to ban cell phone use while driving unless accompanied by a hands free device. There are a number of these laws popping up around the county so it was not surprising that Virginia would be the latest state to try to ban this particular activity. I will not discuss the esoteric issues associated with banning cell phones. The fact that most jurisdictions do not seem to think their reckless driving provisions are enough scares me, but the generally overlooked issues of dialing, looking up phone numbers etc seems overlooked in most of these bills, beyond the issue of defining what hands-free really means.

But I have serious problems with the texting issue. Not that I am opposed to it. In fact, there are so many people doing it that driving, especially during rush hour is a real contact sport. Usually between two twits that should know better. And that is the real issue. They have banned texting, yet as I am driving along this morning (in the passenger seat) I notice people eating, a couple with both hands; reading, both novels and the newspaper, propped over their steering wheels; talking on their cell phones and numerous other things that would make you cringe. And while I have not seen anyone practicing a musical instrument, there are enough videos and pictures in the wild of this sort of activity to make me believe that it happens as well.

The other problem I have with it is that there are legitimate reasons to be looking at your cell phone while driving. These sorts of blanket bans overlook issues like directions. They have not banned looking at or fiddling with GPS devices, or maps, and yet, people have been doing this for generations. How many of us no longer print out directions to a friend’s house but simply read it off the screen? I only recently purchased a GPS unit and prior to this, relied on map books, turned open to the page I needed and sitting on the passenger seat beside me. This was less distracting that looking at a cell phone screen? When stopped at a red light?

My point here is this. Driving is a full time job. In congested traffic in most of the cities in North America, it is more than a full time job; your head needs to be constantly on a swivel and your attention on where you are going. Too many of us are not doing that at the best of times, resulting in laws that are little more that feel good provisions to give local legislators something to crow about, yet do little to reduce the actual cause – in this case, gross inattention. It would behoove these legislators to look into the causes, not texting, but poor driving skills. Increase the tests, make them harder to pass. In Europe for example, there are several countries that have more non-drivers than drivers, simply because of the strictness of the test. Ever wonder why you do not hear about horrific crashes on the Autobahn? It is because German drivers have to spend three years getting their license and they have a no nonsense attitude about traffic violations, rather than the general namby-pamby attitude here in the United States. Even my home province of Ontario is getting serious about drunk driving and dropped the limit of intoxication from 0.08 to 0.05, which sends a clear signal that if you are in anyway impaired, you will be arrested.

But today, Virginia takes a baby step towards protecting its citizenry. Now if we could just get them to put the same amount of effort into maintaining and improving the transit network as they put into this no texting law, we might actually produce safer roads.