Fighting distracted driving in NY

[Louis]

This sounds like a good start, but IMO is a band-aid over the problem. As long as drivers can do this, they will. (Unless the punishment is a mandatory month in jail.)

Link to NYT story here (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/12/03/opinion/stealth-suvs.html?smid=pl-share)

The pileup of grim fatality data about the risks of distracted driving has prompted New York State to assign highway troopers to a special fleet of 32 CITE vehicles, for Concealed Identity Traffic Enforcement, designed to catch cellphone texters as they tap away. These are nondescript gray S.U.V.’s that ride higher than normal so officers can peer down into vehicles moving suspiciously in the hands (or nonhands) of drivers eyeing and manipulating their electronic-message devices.

[Look585]

Don't smart phones all have GPS now? The phones know how fast they are going, couldn't they just lock up above 20mph?

Distracted driving is epidemic across age, gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Something needs to be done.

[1centaur]

Don't smart phones all have GPS now? The phones know how fast they are going, couldn't they just lock up above 20mph?


Planes, trains and automobiles go over 20 mph and have eager texters in them who are non drivers. But I have to think people in the drivers seat could be blocked if everyone were willing to retrofit vehicles and phones as a condition of auto insurance.

[Don49]

I'd like to see cellphones required to be carried in a vehicle the same as many states do with guns and booze, in a locked container or at least out of reach of the driver. And why not similar penalties for an open container or a cellphone within reach of the driver? Screw the whole hands free concept.

[rustychisel]

I'd like to see cellphones required to be carried in a vehicle the same as many states do with guns and booze, in a locked container or at least out of reach of the driver. And why not similar penalties for an open container or a cellphone within reach of the driver? Screw the whole hands free concept.


I think this is unlikely to happen in any jurisdiction anytime soon.

It concerns me that emergency workers, police, council workers etc are allowed 2 way comms whilst driving - but not personal mobile phones. It can be hard to discern which is which, but I recently busted a council worker in the city centre, driving a very large truck and talking away on his mobile phone. He was supposed to be stopped at a red light yet was so inattentive that the vehicle was rolling forward into the pedestrian walk zone.

You bet I reported him

[flydhest]

good thing drivers don't have to "clean their own house" in order to get respect on the road. that only applies to cyclists, because car drivers always obey the laws.

[Louis]

The Majority always get away with more. Sometimes, it's literally murder.