Eliminate Cell Phone "Hopscotching"

[bzbvh5]

As someone drives and talks on the phone, the call jumps from one cell tower to another seemlessly. Thus a single call can last the duration of almost any trip. If the call hopscotching was not permitted and the call ended once the phone was out of range of the initial tower, would this cut down on cell phone use in moving vehicles? Is this a good idea? Would the roads be more safe if this was the new standard?

[rugbysecondrow]

As someone drives and talks on the phone, the call jumps from one cell tower to another seemlessly. Thus a single call can last the duration of almost any trip. If the call hopscotching was not permitted and the call ended once the phone was out of range of the initial tower, would this cut down on cell phone use in moving vehicles? Is this a good idea? Would the roads be more safe if this was the new standard?
It's not against the law to be on a phone call. Not a good idea.

[cid499]

How about the people in moving vehicles who aren't driving? I don't see a reason to drop their calls.

[Lifelover]

..... Is this a good idea? ....


no!

[Blue Jays]

It may potentially encourage call brevity.
More likely it would convince drivers to redial.

[TMB]

If I walk from my front yard to my back yard I not only jump to a different tower, I jump to a different network.

That would be really, REALLY annoying.

[keevon]

What happens now when your call gets dropped? People would just call each other back to continue their conversation.

You would actually increase the amount of time that drivers were distracted, since they'd be looking down at their phone to redial more frequently.

[rnhood]

That might be true initially, but I think drivers would get tired of calling each other back every 2 minutes. So ultimately it would cut down the use of cell phones while driving. Text messaging is far more of a safety concern and this is something that should be outlawed.

[spartacus]

Think revenue.

It would be for the FCC to enact this idea and it's clearly not for the 'private good' of phone companies, shareholders, or the Federal Reserve.

I'm sure the speech pattern of a person is different when driving. Write an app for it - the phone disconnects the call when it detects the driving speech pattern.

[victoryfactory]

The technology exists. You can't put the genie back in the
bottle with trickery or legislation.
All you you can hope for is individuals taking
responsibility for doing the right thing and
not driving distracted.

(fat chance)

VF

[oldpotatoe]

As someone drives and talks on the phone, the call jumps from one cell tower to another seemlessly. Thus a single call can last the duration of almost any trip. If the call hopscotching was not permitted and the call ended once the phone was out of range of the initial tower, would this cut down on cell phone use in moving vehicles? Is this a good idea? Would the roads be more safe if this was the new standard?

Install a blocker in cars that blocks cell phone usage while the engine is running. If ya gotta call, stop the car. Cell phone use while driving isn't illegal, oughta be. BUT big money from the telecomm companies, lots of $ to bribe the politicians..ain't gonna happen. Almost got nailed yesterday by some woman in a big black SUV..steering with her left hand, cell phone in her right hand, to her left ear...another dumm driver.

[ergott]

Install a blocker in cars that blocks cell phone usage while the engine is running. If ya gotta call, stop the car. Cell phone use while driving isn't illegal, oughta be. BUT big money from the telecomm companies, lots of $ to bribe the politicians..ain't gonna happen. Almost got nailed yesterday by some woman in a big black SUV..steering with her left hand, cell phone in her right hand, to her left ear...another dumm driver.

Not fair to the passengers.

:crap:

[TMB]

Install a blocker in cars that blocks cell phone usage while the engine is running. If ya gotta call, stop the car. Cell phone use while driving isn't illegal, oughta be. BUT big money from the telecomm companies, lots of $ to bribe the politicians..ain't gonna happen. Almost got nailed yesterday by some woman in a big black SUV..steering with her left hand, cell phone in her right hand, to her left ear...another dumm driver.


More and more places where cell phone use in a moving car is illegal. Thankfully.

Handheld use here is illegal ( $200 fine and points ) , sadly, they can use bluetooth which I'm not convinced is much better, but it's a start.

[bobswire]

Pretty amazing when you consider not too long ago you had to be home to receive and talk on the phone yet people survived and in fact flourished.
Now not only are we available 24/7 with our cell we can be traced within a few feet of our location with GPS.

[Tom]

No simple answer, there's no rule against passengers on the phone (I nearly blow a gasket when I see the driver on the phone and the passengers just sitting there...) or like in NY, it's just hand held phones that are against the rules.

Police don't like traffic stops for minor stuff because they never know what screwhead is behind the wheel (I know, it's not minor any more when genius on the phone causes an accident but until that happens it's still minor) and how bad it could get really quickly. Maybe there's an answer like they get to take a digi pic of the driver and the license plate and send a bill that says you send us $100 cause you're getting two points on the license anyway. Try contesting it and we'll pull your phone records and it's $1000 and ten points if we're right. You could stand at the 4-way stop at the end of my street and make a thousand an hour. Likewise, I generally see six to ten people on the phone in six miles of I-90 on the way home. How? They're going 55-60 in 70 mile an hour traffic, weaving from lane to lane. You know how tired my middle finger gets? It's exhausting.

Also, I think it should be an automatic phone record pull every time a driver is pulled over for anything or has an accident. If the phone records show usage, it's the 2 point $100 thing plus a multiplier on any other infractions and if it's an accident, the authorities make sure the insurance companies know about it.

Plus court costs, of course.

[benb]

Eliminating the ability for a call to move from Cell to Cell would not do a damn thing about driving and texting which IMO is MUCH worse.

It would break a lot of things that shouldn't be broken as well.. such as calls & internet for folks on trains & busses, etc..

We just need the police to start paying attention to illegal driving acts other then speeding.