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Post by sorrycharlie on Sept 20, 2007 22:43:59 GMT -5
I am terrible at driving and don't have my license yet, but I can see why hands free might be less dangerous than a regular phone. They will cause equal amounts of distraction because of the conversation but... Hold your hand to your ear like you're holding a phone... Without thinking about it, where is your head tilted. Down? Mine is, and so has been everyone I've asked that. And all those people talk on the phone while driving. Only one of them has a bluetooth, so along with distraction, people have to concentrate extra to look at the road, and not at their steering wheel. My dad is the one who uses a bluetooth, and he hangs up on me all the time because the traffic gets too bad. I think people who do choose to use their cell phones while driving should all do this. Whoever you're talking to would much rather you not get in an accident, so just say goodbye and drive. Personally, I'm so awful with driving that when I do get my license I will never use my cell phone while driving. I don't even like to have the radio on when I'm out practicing. It's just too much... But I'm an odd case, because I don't even like riding in cars. That's why I'm so bad at driving them. Hmmm....I tried that, SK, but my head didn't tilt down, or any other direction for that matter. Either way, you know I agree with you. However, now I think we have a more pressing problem. What's worse than driving while talking on the phone up to your ear? Get this: Yesterday, a guy in front of me suddenly slowed down a lot, so I passed him. I looked over and he was talking on the phone while reading a book! How scary is that!
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Post by jvdvorst on Sept 21, 2007 1:39:30 GMT -5
Okay: I HATE truckdrivers on cell phones! Everymorning I ride my bike from the trainstation to my workplace. I don't know if you have one of these in the states, but I was riding on the 'bike'-lane, and when on curtain roads the bike-lane always has right-of-way. But those truckdrivers always think they can go first. And then this morning I was cut of by one talking on his cell phone!
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Post by markedman on Sept 21, 2007 6:11:08 GMT -5
The other day I encountered two drivers, both "hands free". The first was in front of me in a monster SUV at a stop light. The light changed. At first he didn't move. Then he rolled forward slowly until he was partly in the intersection but still keeping me from my right turn. He stopped again. I beeped. He rolled forward slowly through the intersection then stopped in the middle of the road on the other side. I checked him out as I made my turn and saw his hands waving and him talking, alone in the car so I'm assuming wireless (or insane). Then, the same day but on the way home, there was another SUV who had "pulled over" to talk. But what she did was pull into a business driveway, but parallel to the road, so she was blocking the driveway. She also not really pulled out of the road so her car was two feet or so into the right hand lane, which I was in. Barely squeezed past her in my Mini Cooper, and sure enough she was hunched over the steering wheel talking intently, both hands on the wheel, so again, hands-free or insane. To top it off, she was blocking three cars in the driveway, which she seemed completely unaware of.
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Post by SK on Sept 21, 2007 15:43:26 GMT -5
I've also seen drivers reading... that seems akin to drivers texting and that it is just a really BAD idea! I've also seen someone putting on eyeliner or something while driving. She had her elbow on the wheel, and all her attention focused on her mirror. Gah!
jvdvorst, what is it with truck drivers huh? I bike a lot too, and it is always a big huge truck that cuts me off, whether they are on a cell phone or not. There is this one intersection in particular that I always avoid because the trucks feel like they can drive on the shoulder and they don't even look for bikers or pedestrians. The one time I was inches away from being roadkill, the driver was indeed on a cell phone. I saw him before careening off into the ditch.
Last weekend on my way back to school my mom and I got caught behind a man on a cell phone. He was going at least fifteen miles below the speed limit on a road that everyone usually drives too fast on. We had a line of cars tailgating behind us as far back as we could see, all because that one guy was on his cell phone. He kept weaving back and forth and slowing down until he was practically stopped too.
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Post by Michaela on Sept 26, 2007 21:36:49 GMT -5
One of the reasons why hands free is nearly as bad is that the person your are on the phone with can't see the visual cues like a passenger would. When you are waiting to make a difficult turn, in heavy rain, or coming up to an orange light, a passenger will usually stop talking for 30 seconds or so and let you concentrate. That's the argument put forward by a lot of people in Australia anyway. What do you guys think?
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Post by markedman on Sept 27, 2007 5:17:17 GMT -5
One of the reasons why hands free is nearly as bad is that the person your are on the phone with can't see the visual cues like a passenger would. When you are waiting to make a difficult turn, in heavy rain, or coming up to an orange light, a passenger will usually stop talking for 30 seconds or so and let you concentrate. That's the argument put forward by a lot of people in Australia anyway. What do you guys think? Makes sense to me.
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lu
Junior Member
Posts: 52
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Post by lu on Sept 29, 2007 1:02:34 GMT -5
One of the reasons why hands free is nearly as bad is that the person your are on the phone with can't see the visual cues like a passenger would. When you are waiting to make a difficult turn, in heavy rain, or coming up to an orange light, a passenger will usually stop talking for 30 seconds or so and let you concentrate. That's the argument put forward by a lot of people in Australia anyway. What do you guys think? Makes sense to me. Makes sense to me too.
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Post by bev on Sept 29, 2007 18:28:29 GMT -5
A couple of weeks ago I was watching Judge Judy, there was a young woman that was suing a young boy for damage to her car, he had been on a skateboard in a shopping center, well he had a witness that had seen the young woman driving 15 miles over the speed limit, and she was also talking on a cell ph. at the time that he ran into her car on the skateboard That was all Judge Judy had to hear, she told her "you were on a cell ph. and not paying attention, and her judgement went to the young boy(defendent) she ended up having to pay for all his Medical bills, she told the young woman that she was going to fast and not paying attention, if she had been, she would have slowed down and the young boy never would have hit her car(with his body) The sad part was that even after he had hit her car and was laying in the street, she got out of the car and continued to talk on the ph.
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Post by sorrycharlie on Sept 29, 2007 19:00:02 GMT -5
Thus concludes what we all knew since the beginning: Cell phones are EVIL!
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Post by blankslate on Dec 14, 2007 23:17:41 GMT -5
Actually on Mythbusters, I think they showed that the person on the cell phone performed significantly worse than the drunk driver. I believe talking on the cell phone while driving is illegal in DC.
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