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Posted by amethyst on 05-10-2009 at 01:39:
Cell Phone Driving Laws are a Joke
The Cell Phone Driving Law in California is a joke. Most people seem to ignore it. A fifteen minute drive this evening took us twenty-five minutes because the ding-dong in a black Kia Spectra (and yes all the appropriate thoughts ran through my mind) in front of our car spent the entire time on the cell phone driving under the speed limit. There were no places to safely pass as on coming traffic mostly prevented it. My husband has more patience than I do as he refrained from riding her bumper or honking the horn to get her either off the phone or off the road. Me, I get behind an idiot like that and I make them aware of my presence. 
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Posted by Barrdwing on 05-10-2009 at 02:32:
Makes you wish for that nice Gatling gun under the hood, eh? 
Although I reserve one of these babies 
for those total morons who text while driving. And the ones that are incapable of talking on a cell phone without waving the other hand in the air.
Posted by amethyst on 05-10-2009 at 02:38:
Oh, yes, and trust me I was wishing for a nice red button on the dash board.
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Posted by Transmute Jun on 05-10-2009 at 03:15:
I see far too many people talking on cell phones while driving in California. Drives me nuts!
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Posted by gatchamarie on 05-10-2009 at 10:51:
I think it's the same story everywhere as even here you encounter these idiots more often than one can tolerate! And the problem in our country is that we do not have long distance roads or highways due to the small size of the island but we have lots of crossroads, side streets and narrow ones! I do not know how these people manage to drive or exit a side street whilst talking on the cell without creating any sort of accident involving people who actually follow the law and drive safely (I always keep my innocent children in mind!) They create a lot of swearing, though! Amethyst, if my husband was driving instead of yours he would not have been so patient for sure!
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Posted by Metaliant on 05-10-2009 at 17:06:
RE: Cell Phone Driving Laws are a Joke
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Sadly you do get complete idiots (and that's the politesed way for me to call them) who drive cars and don't care what laws they are breaking, whether it's parking on double yellow lines (illegal in Britain) or talking on a cell phone, shaving, eating, drinking, etc.
Have you ever thought of getting in front and very, very slowly drive slower and slower until both of you come to a full stop and then speed off?
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Posted by amethyst on 05-10-2009 at 21:28:
LOL! Met, I have deliberately slowed down on people. But not usually the cell phone idiots. It's the people who think that I'm not driving fast enough, when I'm driving 10 to 15 mph above the speed limit and no safe place to slow down and pull to let them pass me when they are on my bumper.
It's amazing how quickly they back off when they have to go from 65 on a twisty two lane country highway to about 45, because the 65 wasn't fast enough.
My sister-in-law has told me horror stories have British drivers, she and my brother had to spend a year and a half there while he as stationed at one of the US AFBs.
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Posted by Hinotori on 05-10-2009 at 23:50:
I'm used to be terrible to drivers who tailed me! When I was younger, I would purposely do a quick brake, just to scare the bejeezus out of the person behind me. I would prepare for it, then hit the brake and just as quickly accelerate again. It was just enough to scare the person behind me, but I didn't slow down enough to get hit (or maybe I was just lucky...). Plus, with a v4 engine, well, I had to be careful... (let's just say pick-up wasn't always the greatest!)
Now that I'm older and don't have the money to replace a car, I don't pull that stunt anymore. But it was fun while it lasted! And now that I think about it, maybe I was channeling the Condor???? 
As for cell phone use, here in New Jersey it's illegal to use a cell phone while driving unless you have hands-free. Doesn't mean people still don't do it, but it's not as prevalent as it had been. I'm waiting for the lawmakers to make texting illegal. That's a law we could use ASAP.
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Posted by Metaliant on 06-10-2009 at 18:05:
Even it you use a hand-free setup, it's still dangerous as you are concentrating more on the call and not the road.
I personally think (and no offense to you, the drivers here) that driving should be banned except for public transport (which I have to use), deliveries, emergency services and such like.
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Posted by tatsunokofan on 06-10-2009 at 18:24:
Hi all!
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That's a nice thought, but not really a practical one unless you happen to live and work in a highly metropolitan area. For the rest of us, that wouldn't work.
I live 20 miles from where I work, and the public transportation systems do not provide access from anywhere near my home, nor do they go anywhere near where I work. And, even if they did, the late-night/early-morning hours that I and other people I work with have to deal with coincide with the times when much of the public transportation systems in this area aren't running.
So, just because public transportation might work for you, that doesn't mean it would work as a option for everyone.
James
Posted by amethyst on 07-10-2009 at 05:45:
I used public transit when I did my student teaching, only driving on seminar nights. I could have never gotten to or from the university using public transportation.
The mountain road with the most direct access was not meant but buses nor the big rigs that sometimes had to use it, the road the buses could accommodate went farther north and would have meant dealing with hwy 101 of which there is really no good area of unless you want to go to Ukiah.
I do wish California had a better mass-transit system, but that's a pipe dream that fits right up with smaller class-sizes, and better pay for teachers, nurses, police and fire personnel. 
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Posted by Ebonyswanne on 07-10-2009 at 08:53:
I have a hands free kit in the car, but most of the time I don't bother, i hate talking on the phone while driving.
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Posted by lborgia88 on 07-10-2009 at 14:13:
I didn't have a car until I was 28. Prior to that it was all walking, bicycling, subways, city trains, city buses or Greyhound for me. There often were places, though, that I could not get to unless I could find a friend with a car to give me a lift -but usually I could.
If it doesn't involve really long waits or really convoluted connections and transfers, I'm happy to use public transportation. In large cities where I've lived or visited, I have no use at all for a car -I'd much rather use the subways or trains than try to drive a car around and have to deal with figuring out where to park it. Life in the suburbs (where I am now) though, seems to require a car to really be able to get anywhere.
First thing in the morning, I'm usually in a near-zombie state, and in times when I've used buses or subways to get to campus or to jobs, I liked the fact that I could just sit there in a semi-awake stupor, sipping coffee, and letting someone else do the driving. The downside, I found, was the necessity to be punctual -if you're running 10 minutes late some morning, the bus won't wait for you!
Posted by Transmute Jun on 07-10-2009 at 14:21:
Having lived in Toronto, where the mass transit system was awesome, I've had a rude awakening moving to California. The mass transit is limited here and ultra expensive, and the buses are very slow and far between. You pretty much need a car to get anywhere other than the local park. There's no way I can walk 30 minutes to the grocery store and bring home a week's worth of family groceries, nor am I going to walk my kids to school for 30 minutes each way every day. And I work 30 miles form where I live with no public tr5ansit connecting the two places whatsoever.
I only wish we all lived in a place where cars weren't so necessary, but California is not it.
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Posted by gatchamarie on 07-10-2009 at 18:14:
I must admit that since I owned a car I have become a bit lazy, driving to everywhere that I need to go! But this is also due to the hectic life that we live, having always more places to go to and less time to take to go from one place to the other, especially when you have small kids! Malta's public transport is not so expensive and quite easy to use (taking also into consideration the short distances from one place or city to the other due to the island's small size!) but I cannot imagine myself availing myself of such transport with a 5 and a 4-year-old to drag with me plus shopping bags plus school bags (which I have to sometimes carry myself when they're tired!), etc. Moreover, I'm always on the go like many other mothers, having to leave everything that I'm doing at the last moment to either take them to school, to football or gymnastic lessons, to outings, shopping, etc (especially when you work from home and have to squeeze work in between house chores and family needs!) When I worked at the Central Bank, before I became a mother, I was fortunate enough that my bus stopped at the bus terminus just in front of the side entrance of the Bank, thus that was surely a bonus which I enjoyed, especially in the morning as LB said!
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Posted by Ebonyswanne on 07-10-2009 at 21:44:
I used Trains when i worked in the city (Sydney CBD) Driving and parking the the CBD is a nightmare and very expensive! The trains aren't that great, and peak hour I always felt like a little sardine crammed into a can all the way home. (About a 50 min trip.)
We had a car, DH used it. We still only have one car.
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Posted by amethyst on 07-10-2009 at 22:28:
Ebony, Sidney sounds a lot like San Francisco. I find every way possible to avoid driving in the city. Which usually means taking the ferry from Vallejo and the Muni, BART or walking. Despite Muni's awful reputation the ferry and Muni are still cheaper than bridge tolls and parking without having to buy gas, mess with traffic or figure the freeways and one-way streets.
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Posted by lborgia88 on 08-10-2009 at 14:37:
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Yup, I think being able to snooze during one's morning commute is the best feature of public transportation. Unfortunately, though, I can't read a book in a moving vehicle of any kind for more than a few minutes without starting to feel ill -very annoying!
Posted by amethyst on 08-10-2009 at 14:52:
LB -- get audio books for CD players or MP3s, they work great on buses or trains.
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Posted by Firebird on 09-10-2009 at 09:56:
I mostly use public transport but have to say because of shift work even living in a major city its not easy to get to where I need to go.
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