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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Perspective Alters Reality

Oh, yes, and trust me I was wishing for a nice red button on the dash board.

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Perspective Alters Reality

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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To be or not to be a gatchamaniac - that's the dilemma!

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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Perspective Alters Reality

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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Eagle in Residence
Tempory Frisker

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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Perspective Alters Reality

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!

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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To be or not to be a gatchamaniac - that's the dilemma!

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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Perspective Alters Reality

LB -- get audio books for CD players or MP3s, they work great on buses or trains.

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Perspective Alters Reality