Put that Cell Phone down before I....

Shove it where the sun don't shine so hard they'll have a better time of pumping your stomach to get it back out.

Sorry,

Since I've been promoted at my new job, I now have to go in 5 days a week, which is a 30 minute commute. (Pay's over 2x what I was earning, so until Gas hits about 20 bucks a gallon, I'm still coming out a head). The hours are just a bit of normal Rush Hour, so I avoid the worst of the traffic.

That said. I've been in about 4 accidents so far this week. I lack good driving skills (poor depth perception & bad night vision hampers me). I know this. Thus, I drive very cautiously and pay very close attention to my surroundings. This has kept me accident free the entire 10+ years I've been driving. Now, having said that.

How many phone conversations end with "Oh, that's ok I'm just going to the store to.... AIEEEEE!!!!! CRASH!" Call Ended.

I've nearly been run over 4 times. Each by a driver with 1 hand on the wheel & the other to their ear on a cell phone. In one case, I noticed the guy swerving all over, so I didn't try to pass. The SUV that tried got ran OFF the road when the driver suddenly decided to switch lanes without bothering to see if a FULL SIZE Chevy Suburban happened to be in the other lane (it sure wasn't in his blind spot as was longer than his entire car).

Or the woman I noticed behind me, yapping on the cell phone as we approached a Red Light. As I was slowing down, I noticed her still flying up behind me. I got over into the Left Turn Lane. She flew by & half-way through the Red Light she realized what the heck she was doing & slammed on the brakes. In the middle of the intersection, a god 50 past where she really needed to observe that she needed to stop.

So, please people. Stop talking on Cell Phones when driving. In fact, try to pay a little bit closer attention to what is going on. Anymore, it's a complete crap-shoot as to when a car is going to turn.

They're called Turn Signals PEOPLE! Most cars built past 1945 or so should have them.

PS. Your SUV is NOT a Tank. Stop driving it like it is one.

PPS. A fully loaded big rig does NOT have the same stopping power of your Plastic Mustang. Cutting them off could result in an accident. In these cases your car WILL lose.

PPPS. While 2 hands are the recommended number of hands to have on the steering wheel. ONE should be the minimum. Your knees just aren't going to cut it in an emergency.

PPPPS. If I'm going 73 in the fast lane of the highway to pass a big rig going 65 and the speed limit is 70.... It really doesn't do you any good to fly up behind me, flash your lights, honk your horn, and give me the finger. I won't go any faster. Maybe, just maybe, you had a pregnant woman going into labor in the back seat of your Taurus. Maybe there WAS an emergency. Maybe you had a good reason for blowing by me at 90+ when I got back over. But you know, I drive this road every day of the week. I know all the spots where the highway patrol likes to hang out. And you know what? That state trooper seemed to be taking his sweet time checking your license and registration when I passed you 5 minutes later.

Wait, that last one made me feel kind of warm & fuzzy inside.

I wholeheartedly agree with your rant about drivers on cell phones. I watched an episode of Mythbusters on which they tested to determine if a person talking on a cell phone while driving was better or worse than driving while inebriated. IIRC, they determined that people talking on cell phones drive just as badly as drunk drivers.

Even worse to my mind are people talking on cell phones while riding bicycles. The block I live on is technically one-way, but cyclists are allowed to go against the flow of traffic. Now that the weather is nice we get a lot of them. I've seen plenty of them rolling along while chatting on their cell phones, with one hand - or no hands - on the handlebars. Granted, a bike isn't a big weapon like a car, but how are you going to dodge that car door suddenly opening in front of you if you aren't paying attention and don't have a hand on the handlebars? You're not a circus performer!

Why do people need to be on their cell phones so much anyway? What's so important that it can't wait for a more convenient (and safer) time to talk? And while we're at it, how about a more private time to talk? People on the bus yak on their cells about the most intimate details - I'd like to think if they were involved in a face-to-face conversation they'd keep their voices lower. Maybe I'm fooling myself about that. :\

It's people with cell phones period which is the problem. Doesn't matter how they are travelling.

I saw this guy who was crossing a busy intersection who stopped in the middle of the road to take a call, then began talking with the caller while still standing in the middle of the frickin road, and then made a u-turn and walked back to where he'd come from. All this without appearing to realize that he was almost dead several times. Luckiest dumbest son of a moron.

Remember the days before cell phones? We all got by somehow then. My theory is that people hate the feeling of being cut off, that they're continually afraid that something important will happen while they're away.

I went on a cruise around the Mediterranean a few years ago, and whenever we were in sight of land, a bunch of people would get out their phones and start phoning around, most of them saying, "I just wanted to see whether my phone works here."

Don't get me wrong, cell phones are a brilliant invention, and they make life a lot easier. There are times when it is terribly inconvenient to be cut off from the rest of the world, and they make it a great deal easier for people to combine work with travel. I'm self-employed, for example, and having a cell phone means that I don't have to worry about my clients not being able to contact me if I have to leave my office.

But what is the deal with people needing to switch on their phones the minute their plane lands -- and not just business travellers, it's mostly teenagers and other people who usually don't have anything really vital going on -- and complaining bitterly when they have to switch them off.

My pet peeve is people who come to visit, and leave their phones on, and spend half the evening talking on them. Actually, I'm pretty appalled by most people's phone etiquette in general: if there's a conversation going on in the room, take the phone somewhere else! You're just annoying everyone else! And don't get me started on people who start yakking at the top of their voice in restaurants ...

I think there should be licences for cell phones. Limit use to people who have a real need for them! (Grumblegrumblemuttermumble)

I don't have enough words to tell you how much I agree with you.

I think that talking on a cell-phone while driving should be as legally punishable as driving drunk. The results are the same; both are choices to be irresponsible, etc. What's the difference? Why should the liability and responsibility be any less? If anything, drunk drivers have a better argument... they have impaired judgment, cell-phone users don't have that excuse. Just plain negligence and stupidity.

Personally, I'm glad gas-prices have gone up. My little Toyota Echo gets 48 mpg, so unless gas prices reach quite a bit higher it doesn't affect me. Now, I have noticed a dramatically high ratio of SUV users being the brain-dead idiots who use cell-phones while driving like maniacs. Perhaps if prices go even higher, they won't be able to afford to talk so much on their phone.

People do a lot in the car that distracts them. Cell phones now seem to be the most common, but they were by no means the first distraction. I've seen people fiddle with their radio, try to pick up something from the floor, put on lipstick, and even try to read the paper or a map. All of those can cause an accident if something unexpected happens in that one moment of inattention, but cell phones are probably the worst offender because you usually spend several minutes or more on the phone, whereas you'll only spend a few seconds trying to pick your coffee cup off of the floor.

I saw a story on the news a few years ago about cars that can drive themselves on the highway. They had cars that could be two feet away from each other going at 60 MPH that required no interaction from the driver. They weren't feasable at the time of the article, as it would probably require a separate lane for auto-drive cars (you don't want someone darting out in front of these cars because they aren't as good as a human at dealing with unexpected situations) and they definitely would require some sort of tracking cylinder inserted into the side of the road every 60 feet that they would sense to tell them where to go. But god I wish we had these today. Cars that can drive themselves on highways would probably halve the number of accidents. Computers drive predicably, don't get distracted, and can't get impatient. And if you want to talk on the darn phone, they don't care.

I agree about the cell phone thing. Here in Cali there is a heartening sign though ... I have seen more and more people pull off to the side of the road and stop the car to talk on the cell phone. I always applaud such people when I see them doing so!

Presumably it's legal to drive while talking on the phone in the US, then? It was here until about a year ago, but it's now illegal to do so. A good thing, in my opinion.

It varies from state to state. In the area where I live it's illegal, but that hasn't stopped people from doing it. It's one of those things that, even if it's illegal, they don't ticket for very often, so the chances of getting caught are probably less than your chances of getting into an accident.

Oh, it's not just while driving that bothers me.

I've hiked up Harney Peak four times now. The first three times were off-season. The first two times, I was the only person up there.

Last summer, I went at the end of June. There were a good 60 people up there. Ugh.

So I go walking over to another part of the peak where there are no people. Unfortunately, people see me over there, point and go "oh, we can get over there!", and come out to annoy me.

One guy walks over to about 6' from me, sits down, whips out his cell phone and begins screaming into it. "You'll never guess where I am!!!.

It took every ounce of my self control to walk away. I dearly wanted to walk up behind him, snatch it out of his hands, say "Due to serious user error, this phone will be non-functional in 5...4....3...." and then THROW IT OFF THE MOUNTAIN!


The picture I use as my avatar was taken at the top of Harney. In the larger photo, the fire tower is just over my shoulder.