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Topic: Campaign Issue: Cell Phones

In the coming months you will see more of what I am running on. This one is about cellphones and bans.


Now first and foremost let me say... I am not going to take the fight on for personal responsibility and texting while driving this campaign. While I personally would want personal responsibility being the key of that, I am not campaigning on it this cycle.

However cell phone bans I will campaign on.

For the record I have a hands free link to my speaker system in my semi truck, but no hands free in my car.


Now some States, such as California, require handsfree but make them secondary offenses, some States, such as Nevada, ban handheld cellular device use entirely, some States have provisions against certain classes of workers and the Federal Government has banned cell phones for bus drivers, and texting for any commercial drivers. Many States have anti-texting laws and it is expected to ultimately pass in all States.


Now a cell pphone is more than a chatting device.


It can call 911

It can dial *91 (Hwy patrol in one State)

It can call for directions when lost.

It can call 511 (State information line in most States) and check for road conditions

It can communicate with a dying relative as you rush to the hospital.

In some cases hostages have used it to call for help


Smart Phones carry this a step further. They can pull up a map, check www.weatherunderground.org or a highway DOT map showing construction warnings.

While texting has been in the news as dangerous, few call cell phones dangerous if you keep your eyes on the road.

My opponent however disagrees.


In fact her caucus supports jamming devices on highways to prevent cellular usage. This can lead to lives lost, not saved. I vehemently disagree with any outright ban of cell phones, and I am against hands free requirements.

I support personal responsibility on this issue. If you have an accident it is your fault, not the phones!

Cellphones play an important role in our society economically, socially, and in emergency matters. Let's not handcuff all of society because of a 'potential' few.

Everything bad in the economy is now Obama's fault. Every job lost, all the debt, all the lost retirement funds. All Obama. Are you happy now? We all get to blame Obama!
Kemp currently not being responded to until he makes CONCISE posts.
Avogardo and Noir ignored by me for life so people know why I do not respond to them. (Informational)

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2 Reply by The Great Eye (edited by Zarf BeebleBrix 12-Dec-2011 08:07:14)

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Re: Campaign Issue: Cell Phones

For the record, the anti-texting law is pretty much going to be an established standard.  The federal government established a requirement that states pass an anti-texting law or risk their highway funding... and considering highway funding has been the tool for every federal requirement of state rules ever... yeah, this is going to happen...

The real question is how far the rules go beyond that minimum...

Make Eyes Great Again!

The Great Eye is watching you... when there's nothing good on TV...

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Re: Campaign Issue: Cell Phones

Many people, if not all, struggle to truly concentrate on the road and maintain a conversation at the same time. Texting requires your eyes to be directed at your phone (so really, how this is safe I do not know), and any conversation whilst driving is distracting to the driver. As far as needing to make a phone call, why not pull over? (sure I understand the difficult in a truck, but for a normal car, it is not a problem...and if the call is such an emergency, it shouldn't even be an inconvenience). Now it isn't the most reliable of sources, but Mythbusters had a segment on driving whilst on the phone, and they deemed it worse than driving over the BAC limit...like I said, not the most reliable of sources, but still, when you see some of the drivers I have seen, they are not able to do both.

Now, as I stated above, regardless of whether you feel you are a safe driver or not, there are some people who just can't handle it in a safe manner, so what should the government do? Not outlaw it and make it the drivers fault when he causes an accident? Say he kills someone, sure the driver is responsible, but the family wouldn't get any satisfaction that the government was not doing anything to prevent such an accident from occuring. If you claim you are a safe driver, don't get angry at the government for preventing idiots from not paying attention whilst driving, get angry at the idiots that made that a necessity (I know I get angry at the little kids who are too stupid to light the fuse on fireworks and then run away...if they didn't blow up their hands, or as is the case in China, the CCTV tower, then fireworks could be used by everyone (I will further clarify and say that in my home country I cannot buy or use fireworks...and it has always been a goal of mine, can't wait until Spring Festival here...gonna light up the night sky)

I give your invention the worst score imaginable. An A minus MINUS!
~Wornstrum~

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Re: Campaign Issue: Cell Phones

Einstein leads to cell phones, but than gets into different situations. What is the true issue? cell phones, there usage, the data space, or using them on the road?. You have eluded to many things ... and it's hard to respond until your true meaning of your statement is recognized.

~ Cloud

"I Cannot Awake From This Nightmare As Long As You Exist..."

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Re: Campaign Issue: Cell Phones

I am saying cell phones are a tool, a useful one... especially in crisis situations.

Banning or jamming them is stupid.

I am not going to campaign for or against texting.


I am going to campaign to not restrict cellphones

Everything bad in the economy is now Obama's fault. Every job lost, all the debt, all the lost retirement funds. All Obama. Are you happy now? We all get to blame Obama!
Kemp currently not being responded to until he makes CONCISE posts.
Avogardo and Noir ignored by me for life so people know why I do not respond to them. (Informational)

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Re: Campaign Issue: Cell Phones

How prophetic the timing on this, the NTSB wants to ban usage of cell phones PERIOD (except emergencies) after a texting accident...

NO NO NO NO!


Fire anyone involved who made that judgement, bar them from Federal Employment, and make it clear... some lines do NOT get crossed!

Everything bad in the economy is now Obama's fault. Every job lost, all the debt, all the lost retirement funds. All Obama. Are you happy now? We all get to blame Obama!
Kemp currently not being responded to until he makes CONCISE posts.
Avogardo and Noir ignored by me for life so people know why I do not respond to them. (Informational)

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Re: Campaign Issue: Cell Phones

If you can phone and drive, i can drink and drive.
Drinking reduces your concentration, phones take your concentration away completely.

I am sKoE
Do you know what the chain of command is here? It's the chain I go get and beat you with to show you who's in command.

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Re: Campaign Issue: Cell Phones

Phones are found to wake people up, drinking is found to make them sleepy


Or how about we avoid fake strawmwn?

Everything bad in the economy is now Obama's fault. Every job lost, all the debt, all the lost retirement funds. All Obama. Are you happy now? We all get to blame Obama!
Kemp currently not being responded to until he makes CONCISE posts.
Avogardo and Noir ignored by me for life so people know why I do not respond to them. (Informational)

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Re: Campaign Issue: Cell Phones

http://www.dailytech.com/Ford+Talking+While+Driving+Can+Lower+Accident+Rates+in+Some+Cases/article23132.htm

Everything bad in the economy is now Obama's fault. Every job lost, all the debt, all the lost retirement funds. All Obama. Are you happy now? We all get to blame Obama!
Kemp currently not being responded to until he makes CONCISE posts.
Avogardo and Noir ignored by me for life so people know why I do not respond to them. (Informational)

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Re: Campaign Issue: Cell Phones

Now how do you block texting whilst driving whilst not blocking calls? It would be great if emergency calls were still unblocked, but honestly, there is very few reasons to talk and drive on the road (I mean why can't you just pull over and make a phone call for directions? If it is to call 911, most cases I would imagine that it would be either necessary to stop, ie car accident, or if it is life threatening, then you should be focusing on your life, ie. driving away from the guy firing shots, not calling the police)...

I give your invention the worst score imaginable. An A minus MINUS!
~Wornstrum~

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Re: Campaign Issue: Cell Phones

I drive approximately 9 hours a day averaged over a year. This is semi truck and personal auto driving times.

I am called a proffessional driver.


I am afraid of these sort of drivers:
Ladies putting on makeup
Teens Texting
Teens with teenage friends in the car
Drivers who look only at the last second when getting on an Interstate to see where an opening is
People who inexplicably stop in a travel lane when a nice wide shoulder exists
Las Vegas drivers (those people terrify me... trying to fit two cars in a space barely able to accomidate it in front of my moving semi truck is fairly suicidal)
Certain old drivers
People who just do not pay attention to the road
Sleepy drivers
Kids distracting parents with issues


Those who commonly do not scare me include:
People on a phone
Someone drinking a soda
Someone listening to music
A cop using his computer and driving
A person using a gps device
A person using the map service on his phone.
Usage of a hands free device at all



I have to note... I have seen some people so safe while they are texting I could sleep comfortably in a bunk while they drive, and I have seen some fully awake and undistracted people so unsafe I cringed at their presence.

I agree bus drivers above all need less distractions as possible, they operate in crowded cities, congested traffic, with people running to catch them, and with passengers on board.



Btw for thr official record... my cellphone is my music source, via Pandora. Take that away and I will have issues with boredom leading to fatigue. Not smart at all.




In reference to the pull over mentality.... not possible on 80% of roads in rural areas, probably 50% in urban areas, and such. Directions can be hard to memorize, step by step directions can be useful. Proffessionally I have had to rely on step by step in about five cases.

Everything bad in the economy is now Obama's fault. Every job lost, all the debt, all the lost retirement funds. All Obama. Are you happy now? We all get to blame Obama!
Kemp currently not being responded to until he makes CONCISE posts.
Avogardo and Noir ignored by me for life so people know why I do not respond to them. (Informational)

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Re: Campaign Issue: Cell Phones

"Btw for thr official record... my cellphone is my music source, via Pandora. Take that away and I will have issues with boredom leading to fatigue. Not smart at all."

There are other options.

"In reference to the pull over mentality.... not possible on 80% of roads in rural areas, probably 50% in urban areas, and such."

Then US roads must be terribly designed, because in Australia pulling over is rather easy and frequently available. I agree with the difficulty in a truck though, but for the average resident, it shouldn't be a problem.

As for directions, didn't say anything about using a GPS system (which I set BEFORE I start driving).

"People who just do not pay attention to the road"

See, anyone that is trying to do 2 things at once, CANNOT CONCENTRATE COMPLETELY! (women seem to be better at men with multi-tasking, and look at their driving record [fyi, this is an attempt at humour, and sorry if it offends anyone]). Now like I said before, and you have agreed, not everyone can handle doing 2 things at once, and this creates a distracted driver...consider this one of the "get mad at the muppets who ruin it for the rest of us" situations, because the government needs some way to ensure safety on the road, and they can't make rules for every individual person.

I give your invention the worst score imaginable. An A minus MINUS!
~Wornstrum~

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Re: Campaign Issue: Cell Phones

Let's break down the act of driving a semi truck


One foot fuel pedal
One foot clutch
One hand steering
One hand Gear shifting
GPS examined
Speed examined
Music on
And sometimes to complicate things... a phone call.


Looks like a lot of multi tasking to me.


US roads tend to have no large shoulder in rural areas. Interstates commonly have shoulders, but lots of urban space finding parking except stores is a problem.


Btw while I jested above, the concept of multi tasking is a little misrepresented. I multi task all the time, it is not distracting, it is second nature.

Everything bad in the economy is now Obama's fault. Every job lost, all the debt, all the lost retirement funds. All Obama. Are you happy now? We all get to blame Obama!
Kemp currently not being responded to until he makes CONCISE posts.
Avogardo and Noir ignored by me for life so people know why I do not respond to them. (Informational)

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Re: Campaign Issue: Cell Phones

> Einstein wrote:

> Let's break down the act of driving a semi truck


One foot fuel pedal
One foot clutch
One hand steering
One hand Gear shifting
GPS examined
Speed examined
Music on
And sometimes to complicate things... a phone call.


Looks like a lot of multi tasking to me.


US roads tend to have no large shoulder in rural areas. Interstates commonly have shoulders, but lots of urban space finding parking except stores is a problem.


Btw while I jested above, the concept of multi tasking is a little misrepresented. I multi task all the time, it is not distracting, it is second nature.



I do not disagree that some people can multitask, but you can't assume that just because you can, others also can. You need one rule to govern everyone, and sadly we are often held back by the weakest link. I used to work in tech support for an ISP, now on routine calls I could also browse and read things, but if I did that on a complicated call which required my attention, I became too distracted to concentrate. The problem with phone calls, whilst maybe making you alert, you are dividing your attention, and depending on what the phone call is about, it can tend to take alot of your attention away from the road. Now in normal circumstances this is not a problem, but it is where things change in a sudden that accidents happen, and these don't happen often, but if you are doing 2 things at once, you will react slower than if you were 100% dedicated.

I give your invention the worst score imaginable. An A minus MINUS!
~Wornstrum~

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