Will we see cameras that ticket for cell phone use while driving?

Given the progress with Redlight, Speed & Stop Sign Cameras - not long now. The only problem may be having sufficient police to deal with road rage!

Big Brother is upon us!

Fred

RLC and Speed cameras show the car proceeding in an illegal manner. Can illegal cell phone usage somehow be related to the car proceeding illegally? Just askin.

Red light, toll booths and many others are video. They can see it all. When I got my ticket it had a clear picture on it. When I went to the website I watched the video. I think I stopped enough to be save first at the line and then again before entering street, but apparently it was not good enough. If big brother wants to look at you it is no problem.

that they had them!!!

Where I live it is prohibited by law to use any handheld electronic devices.

I see people every day using them!!!!!

The more we allow Big Brother to run our lives the worse overall it will be. Facial recognition cameras already exist. Would you be in favor of ticketing jaywalkers? And if they are minors their parents get fined? How about drivers that pull into an intersection and someone is in the crosswalk. Lets fine them too?
I'd be careful what I wished for. Government has a almost drug addiction mentality when it comes to
collecting more and more money and if we allow this to continue it will only mean more intrusions into our lives by Big Brother.
Just because it sounds good doesn't mean it is good.

Until you can get people to stop trying to control stupidity with legislation and convince people they must take responsibility for their own actions, you will have this issue. Just because I saw some one do a stupid act as a child, it doesn't mean I need to emulate them when I am an adult. Parents today for the most part don't teach children responsibility. The overall attitude is "Well, if it isn't hurting someone else at this instant, I'll let them go ahead and do it."

But people really need to stop talking on the phone while driving! I can't count the number of times I've almost been run over by people too busy talking on their phones instead of concentrating on the 1 ton piece of metal they're supposed to be controlling.

http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/DrivingIssues/2006083010503...

And no, those hands-free methods don't help either as the problem is that talking requires brainpower which is supposed to be used for driving.

---And of course it's OUR money, while they are making ever more intrusions into our pockets and helping themselves to it!!!

In NY State they enacted a law prohibiting any hand held electronic device in your hand while driving.. 5 point lic penalty plus the fine.. $$$$$$$$

I don't think we'll see cameras dedicated to catching cell phone users. However, with all the speed, red light, stop sign, toll, etc., cameras that we have already, they may well use that infrastructure to also catch cell phone users. They're already taking the pictures, it's a wonder they haven't already ticketed anyone on a cell.

The law was there and now they have enhanced it by increasing fines and points.

http://www.safeny.ny.gov/phon-vt.htm

http://www.dmv.ny.gov/cellphone.htm

Found here are exceptions to the law.
http://www.safeny.ny.gov/phon-ndx.htm

Exceptions to the Laws

When the driver uses a hands-free mobile telephone, which allows the user to communicate without the use of either hand.
Using a handheld electronic device that is affixed to a vehicle surface.
Using a GPS device that is attached to the vehicle.
When the purpose of the phone call is to communicate an emergency to a police or fire department, a hospital or physician's office, or an ambulance corps.
When operating an authorized emergency vehicle in the performance of official duties.

I understand not using hand held device, it is dangerous to take your eyes off the road while driving.
Did you ever notice the driver of a police car on the radio and using their onboard computer while driving? I think it must be more distracting to use a computer than a cell phone.

With the exception of the radio, you'll be hard pressed now to find very many Fire/EMS departments who allow their drivers to use any handheld equipment at all while driving. Even the other passengers are only allowed to use their phones when the vehicle is in motion when absolutely necessary (radio is out of range, battery dead on radio, can't use radio because of bomb threat, etc). I know at my department, the driver's job is to point the vehicle down the road in a safe manner. Everything else (lights, siren, horn, radio, GPS navigation, coordination of resources, looking up reference materials) is the job of the guy in the right seat.

Anything else is just a risk not worth taking.

Pretty soon you won't be able to have a passenger in the car because talking to them could increase your chances of having an accident. Oh, and while we're at it, let's outlaw the use of listening to music on the radio as well.

This is really going too far but it will continue to do so because of the potential for revenue from fines. Just like overzealous enforcement of the 55mph speed limit's primary effect was to turn the more proficient drivers (those who were skilled enough to be comfortable at higher speeds where conditions allow), into criminals since there was the danger of falling asleep while driving 55mph on the interstate, the rest of us will likely be charged (and fined) for passing gas while driving down the highway since some study showed that drivers are 0.0074% more likely to have an accident while being distracted by passing gas.

If we had a system that was even just a little bit more like that in Germany where you are required to demonstrate a high level of proficiency before being able to obtain a driver's license instead of just having to parallel-park your car, the responsibility for safety could be largely put back into the hands of the driver, where it belongs.

I'm really dreaming now though, because the revenue from fines would drop dramatically.

Heed Frside007's words, be careful what you ask for. Too much of a good thing for the sake of revenue, is NOT a good thing.

Hands-free Bluetooth devices still have you concentrating on the conversation!

I notice how when I concentrate on making manual adjustments on the GPS and the concentration on driving goes out the window! That's because the voice command option on both my Garmin's is not working 100%!

My personal take is that we do have too many excessively restrictive laws, but have evolved a culture of mass non-compliance, not only with those, but with utterly reasonable laws. Folks take offense at the very idea that laws might actually be enforced.

I live in New Mexico, well known to have serious levels of drinking and driving, DWI arrests, amazingly high BAC measured hours after arrest, etc. Yet, in recent years, it seems far more likely that when I observe a vehicle with poor lane-keeping, attention to traffic lights, and so on, that the culprit (driver) is talking on their cell phone than that they are alcohol-impaired.

While there is a law on the books against cell-phone to the head while driving, it is widely ignored, and I don't think there is much enforcement. If a camera system upped the enforcement visibility enough to get compliance way up, I think it would be a material benefit to traffic safety, and I'd be for it.

I hate what this country us becoming...a society of of nosey snitches...but, when I see these people texting and driving (talking on the cell isn't quite as bad IMHO)...It almost makes me want to become a snitch...so f'ing ignorant it is beyond belief...for those of you on this forum that text and drive...and statistically there are many...God help you if you hurt me or my family...you'll wish you never heard of cellphones.

For non hands free

I hope so.... all the idiots texting, talking and not paying attention....Get'em...gets my vote...

In MD, most of the photos are of the back license plate without a clear picture of the driver.

Clearly a system intended to assist enforcement against cell phone use would be considerably different than the red light camera systems of today.

Some people are great at multi-tasking, others are not. Many people can talk and drive at the same time but there are so many that can't. It would be hard to say certain people can talk and others can't so I think if you really need to talk and you are driving, get off the road, come to a stop and then call. There are too many people that can't drive while talking on a cell phone, drinking a cup of coffee, or worse yet texting or putting on makeup. The last two should totally be against the law IMHO.

The difference is how many parts of your being you are taking away from driving:

Driving can be broken down into a few major components:

Cognitive (making good decisions)
Tactile (using your hands and feet to manipulate the controls)
Visual (to see where you are going)

And two minor components:
Auditory (to hear outside threats)
Olfaction (rare, but to smell smoke, etc)

If you are driving down the road and on the phone, you have knocked out parts of your cognitive and tactile functions, but you still have most of your cognitive, most of your tactile (or almost all of it if you are using hands-free), but still have all of your visual (short of the small amount of time you glance down at your screen which is equivalent to glancing at your radio). This means that you can still react to things in front of you without thinking about it first (stroller wheels out in front of your car, you hit the brakes without needing to really "think" about it)

When you are texting, you have knocked out most of your tactile, even more of your cognitive (rather than just holding a phone, now you are manipulating buttons constantly) AND you are no longer looking at the road! This means that you reaction time doesn't just suck! You actually have no reaction!

Clearly, as a nation, we have demonstrated that there is a large proportion of us who are too stupid to make good decisions and that is endangering other people. You have the freedom to do whatever you want, but it cannot interfere with other people's freedoms and rights. If you are too drunk to drive, we pull you over. If you are too stupid to make good decisions when driving (e.g. texting) we pull you over.

When you think about the fact that so many people now are texting while stopped at a traffic light and do not see the light change - thus impede the movement of those behind them, I think the word selfish is a better descriptor of the person. The act is stupid because doing so while driving is so dangerous.

I HOPE SO !

The age of the Nanny is upon us.
Soon we will see cameras "helping" us for:
smoking in our car
drinking coffee while driving
talking to passengers
etc.

Have you ever been a pedestrian in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Toronto, etc.?

There is a reason why pedestrians stand and wait for a signal, despite the time being 3 AM with no vehicles driving on the street.

Of course a reasonably prudent person would be in favor of ticketing jaywalkers, as well as motorists who do not yield to peds who are legally crossing with a signal.

Of course if they are minors, parents should get fined. When I was a college student, I took care of several rich friends' vehicles as they went back overseas for the summer. One of the cars was a Porsche Carrera 4S--a minor rode his bicycle into the side of the vehicle, and was ticketed after police arrived. In addition to breaking his wrist, he provided false ID, and a false address of residence, as well as false parents. So even though this kid was cited as being responsible for the accident (it kind of works that way when the car was standing still), neither he nor his parents were on the hook. The rich students' collision insurance was. Out of principle, I sued the kid's parents in small claims court, as I tracked the urchin down to his Sec 8 housing. I won, but never collected the judgement as the parents were not employed, so an income execution could not be served.

Those who want to continue to break laws when they feel it suits them, are as we say, s*** out of luck, because the cost of enforcement has come way down.

Talking on the phone while driving isn't good, but texting is downright bad. I've seen several accidents locally caused by a texting driver that rear ended an auto in front of them that slows down.

If traffic cameras can pick texting drivers up and the "govment" ticket them, I'm in favor of it!

In greater Chicago area new law was just passed on the first of October. If you talk or text while driving there is a minimum fine of $150.00 and can go up to $1000.00 if cop has a bad day.

I'm sure they will figure out a way in this corrupted city to install cameras that will somehow pickup those that violate this law.

-Peter

Are "Fine" by me, they are idiots looking for an accident, far different from RLC and SC revenue enhancers

What we need is a social consensus not to text and drive. Enforcement can be an effective part of building such consensus.

I agree

Not only do I agree, I don't drive with my phone on. When I made the switch, people thought I was being unfair. How could they get a hold of me in an emergency? My answer, how did people exist prior to cell phones? It's really not that hard.

I watched "From One Second To The Next" recently, and I would not want to be the person that caused the kind of devastation the "texters" caused. The overall theme seemed to be, the messages being sent were really not that important. That was one of the things I realized when I used to leave my phone on. Not one of the calls were important.

I have my phone with me for an emergency. I haven't used it for that purpose yet. I want to keep it that way.

"From One Second To The Next"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BqFkRwdFZ0

Hope everyone does their part today.

I think the technology has to improve greatly for a computer to scan a facial image and detect a phone in use. It's certainly not impossible but it would only be used if there was net revenue involved.

Imagine having devices to take pics of the face and tag of every passing car, then scanning the facial image to detect likely phone use, then saving both images for visual review by somebody. That's a lot more complexity than that needed for red light and speed cameras.

On the other hand, when a person is reviewing the images that include facials taken by a red light camera, it wouldn't take any more effort to note if a phone was clearly visible. That might get around the issue some jurisdictions have of only being able to cite for cell phone use when another infraction is involved.

NO distractions. No eating, no radios, no thinking!

Tickets for anything except driving.

It's for the children!!

It's also going to be very hard to show that someone was texting (not allowed) and not just looking at a map (allowed, at least in my area).

But all that aside, I like our county's current enforcement strategy on distracted drivers. Even if I'm in a borrowed car where no one knows who I am, I can blow past cops at 75 in a 65 without issue. But if I am on my cell phone, or eating while driving, or weaving in and out of traffic, or something else that is stupid, I'll get pulled over at 66 every time. There are certain things that are less dangerous than others, and for those things that are more dangerous (ex. DUI or texting) I am perfectly fine with the state nannying me (well really everybody else since I'm not an idiot when it comes to safety on the roads).

The difference to me between nannying someone and public safety is who it effects. For example, the soda ban in new york is, to me, an example of a nanny law. By drinking more soda, I'm not harming others. But buy driving while drunk or texting and not looking at the road, the potential to injure or kill someone else is very high, and that to me is public safety and not a "nanny" law.

There should be a hands free law in the U.S. Most of the time whenever I am almost in an automobile accident, it is by someone who is yacking on their cell phone and not paying attention to do what they should be doing . . . DRIVING!!!!

Computers with multiple cores can do it because each core is working on a different task, but most human beings only have one brain, all of which is needed to perform a particular task.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_multitasking#Etymology

Not many pay attention to it.

All new cars will come with BT tech built into car stereos...I use a jabra cruise 2; I never text while driving...nothing makes me more angry than when I see that...

I will never worry about being ticketed for using a phone while driving for I do not own one. If someone needs me then they can leave a message on my home phone, Email me, send a letter, or come visit me.
If one needs to monitor your children then one solution would be The Car Connection from Audiovox. It plugs into your car's diagnostic port and sends a signal to your cell phone or computer telling you how your car is being used and blocks cell phone use while the car is in gear. Of course it costs money but whoever is using the car will have to stop to use the phone and it will let you know when it is unplugged.
My wife does have a cell phone which we use on trips just in case of an accident or breakdown but it is so old that it does not have GPS or texting available. It usually is in my wife's purse and did come in handy this summer when the car broke down in the AZ desert.

I hate it when the light turns green and the car in front is not moving because the driver is looking down or at the steering wheel.

I hate it even more when I look at my rear view mirror and the driver's head and eyes are downward.

What I am most scared of is if I'm in the left lane closest to the median and worried if the driver in the opposite left lane driving towards me is texting.

where cameras are used to spot people talking/texting on cell phones. It's deadly business, just like running a red light and we know we have red light cameras.

New York State has started a program where they have unmarked SUV's driving around specifically looking for people driving while talking/texting. It's probably why I consistently saw 5-10 cars pulled over while on the NY Thruway recently.

Enforcement is getting serious about this. And they should.

I fully agree on the hand held units, but I believe it depends on what hands free system you are using. My phone works with my car radio which I answer and hang up using steering wheel controls. I find using this system no different then talking to a passenger. I also don't use the system for a long BS session, I use it for calls that mostly take under a minute and don't make calls when in even moderate traffic.

Yes, conversations with passengers can also be distracting and dangerous, but what can you really do about that? Thank you for keeping your conversations short. I wish others would appreciate their limits.

I was almost run over again two days ago by a cellphone talker making a right turn. Perhaps I'll take to shouting at people on their cellphones who almost drive over me, but then I would probably be the one who ends up with the ticket.

A young woman driver with two kids, a cig in one hand and her phone to her ear, almost hit me as she turned onto my street as I sat at the stop sign.
Her window was open a little bit. I suggested in a loud voice that she probably could drive better if she had the phone jammed up her bottom.. On Wednesday phones must be hands free here in Illinois.

hopefully the time will come when people realize, hey, I have to act right, because anywhere I go outside my home, I'm filmed in 1080p.

I filmed the leaf collectors in 1080 the other day. I told my friend I can see their shoes and the holes in their jeans. My friend said why'd you do that? I told him because I actually had never seen how it was done, and I wanted to film it (the equipment). The fact that the workers were in 1080 was collateral damage. If they had goofed off, it would have been on video.

Depending on the driver's habits that is talking to a passenger it can be more dangerous than talking on a hands-free cellphone. I have followed drivers talking to their passengers that feel they have to look at the passenger while they speak. I rode with a guy that had that habit and more then once the car would wander off on the shoulder or cross the center line. Needless to say I avoided riding with him after one experience.

Whether or not you have a hands free device it's still distracting. People with cell phones to their ear tend to be more erratic than those like me with hands free, but even hands free I can find it distracting. I keep convos to an absolute minimum when I'm driving, and I normally tell the caller I'll return the call once I've reached my destination. My calls last long enough to tell them I'm driving and can't talk at the moment.