Making Cell Phone Use During Driving Illegal Is Not The Solution

Living in an area with a lot of traffic allows me to see just how much people use their cell phones while driving, and I'm here to tell you that making it illegal is not going to solve the problem.

First off, this is America. We are not going to have the police shoot people on sight. While that would be an effective deterrent, it is not going to happen here. We will probably end up with laws that are closer to drunk driving, speed limit, and/or seat belt laws. You know as well as I how effective those laws are. Since laws can't force people to stop doing what they want to do we need an alternative.

One alternative is to change things so that cell phones cannot be used while driving. Perhaps cell phone jammers in cars. Perhaps cell phones that talk to the car that they are in to find out when the car is in motion. They seem like simple ideas, but there are issues such as the costs of developing the technologies and of materials & labor. Also, what about when the driver is trying to call 911? It is not simple but does deserve consideration.

Another idea is to do something to remove the desire to use cell phones while driving. Showing teenagers graphics images of dead drivers with cell phones in their hands is going to be about as effective as showing graphic images of dead, drunk drivers. I don't think we can remove the desire to use cell phones; people just don't see them as a danger.

My last alternative is to stop thinking of cell phone use during driving as a problem. I know that it is a controversial idea. Cell phones are a relatively new addition to the world we live in. Dangers associated with their use are getting a lot of attention both from scientific researchers and the press. There are arguments in both directions; here are a few:

• Cell phones are relatively new. Perhaps we haven't had enough time to fully assimilate them into our daily lives. Perhaps technology advances will make them much less obtrusive. However, we are not there right now. There is no guarantee that we will get there.
• Using 2006 data for the US, there were over 1,000,000 deaths due to heart disease and cancer while there were less than 50,000 deaths (of drivers, passengers, pedestrians, etc.) dues to motor vehicle traffic crashes—that includes all causes of the accidents, not just cell phone use. Upon what should the government spend its time and your tax money? However, those statistics focused solely on deaths. What about injury and property damage? What about the fears and concerns of the general populace (e.g., US citizens are more worried about terrorism than lightning even though lightning is a bigger killer)? We must look are the big picture.

I don't have the answer. But, I do know that we should verify the effectiveness of the solution(s) we pick and not just assume that they will work because they seem like good idea(s).