A nearby suburb has passed a law that first warns and in a few months tickets drivers the police consider distracted.
Aside from the expected cell phone texters and talkers, smokers and coffee drinkers, this includes people applying makeup, eating food, shaving-any activity requiring one of your two hands. Both hands must be on the wheel or at the ready.
What do you think about this ordinance and does your town have such a law?
Incidentally, this is the same town that closed its libraries and activity centers to save money. I guess they will make up the revenue in tickets now.
13 comments:
I think that in practice it is going to be very hard to prove what someone was doing while driving. Don't cops have anything better to do?
I'm not sure about this, but I DO believe driving should be a fully-alert-and-paying attention activity. I once knew a fellow who would not play the radio (or tape, or CD, whatever) while driving because he thought it too distracting. That's going too far, probably, but shaving or applying make-up (the ones I see most often in the mornings) or eating with one hand while driving are dangerous and stupid, and texting is idiotic. Texting and holding a cell phone while driving are illegal in California.
Of course, it's an revenue-producer and enforcement will be spotty.
One of those things I like in theory--to have driving taken seriously, but it seems unenforceable. My son is a prosecutor in that county and prosecutes driver violations once a month. It will be fun to see what comes out of it.
I live in New Zealand - it's illegal to drive while texting, a new law enforced this year. The interesting thing is other drivers report those who are driving and texting - if THEY can't text, why should that idiot. People here do actually report it. I agree though, overall, difficult to put into practice. BTW I've seen people text, ladies pencil lipstick on, pick whatever, but shaving? I would hoot with laughter if I saw someone doing that especially a woman!
What about truck drivers reading newspapers?
With our present ´liberal´ government we are not allowed to do much in Denmark, but I think we are still entitled to drink coffee while driving very slowly along our narrow lanes. You never know which laws they are going to pass tomorrow, though, as they have vowed not to RAISE taxes, but never promised they would not try to find new, imaginative sources of income.
There is not a morning when I do not see some man shaving, applying makeup, combing hair, eating an egg mcmuffin, reading a newspaper, etc. Of course, this is most in slow rush-hour traffic. Troy is a small community. I doubt it will spread beyond their city limits.
I don't know of a law like that here. If only it would be enforced consistently. Unfortunately, cops are likely to misuse it. At least that's my fear.
Sounds like a transparently revenue-producing measure. Where I live, cops have to meet a certain traffic ticket quota every month lest they get a pay cut and even a demotion. They stop people for reasons such as being distracted all the time. These days, where almost every state is facing budget problems, I guess it’s more tempting for the authorities to resort to these measures.
Cash cow? Probably. Hard to prove? Probably. Will it make a difference? Doubtful. Will it affect me? No way, because I'm not easily distr---oh, look, a chicken!
Sounds like a reverse Wooden Horse to me, sent out by Trojan cops. If all else fails, the Gods of Troy may unleash their distant Sirens!
It's ridiculous. Can people take the train as an alternative? Oh, there are no trains to speak of in Michigan . . . and no libraries in Troy. No need for Greektown invasion -- the place, sacked from within. Only thing left for $ is to pointlessly pillage passersby?
Patti-Back in the day I remember an old Lieutenant raising hell over stuff like this. He said, "..It's a police department with nothing better to do and a place where they've got to stir crap up just to justify their fu***ng existence ." He was a Korean war veteran and as harboiled a cop as I've ever known. He took a harsh view of anyone using law enforcement for revenue enhancement. And I agree with him.
John McAuley
The odd thing is that Michigan cops so rarely patrol the freeways. People routinely drive 80 and change their clothes while they do. It is like the frontier out there.
I wonder how the ordnance is worded. After all, how does one define "distracted"? Does not daydreaming quality? Is a too long glance at the speedometer a distraction? Is watching the cop car in your rear view mirror a distraction? Is praying a distraction?
Having said that, I am so very opposed to drivers who use cell phones. I am draconian enough to wish cell phones were abolished from the face of the earth. Pretty severe, huh?
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