Wednesday, July 22, 2009

More Distraction

By the end of yesterday, I knew I meant to follow up my post on distraction, but I had forgotten what it was I meant to say. This morning, I remembered.

The New York Times had an article on one of my pet peeves, drivers who are on the phone. Santa Fe has one of those laws that hands-free devices are okay, hand-held not, but every time I go as far as the main street, I see drivers holding something to their ears. There aren't enough police in the state to stop them all.

And, since I got a cell phone, it's been clear to me that I can barely walk while carrying on a conversation. I really don't know how people do it. If I have to call someone while I'm carless, I find a bench and sit down.

Today Maureen Dowd confesses her cellphone-driving sins, and the Times summarizes the comments they've been getting. Pardon me if I find the suggestions of licensing people to use cellphones more of the "competence for me, but not for thee" rationalization.

1 comment:

Woody (Tokin Librul/Rogue Scholar/ Helluvafella!) said...

Hey! Santa Fe! I am from Nambe. I got one of the earliest of those tickets. I was driving up alta vista past the pool, when a cop going the other way got me...spring, '01 or '02...

There's supposed to be a similar law on the books here in Abq, tambien. But it is equally ignored. It usually occurs that when there has been a particularly egregious example of traffic stupidity, when you look in the car, they idiot is on the farking phone.

I have even seen folks balancing a device on the steering wheel and TEXTING, for the love of gawd...

Not satisfied with the distractions which the conversation presents, they have to both take their eyes off the road and their hands off the wheel to text. Swear-to-god, i wanna just swerve into their lanes and jam on the brakes, and let the lawsuits flow...