Government micromanaging can cause more problems than it solves

Taken from Thursday’s edition of The David Boze Show.

The Washington Senate has voted to extend the state’s ban on cellphone use while driving to cover the range of functions a smartphone can now serve.

In a 35-14 vote Tuesday, Senators sent to the House a bill that would update legislation written in 2008 that bans hand-held phone calls and texting while driving. Since then, mobile platforms for Facebook, Twitter and a plethora of other social networking and video game uses have gained millions of users. Under existing law, they’re legal for drivers to use while behind the wheel, despite being distracting.

The bill passed by the Senate would make it a $209 ticket for a driver to hold, read from, or enter data into a cellphone by hand if a car is on the road, including while stopped at a traffic light. After the first offense, later tickets would affect insurance rates.

We’re told this is a great thing and I know a number of people like it. But we do already have a law against distracted driving, so what is the point of going on and saying lets ban specific cell phone functions.

First of all, we’re not going to be able to keep abreast of the newest advancements in cell phones or the newest apps.

What if I just wanted to tap my phone and get to a map in the GPS? This is what I will generally do, just like when I was a kid and there were no smartphones. I would take the paper map out of the visor. I had it pre-folded so I could try and look at where the heck I was going, and I would see if the next intersection was the right one to go on or not. I would glance, make sure the road was in my peripheral vision, and do it when I’d made an assessment if it was the right time or not.

What is absurd about this, is the Senate bill is trying to direct everybody to put away their phones. But there’s been the law against texting, and what do people do? They text anyway. They just drop the phone lower. There were a couple of studies that indicated it actually made the behavior even less safe. Because instead of trying to make sure they’re paying attention to the road, they’re likely to be trying to hide the use of their phone.

I see this all the time with people. Just the other day, I was driving along and I saw somebody and thought, ‘OK she’s drunk or on her phone.’ Sure enough, I drive up next to her, and as I’m passing I look over and she’s obviously got the phone in her lap and she’s staring straight down. Instead of having the phone up, like you would have the map in the old days, you’re looking straight down with no vision of the road.

According to The Seattle Times: “The State Patrol has supported the bill and said the current law is difficult to enforce because it is hard to determine whether a driver is texting or using other functions on a phone.”

Here’s the thing. If they’re not driving as though they’re distracted, then why are you bothering to try and figure out what they’re doing on their phone. If they’re driving perfectly fine, apparently they’re doing perfectly fine.

Instead, you should focus on the people who are weaving, focus on the people driving 50 miles an hour in a 65, because they’re on their phone and they’ve forgotten they’re also on their highway. Focus on that and then have the ticket be for distracted driving. There should be evidence that their cell phone is distracting them instead of just worrying about eliminating functions of the phone in the car.

Sen. Ann Rivers of Clark County told The Times cell phones are worth targeting because of all the distracted-driving accidents they cause.

“I’ve had people say, ‘You’re impacting my personal liberties’ and I understand that,” Rivers said. “But at what point do we allow the personal liberties and the safeties that other people enjoy to be impacted because there’s a text that just can’t wait?”

And I’m not for impacting the liberties of other people, or hurting other people. What I’m saying is we have a law against distracted driving, let’s not micromanage this nonsense and create other problems.

Taken from Thursday’s edition of The David Boze Show.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

JS