California Moves to Curb Bad Habits of Motorists

[Woodmonkey]

LOS ANGELES — On any given day on a California freeway, it is not uncommon to see a young woman, phone cradled against one ear, carefully painting her nails a winsome shade of crimson, looking up now and then to inch her car forward in traffic.

Long commutes and a passion for the auto have long combined to make the California car a second home. But that way of life is being chipped away slightly, with a series of new laws — and more being contemplated by state legislators — that take aim at the bad habits of the state’s 22 million drivers.

Last week, California became the fifth state to require that all drivers use a headset with their cellphones. Drivers under the age of 18, under a separate law, may not use a wireless telephone of any form while operating a motor vehicle, a law shared with 13 other states. (Adults can be pulled over just for the cellphone infraction; teenagers have to be committing another offense to be cited for yakking.)

It is also now illegal for California drivers to smoke in their cars if minors are with them, and winding through the Legislature are bills that would forbid driving with a dog on the lap and another that would empower cities to impound vehicles used by motorists who are soliciting prostitutes, if the motorist in question has a prior solicitation conviction.

“California is on the leading edge of tough traffic safety laws,” said Michael Geeser, a spokesman for the American Automobile Association of Northern California. “Some of it is the climate there, politically speaking, and part of it is the sheer number of drivers they have there and their needs to survive on the road.”

The hands-free cellphone law has generally generated praise from local officials around the state and traffic safety experts, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican, when signing it into law, proclaimed that it would save 300 lives a year.

But it has also stirred up debate and prompted some hand wringing. Some callers to talk radio shows have treated the requirement as a total lifestyle change, fretting and furrowing their brows.

Bloggers have pondered the cellphone-age-old question of whether it is the conversation rather than the act of holding a phone that is the distraction.

“The law does nothing to answer the question of intellectual distraction,” Mr. Geeser said, “but at least we are getting teenagers off the phone.”

Others have pointed out that there remains no legal ban on sending text messages while driving, and one law student at the University of California, Berkeley, expressed fear on a blog that the law might “lead to an explosion of pretextual searches of automobiles, especially in minority and low-income communities.” (A lively back and forth on this topic can be found on boaltalk.blogspot.com.)

And while some have derided the first-offense fine of $20 as insubstantial, court fees raise the cost to $76 for a first offense, climbing to $190 the second time, those fees included. With gasoline prices around the state regularly the highest in the contiguous United States (Alaska usually tops the national list) at more than $4.60 a gallon in most places, it can be extremely expensive simply to get from here to there.

“You have to reconfigure your budget,” said Kalilah Watts, who lives in Riverside and commutes some 60 miles to Los Angeles for work. It is now $600 a month to fill her car with gas, said Ms. Watts, who is 26. “Considering we don’t really have mass transit in California, this is a major factor.”

The police departments in San Francisco and Los Angeles have issued tickets since July 1, when the cellphone law went into effect, but have yet to compile statistics on the total. The California Highway Patrol issued 169 tickets the first day, said Heather Hoglund, a spokeswoman for the agency, who considers the number a victory.

“We have 16 million people living in Los Angeles County,” Officer Hoglund said. “People are sick and tired of people distracted on their cellphones, so people are happy.”

She gave one ticket to someone who had a headset sitting unused in his center console. “He said it would be just a quick call,” she said.

The Source

[john mclaughlin]

Why cant they just control our thoughts and make us act the way they want us to while they are at it.we arnt robots,we arnt numbers ,we are sheep.

[bhdean]

I think California is headed in the right direction. I don't see it as infringing on my rights as much as it would be protecting my life. I have seen driver talking on cellphones do some really stupid things and I had to be the one to protect myself, now California have the police to protect other drivers.

[Woodmonkey]

I remember seeing one man driving and reading the newspaper.

[bhdean]

I have seen people reading a map and talking on their cell phone, all while in rush hour traffic.

[Old Fart]

Speaking as an ex southern Californian with at least half a million documentable (work) miles on the freeways, you just can't make stupidity illegal no matter how many laws you pass.

[john mclaughlin]

How in the world did all of you see me driving?What a small world!All i want is an rpg to take out that slow f-er two cars up ,so i can be on my way without braking every 10 seconds!