Governor Brown Vetoes Fine Boost For Drivers Using Cellphones

[1AngryTaxPayer]

I commute by bike and I'd like to see the fines quadrupled. People on the phone are worse than drunks because the drunk is at least trying very hard to concentrate.

[Curmudgeon]

I think Brown's afraid Maria Shriver won't be able to afford bigger fines!

[VLWH]

People too lazy to purchase a Bluetooth or sit behind a two thousand pound vehicle texting, are inconsiderate fools with little regard for others safety.

[mayorhaggar]

Well the bill is not working, because I still see morons all the time using their cell phones or even texting. Cell phone calls wouldn't be so bad (and more and more people use headsets whether driving or not), but texting while driving TAKES YOUR EYES OFF THE ROAD and I see people do it all the time. Whenever I'm walking to BART in the morning through my residential neighborhood, I almost always see someone a) California Stopping and b) texting while blasting through the intersection without really checking to see if there's any cars or pedestrians they might hit. I'm so tired of the attitude people have where texting something for work or to a friend is more important than waiting until later or just not bothering at all. If you think it's a bummer if you don't reply immediately to your boss, it will be even more of a bummer and you'll waste more time when you get pulled over or arrested for crashing into a bunch of kids or whatever. People need to quit buying into the idea, pushed by their employers, that if they aren't "on call" 24/7 their career will suffer. Seems like a lot of Bay Area people have this attitude, whether it's something they've developed about their career personality or it's something their employer enforces.

Anyway, rant over. The law really needs to be advertised more and I would not mind seeing the fines raised a bunch, it really is as dangerous as drunk driving.

[Lovehound]

I don't really see that increased public education (or increased fines) will help get more compliance with this law. Perhaps I'm wrong but I think most of the phone-in-hand and texters fully know they are committing a traffic violation. I put the whole thing closer to selfishness and carelessness. Cellphone use (and texting) is in some ways similar to illegal drug use in that both are bad but both make the user feel better ("oh look, I've got friends who love me!!!" or "I'm a valuable employee!!!"). As long as the temporary feeling of euphoria exceeds their expectation of being caught then they're going to keep doing it.

The only way I see to increase compliance is to increase enforcement. If violators were more likely to receive tickets then they might quit doing it as much. Unfortunately we are in an era of being unable to afford increased law enforcement (or even maintain the current level IMO), so I don't think it's very likely enforcement will be increased anytime soon.

I advise everybody should do the same as I'm doing, which is as far as I can see the only thing you can do. First, I make sure to not contribute to the problem myself, by using a hands free device and by keeping my cellphone calls brief. (I'm not a texter so that's not a problem for me.) And second, I'm doing everything possible to drive more carefully and pay more attention to what other drivers are doing. This is even more important if you're a motorcyclist, bicyclist and particularly if you're a pedestrian. You should drive, ride or walk under the assumption that you are invisible and other drivers can't see you.

It's like a lot of things in life. Often you can't fix it on the other end. All you can do is the best you can do to deal with it on your end.

[1AngryTaxPayer]

Originally Posted by Lovehound

I don't really see that increased public education (or increased fines) will help get more compliance with this law. Perhaps I'm wrong but I think most of the phone-in-hand and texters fully know they are committing a traffic violation. I put the whole thing closer to selfishness and carelessness. Cellphone use (and texting) is in some ways similar to illegal drug use in that both are bad but both make the user feel better ("oh look, I've got friends who love me!!!" or "I'm a valuable employee!!!"). As long as the temporary feeling of euphoria exceeds their expectation of being caught then they're going to keep doing it.

The only way I see to increase compliance is to increase enforcement. If violators were more likely to receive tickets then they might quit doing it as much. Unfortunately we are in an era of being unable to afford increased law enforcement (or even maintain the current level IMO), so I don't think it's very likely enforcement will be increased anytime soon.

I advise everybody should do the same as I'm doing, which is as far as I can see the only thing you can do. First, I make sure to not contribute to the problem myself, by using a hands free device and by keeping my cellphone calls brief. (I'm not a texter so that's not a problem for me.) And second, I'm doing everything possible to drive more carefully and pay more attention to what other drivers are doing. This is even more important if you're a motorcyclist, bicyclist and particularly if you're a pedestrian. You should drive, ride or walk under the assumption that you are invisible and other drivers can't see you.

It's like a lot of things in life. Often you can't fix it on the other end. All you can do is the best you can do to deal with it on your end.

Well put. There was this clown earlier this am weaving in and out of traffic without a turn signal doing about 90 tail gating and basically driving reckless. A CHP LEO enters the freeway and all of a sudden the guy remembers his manners. It's all about enforcement.