MP3 ban for young drivers?
p2p news / p2pnet: The Canadian Automobile Association says iPods, cell phones and the like are dangerous for your health. So it wants younger drivers to be banned from using them while they’re on the road.
"Restricting the use of electronic devices, such as cell phones, MP3 players and wireless hand-held devices, [allows drivers to] truly focus on the driving task," says CAA President David Flewelling, quoted by CTV News.
"It is also our hope that a preventative measure like this one will create a generation of motorists who recognize the severe implications of driver distractions – and work towards reducing them where they can," Flewelling said.
Only Newfoundland and Labrador bans all drivers from using hand-held cell phones, says the Globe & Mail, going on, "Last week, the City of Montreal asked the province of Quebec to ban the use of cell phones for drivers as part of an initiative to make the city’s streets safer for pedestrians."
Also last week, "Police are investigating allegations that a driver was distracted by his cellphone when he struck and killed a child on a bike," says another Globe & Mail story.
Also See:
CTV News – Electronic device ban needed for new drivers: CAA, June 15, 2006
Globe & Mail – Provinces urged to ban cell phones for novice drivers, June 14, 2006
Globe & Mail – Phone distraction blamed for fatal car accident, June 7, 2006
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June 16th, 2006 at 5:59 pm
And what about a total ban for *really* old drivers? Have you seen some of those relics who can barely see or hold the steering wheel? Scary!
June 16th, 2006 at 7:36 pm
Agreed. The reason this will not happen is that those “*really* old” people make the laws…
June 16th, 2006 at 11:33 pm
“gadgets” have been installed in vehicles.
Cigarettes, radios, 8-Track players, the list goes on and on.
Yes there is a problem with inattentive drivers. BUT banning certain things is no solution. These drivers will only find something ELSE to ‘occupy’ their time behind the wheel. Why not ban PASSENGERS???? THEY are distractions the same as talking on the phone!!!!! Why not ban GPS Maps in vehicles???? That’s the SAME thing as watching TV while driving!!!!! See the assinignity in all this banning of this gadget or that?????
June 16th, 2006 at 11:46 pm
agreed. and here’s a weird, wild and wacky solution: get young people to vote. well, i can hope, can’t i ?
June 17th, 2006 at 1:48 am
To ask cops to wander around the roads trying to enforce bans like this is just ludicrous. You might as well blanket ban anyone from using anything while they drive. Anyone and everyone can be distracted by anything while driving, so a ban on younger people wouldn’t be a complete solution even IF it were enforceable. A driver education system for younger drivers (heck ALL drivers!) including mandatory defensive driving training would be much more effective.
Put a driver in a simulator, ring their phone and let them see what happens when they get distracted without the risk of killing them. They’d learn very quickly to let the phone go through to message service or voicemail. But i think the best way to reduce the road toll is to give up driving ourselves around and automate our cars.
I’m talking about a system involving cars that are capable of driving themselves which talk to a centralised traffic management system or series of systems each covering seperate geographic areas. So the car worries about driving itself and the big system worries about overall traffic flow. The advantage is that if the big system goes down all the individual cars can still drive. But you still get the advantage of the big system being able to control the flow of traffic to get everyone where they’re going most effectively efficiently etc.
Note that the only information the big system would need is simply “i’m this kind of vehicle, i’m currently in this location, going in this direction, at this speed” not “i belong to so and so, we’re going to thingy, etc etc etc”. Theres no need or even use in identification being passed back and forth. A destination might be useful i suppose, but again too much information would simply increase the bandwidth that would be required to no real benefit.
Remember we’d be talking about thousands of cars here. Maybe hundreds of thousands in the bigger cities around the world. So keeping the data exchange to a minimum would be vital. Politicians seem to have an unhealthy obsession with knowing everything about everyone and this has to be kept under control. Sure it might be neat to know who was involved in a car accident as soon as it happens, but since ppl who work for the govt will go to the accident (even if its just police and or ambulance) and find out who’s involved when they arrive, there is simply no need for the cars to blab this kind of detail. Especially since it would probably involve radio signals that could be intercepted.
By taking cars out of people’s control we could seriously cut the road tolls around the world. After all, they don’t call it ‘Human Error’ for nothing. Just as long as MS isn’t writing the code for EITHER the cars or the big system. Open source would be much safer than some locked down “you can’t look at it” proprietry software that would obviously cost too much and be too unreliable if EVERY single big govt owned computer system in the entire world is any guide.
June 17th, 2006 at 5:46 pm
The idea of the automated automobile is not new. BUT it IS not feasable for one reason. Infrastructure. It would take burying cables in ALL roads for the car to ‘navigate’. THAT is a LOT of cable!!!!!!!!!! Just think of the road construction we fight now.
In addition, there has been testing going on withing certain car manufacturers using electronic automation. It has a LOT of glitches in it and won’t be ready until present technology is obsolete.
Your suggestion of mandatory defensive driving is a GREAT one! Here in the US to get a DL, they are more interested in making damned sure you show your ORIGINAL STATE ISSUED Birth Certificate, SS ISSUED PROOF of SS Number and PROOF of your exact street address of residence than they are of making SURE you KNOW HOW to DRIVE!!!! With that type of attitude, it’s no wonder we have ‘drivers’ who do NOT KNOW HOW to DRIVE!