OT: Allow mobile phones when driving? Or ban the disabled from driving?

And if you don't let them in, the accident blocks the whole highway for hours.

Around 1965 I read in a popular Mechanic or Science magazine how by now we should be going over 120 mph on the interstates, when a wreck did occur a helocopter would come and get the cars ot the way.

We are still traveling at basically the same 60 to 70 mph on most highways (legal speed that is) . Wrecks takes hours to clear, mainly because the law spends hours getting some kind of evidence for the wreck. That would probably not bother me except we are still killing 30 to 40 thousand every year on the highways just as we have been for the last 30 to 50 years and nothing seems to be done about it.

Germany had a good idea. Insted of going at a pace on the highway where you can relax, bump the speed limit up to where you have to pay attention to what you are doing all the time. They put some curves in the road as they found long streight highways put people to sleep.

In 'Blue Highways' William Least Heat-Moon describes driving down a back road in Kansas or one of the other flat states. He caught himself just before he was going to go back in his van to make a sandwich.

I've been close to that driving OTR. I didn't get out of the seat but I've definitely made and eaten sandwiches while rolling down an interstate with the cruise control set at 65.

Back then the truck stops had sort of a books on tape rental program where you'd turn the cassette in down the road and get another. Being lost in a Tom Clancy thriller tends to put your head someplace else.

The danger is the fall in concentration because you're having a conversation with someone who is not present. You wouldn't intuitively think that's a problem, but it is, because you feel compelled to keep the conversation going no matter what, and that can lead to a loss of driving concentration. That's a major difference with talking to your passenger. They can see for themselves when something complex kicks off outside, why you've stopped talking.

I limit my calls (incoming and outgoing) to simply giving my ETA, or a very brief message. I never have a rambling chit-chat.

Funny how handsfree phones are legal. The law seems to think holding the phone somehow makes it dangerous to drive.

Bullshit. I was phoning someone today because I was late in a traffic jam. Quite a few times I just stopped talking and used that hand to indicate etc. No sane person places conversation high up in priority.

You can explain it to the caller later.

For a long chat just put it on speaker and place it on your knee.

I have been run out of my lane by idiots not on the phone more than a few times.

So you can grass people off? Get a life.

But then you don't get the fun of going 50mph faster than everyone else.

The part of your brain that eats, the part that communicates, and the part that drives, are nothing to do with each other and can all operate independantly. I can even have a verbal conversation with someone while typing a completely different one.

I was once stuck behind two women driving 70 in a 70 (I wanted to go 100). They had their own cars, side by side, windows down, chatting to each other!

Plenty folk have done that without using a phone. Some folk are just unobservant.

I would have thought about 50% of people would be brave enough when they saw a life in danger.

That joke is meant to include a plane.

You've missed the point. We should allow people on the road if they're safe. If those one armed men can drive safely, then so can I using a phone.

Causing congestion.

In the UK it's technically illegal to use your phone while at a fast food joint, even to pay. Since you're in a car with the engine running! Sometimes the law is just beyond a joke.

Only if you spill the coffee.

I managed to text at 90mph with a broken arm. You just type one letter, glance out the window, type another letter, and so on.

If you're talking about the muscle parts that drive, yes, and even if you include eys and ears probably, but deciding what to do with that information is thinking. So is communicating and I don't think anyone can think about two topics at once. I've tried for decades to think about two things at once, and I can't do it.

Maybe you're a rarity, or maybe you ignore the other person for short periods of time.

who is 'we'?

its about 2000 a year in the uk, 30,000 in the USA and still falling

No, we found that out.

Germany has a higher death rate than we do

Most RTA deaths occur in towns or minor roads anyway

Best one I ever saw was a guy who could roll a perfect spliff while driving along at 60mph

No, you're not on the Public Highway