RSSIf Boston Bans Texting While Driving, They Get It Right
Dec 07
Society and Culture Comments Off
The city of Boston is considering a proposal before city council that would ban texting while driving. I’ve never been a big proponent of so-called common sense laws. The question is whether this kind of ban qualifies. Driving laws in general are enacted in the best interests of public safety. A ban on texting isn’t the same as a selt belt law (which I staunchly disagree with) whose sole purpose seems to be to save you from your own stupidity. If that was the case, I wouldn’t support the ban.
No, the cell phone and text messaging bans fall into the same category as obeying traffic signals. The reason is because it is not just your own welfare at risk. Everyone on the road is affected by car accidents. There is a cost to the people involved in the accident, the people caught in the wave of traffic jams that build up afterward, cost to the city and state for road repairs, cost to your insurance company, cost of sending out emergency vehicles to the scene, even sometimes a cost for diverting those same vehicles away from another emergency.
On the face of it, you might argue that banning texting (or for that matter, banning handheld cell phone use) is purposefully designed to legislate people into behavior that they should already be operating under. But I buy into the public safety argument. The rules of the road, the kind you’re supposed to learn in driver’s education and be tested on before you get your license, are there because they provide us with a common understanding of how to work together on the road. They keep us safe as a group when people obey them, and you put people at risk by ignoring them. And let’s face it, there are going to be plenty of accidents that are unavoidable and no one does anything illegal. So maybe encouraging people to act safely when it comes to cell phones isn’t that bad an idea.
Interestingly, the number of states that have already banned handheld cell phone use is actually less than the number of states that have banned texting while driving. In nineteen states (plus D.C.) it is illegal to text while driving (some states, the legislation goes into effect in 2010) and in almost all cases, it’s considered primary offense -- which means you can be pulled over for violating the statute even if you are not doing anything else wrong. Just a mere six states have a similar law about handheld cell phones.1
Utah has an interesting compromise. Cell phone use isn’t banned explicitly (text messaging is) but both are incorporated into the state’s umbrella careless driving statute if either is contributory to a moving violation. So Utah wants you to use your phone, but use it with common sense.
I like the idea behind that. I think we don’t empower people enough to take responsibility for their actions and understand how those actions affect themselves and others. But there is a line between a common sense rule that saves you from yourself, and a law that saves us from you.
1 It’s notable that Massachusetts, a state known for the micromanaging of its citizens, has neither.
