Again, look at Michigan crash statistics. Crashes down 24% since 1999. You can get a good summary of this from the report “2008 Michigan Traffic Crash Facts” by the Michigan State Police. Miles traveled up, drivers licensed up, fatalities down, crashes down.

ABC, I almost added a comment to clarify that I meant ‘public safety perspective’ and ‘personal freedom perspective’. Does that help? I see now what you mean about the law, versus my focus on the effort to improve safety, regardless of the law. You also make — yes, clearly — some logical points. And I’m glad that council is considering this, if for no other reason than that we (and they) are having this discussion and others are considering it.

Jack 40, I’m not at all fine with presumed guilt. I’m not clear on whether primary offense enforcement — or this type of ordinance — necessarily implies that. Keep in mind that I won’t be voting on this. Contact your council representatives if you want to share your thoughts with someone who will be.

ChuckL, it doesn’t seem that you’re making a distinction between the effectiveness of the law and the effectiveness of the enforcement. Do you (or others) have thoughts on that? I have some of my own, but you all might be better able to present it, and I think others might benefit from consideration of it.

Candidate Bean, are you fine with making this a primary offense and drivers being guilty until proven innocent?

I guess I was too obtuse for you Steve. This possible new ordinance is redundant; a police officer already has the tools in their tool box to issue a ticket to someone operating their vehicle unsafely, for whatever reason. As was pointed out by the police chief in a previous Chronicle article:

[Chief] Jones said that having an ordinance with specific language addressing cell phones made it “cleaner in a court of law.”

This law is about making it easy to prosecute; the safety issue is already covered by other laws if officials were only willing to enforce them. I cannot be clearer. Officials turn a blind eye to a myriad of unsafe driving behaviors like, driving in the passing lane, speeding (0 to 10 over limit), some of the elderly’s inability to see, hear or operate their vehicles safely, reckless driving, tailgating, etc.

As far as ‘personal perspective’ I have no idea what that means in this context. Maybe you can clarify lest you talk past folks.

In Michigan, miles traveled on average increased since 1999 by almost 10%. Crashes since 1999 DECREASED 24%. So, as cell phone use increased, crashes decreased.

New York banned cell phone use while driving in 2001. That year they had 331,979 accidents. In 2008, they had 316,231 accidents. That’s a decrease of only 0.03%. Looks like banning cell phones didn’t help that state.

In January this year, the LA Times reported that California’s cell phone ban had not reduced crashes. “A new study from the Highway Loss Data Institute released Friday found that the rate of crashes before and after the landmark law took effect in 2008 has not significantly changed. The research also found that California’s auto accident trends before and after the cellphone law took effect mirror those of neighboring states such as Arizona and Nevada, which don’t have hand-held phone bans.”

This also mirrors other jurisdiction that after enacting the bans, did not notice any significant reduction in traffic crashes.

So why make it illegal? Instead, educate and try to make it socially unacceptable. But stop making laws that do nothing other than take away freedom. Why should anyone sacrifice their freedom for this? There is simply no benefit. None.

Others have tried it. It did nothing.

Please stop supporting laws based on hunches and dreams and instead look to doing something that actually will improve safety, like pressuring the city to actually fix roadways and bridges.

I don’t know whether laws at the city level are the logical way to approach this problem, but though I have never had a personal incident, my husband was rear-ended at a freeway exit by someone who was on his phone (he had already had a couple of other such incidents, apparently; he wanted to buy my husband off so it wouldn’t be reported). But I’ve seen many cases of bad driving with people weaving, failing to go through intersections in a timely manner, drifting into lanes, etc. – then you see they are on their phone. They are scary to be around. It is a problem. Maybe not the only problem. That doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be addressed.