Headset Law Goes Into Effect in CA Soon

I believe it's scheduled for July 1st. There are so many bozos in LA that are going to be in for a rude wakeup call when this hits and will receive some heavy fines.

I was at an intesection 2 weeks ago where I had no stop sign and the other guy did. He almost ran into me because his ear was glued to his cell, not fucking paying attention. I almost got out of my car and ripped his head off. Douchebags like that should not be on the road!

A head set won't matter,you"re still talking instead of driving.

Yeah, but it does free up that second hand for the wheel.

And what do you do when there is someone sitting in the passenger seat? Ignore them?

Headsets on phones are perfectly reasonable - I have 2 hands free to drive, like when I am talking to someone in the car with me.

Unless it's my man in the passenger seat, then I only have one hand free

That's not what I meant. I meant that people will be slapped with fines if they don't follow the new law. Many will forget about it and be fined....I use a bluetooth all the time...I have to, as I drive a stick shift.

people break the law intentionally or not, every day while driving. I see people speeding past cop cars and they don't pursue them unless they're going at a specific speed.

Yes, it would be nice if people would shut up and drive. I often thought it would be nice to have a cell phone disrupter to use while driving...

This law has been close to useless in New York too. At intersections where the traffic turns left, it's cell chatter after cell chatter on hand-held phones. People just do not give a damn. They'll risk a ticket for it.

That's a shame - it really works in Ireland.

We have a penalty points system there (and here in France - but it is slightly different):
National Safety Council - Penalty Points - About Penalty Points : The Full List of Current Offences

Penalty Points remain on the licence record for a period of 3 years. Get 12 points at any time within the 3 years and it’s an automatic disqualification for 6 months. (though the insurance companies treat points as a chance to up your premiums too!) Talking on a hand held phone is 2 points (though if you contest it and lose it is 4 points - that'd take 6 offences to get suspended but it seems to work as a deterent because I never see people holding phones when I'm over there. Everyone I know who doesn't have hands free pulls over to answer the phone or turns it off in the car.

I believe the fine in California will be rather low so I expect people will still use phones and simply pay the nuisance ticket.

*drives through this thread while holding his cell phone and yelling loudly in a detailed involving conversation*

That maybe true, as the law comes into play. But I could easily see these fines being increased quickly as an extra revenue generator for the government. Given the recessive economy and mortgage meltdown we are experiencing, corporations and many government agencies are looking for more punitive ways to produce revenue. For example, I live in a nicer part of LA with an upscale demographic and the meter maids in this area are Nazis. I have seen them waiting in their little cars when street sweeping days occur (Th. and Fri. 9-12) at about 8:50, waiting to issue those tickets at 9:00 if the car still hasn’t been moved. It’s comical, really, that the government knows that this is a nicer part of town and people’s ability to pay the fines is much greater than the ghetto, for example.

PS I was in SF this past weekend and the streets there are a nuisance. I’m a pretty observant driver, but there were some funky intersections where I wasn’t sure what was going on with left turns and right of ways.

Does any car maker still build the good ol' handset car phones? I think Audi does, and I think I remember Volvo offers them as optional.

My personal system of choice would be a phone/radio override that puts phone calls on the car's speaker system, with a microphone of whatsoever kind. My experience from piloting is that headphones or earplugs cut off way too much of the ambiance noise, which can be an important factor in road traffic (sirens, etc). So, a headset law may be too specialized. Something against the hand use of cellphones during driving would have been sufficient.

what did you expect?

and our freeways are about the same. get in the wrong lane and you may find yourself going across the Golden Gate Bridge or the San Francisco - Oakland Bay Bridge... and have to pay $4 to get back to where you started.

This has been PROVEN OVER AND OVER AND OVER again... that headsets do nothing to inhibit the number of traffic incidents.

This is a lobby from the phone manufacturer's hook/line/sinker.

The incidents are not from having two hands on the wheel, but from distraction. A headset does nothing to take away from the distraction of holding a visual conversation in your head.

not to mention looking at the phone to dial it or read a text or simply push the button to answer the thing, bam your in the back end of a stopped vehicle. I hit someone who opened a car door while I was adjusting the channel on my radio once. Shit happens but we really don't need more reasons for shit to happen. I actually saw a women sitting at a red light and she had both hands on the wheel but a cig in one and a cell phone in the other.