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Report: CCDC Split From UDC Is "Critical To Success"
A tip of the hat to Loose Lips Daily for pointing us to this nugget from NBC4 on Friday: Ward 2 D.C. Council member Jack Evans says he wants the District to "reconsider" its cell phone driving ban. Now, we've written before about how most D.C. area drivers appear to be ignoring the law and how while the number of tickets issued keeps going up every year, enforcement is still pretty lax and certainly doesn't seem to be discouraging many people from breaking the law.
Evans knows all about this, of course, because a citizen tattled on him to the Washington Post for using his cell phone while driving last summer, and he didn't get pulled over.
Neither Virginia nor Maryland have cell phone driving bans on the books. Everyone seems to agree that people who are talking on their cell phones drive like jackasses, but what do you think about doing away with the $100 tickets the MPD can currently issue to those who are caught doing it? Is it just not worth it? The District issues upwards of $1 million in cell phone-related driving fines each year.
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Bump it up to $150. Maybe it'll help keep someone out of the hospital from some jackass running a red light and hitting a pedestrian. Or, alternatively, it'll help keep my taxes a bit lower.
exactly. Let's start charging more! and also ticket those who cause gridlock, park in bike lanes, cut off buses, etc. And let's charge market rate for parking.
Law? What law?
Jack Evans is always a jack ass whether he is driving with a cell phone or not.
The fine should be high enough that it's worth cops' while to pull people over for it. It's hard to imagine many driving activities more dangerous (or douchey).
Question is, how much is the District actually generating in revenue from people paying those tickets.
Then yes of course bump up the fine, by all means.
And lastly, multiple offenses should at the very least be points on your license and maybe a suspended license (they might already be, but I haven't actually read the law).
PS. Maybe the District should put a little more effort into figuring out how to properly enforce these laws. Council members included. I'm all for such laws, hell give me a ticket for applying mascara or eating a hamburger while driving, but if no one is enforcing the laws then they pretty much don't matter.
I like the law if only for the fact that I can use it as an excuse not to talk to certain people on the phone for longer than is absolutely necessary.
That is brilliant.
This law, as written, is needless nit-pickery.
It would be better to issue the fine for ANY instance of driving like a jackass. This would include jackassery due to cellphone use, texting while driving, or swerving in traffic because the driver is fighting with his spouse over who gets to rule the 8-track player (Mac Davis' Greatest Hits vs. Bread! Too close to call!)
Just bundle all dat shite up as Mobile Jackassery and slap a fifteen thousand dollar fine on it (first offense).
We all know this is an assinine law; 1. It is arbitrarily enforced (completely random) 2. If you are wearing an earpiece and still being a jackass that is perfectly legal, and 3. People on cell phones drive like assholes, but so do most people: people who had a bad day at work drive like jackasses, people late for work, people late for anything, people talking to friends in the car, people dancing as they drive, most guys under 25 drive like assholes, people with too much testosterone (of either gender), anyone from Maryland, etc. Until we start ticketing all the assholes, does it really matter? People can drive down any street in DC at 20 miles over the speed limit and almost never get caught, but cell phones are a problem?
That being said (shhh don't say it too loud), keep the money coming! Maybe we can raise the fine to $500 a pop and get DC a new pair of shoes!
As a DC taxpayer who hardly drives and knows how to use a speakerphone function, I am all for that! A million bucks a year is nice! That'll Get a few more segways for the police.
"If you are wearing an earpiece and still being a jackass that is perfectly legal"
No, it's not. And that's why this law was never necessary. Reckless driving is illegal.
Funny you should write this today. Yesterday, I saw him turn right on red at an intersection with a clearly displayed "No Turn on Red" sign. (This was at Mass. & 13th, about 6:15pm).
Just another DC Council douche who believes he's more important than the law.
Remember that Evans (18 years on Council) is also the one who worked to do away with term limits, calling them "undemocratic".
The fine should be abolished and replaced with a choice between the lady or the tiger. The choice should be rigged so that there are, in fact, two tigers and no lady. The tigers are also cursed. First time offenders should be given the option of performing "community service" by which I mean "self-inflicted donkey punches to the taint."
While driving in VA last year, I was hit by a guy who was talking on his cell phone, reading a street map, had four dogs and a 7-year-old in his car. If there was a cell phone ban, would he still have hit me? He was also a jackass, so I vote yes. With all the enhanced safety and entertainment features in cars, people believe that their cars are extensions of their living rooms, and behave as if they are indestructible.
Rather than setting a fine for infractions, why not make people watch grisly accident videos. We all need a lot more fear of God while driving, IMHO. These are 2-ton death boxes we're motoring around in, y'know.
I'd like to motor around in your two ton death box if you know what I'm sayin'.
Yeah, good luck with that $h!t. I've been using that line for years. No dice.
what about giving $$ to residents for sending in pics of drivers talking on the phone, if accompanied with pic of license plate? DC issues the driver a ticket and gives a small reward (10 bucks, say) to private citizen...
They do something like that in parts of Italy only it's so the mafia knows who to kill.
Ah ha, but if you're sending in a pic taken from your cell phone could they come around and try to fine you for operating a cell phone camera during your commute? (I know, you're probably on foot, no matter) When does this stop?
What about all the police officers on their cell phones? Who tickets them?
I called the Mayor's hotline on a guy in a DC vehicle running a red light while on his cell phone. The lady answering the phone didn't understand why I kept mentioning the cell phone. Sigh.
I could probably drive better after smoking crack than your average loser in DC can drive in the best of circumstances. There are so many people who don't pay attention to anything around them while barreling around in their SUV or lollygagging in their Camry.
So do we need a law that says you can't put on makeup or do your nails while driving? Do a crossword puzzle? Adjust the radio? Try to take off your jacket? Smoke a cigarette? Yell at your kids in the back seat?
There are good drivers and there are bad ones. Why don't we just ticket people for breaking the rules of the road. People in this city simply do not believe in things like using turn signals, stopping for pedestrians, staying on their side of the road. If DC police actually ever enforced a single traffic law (other than the cell phone one) it would be a much safer city.
I agree with you Jamie, but unfortunately that is the problem in itself. You see every "loser in DC" firmly believes that everyone ELSE is the "loser in DC" including you and I. And we all think we can drive better than "that loser in DC" until we are the "loser in DC" not noticing we cut someone off because we got hot chili in our lap while angrily complaining about the "losers in DC"
I rarely read DCist while driving. Really though - the people I am talking about are so un-self-aware that I doubt they even realize they are in their car half the time. They certainly don't know or care that there are other cars on the road. I take driving very seriously.
The cellphone ban should be written and enforced similar to the body-in-the-trunk ban. You'll never get pulled-over or checkpointed for no reason, just so cops can search your trunk for future zombies and frankensteins. But if you're pulled over for something else, like speeding, failure to avoid an accident, or being douchey, and a cop finds the body in your trunk on top of that...then you get the $100 fine.
In other words, if a cop has a choice between someone who is violating existing driving laws and someone else who's driving relatively cautiously while on their phone, they should pull over the person who's driving poorly. Of course, if they look for bad drivers who are already on the phone, that would be cause for doubled fines or increased penalty.
Forbidding cellphone use entirely (which also bans txting while at a red light, but lets you gab and distract yourself entirely as long as you have a Bluetooth earpiece) is a little extreme. Some people can drive cautiously and safely while on the phone and some cant. It's like banning all short people from driving...some may have trouble controlling their cars if they can't see as much over the dashboard, but most are decent drivers. And I'd argue that DC has a bigger problem with malicious and/or incompetent drivers, particularly in our taxis and buses, than it does with defensive drivers who occasionally need to make a phone call from the road.
@Invisible Sun: You have got to be kidding. They had policies like that in Germany in the 30's. It didn't end well.
I wasn't expecting Godwin's Law to kick in on this one...
I may have violated the spirit, but not the letter.
It would be nice if we had evidence-based laws rather than faith-based crap like this.
People talking on the phone drive worse than undistracted people. But it's the CONVERSATION that distracts you, not the act of holding the phone. There's all kinds of published studies on this.
But no, forget the science. Let's pass a feel-good law that imposes inconveniences and yields no safety benefit. Because the voters will only remember that we "did something" come re-election time. And they will vote for us.
honest to christ, whether the law is being enforced fully or there is lax enforcement, why the hell would you want to choke off a revenue stream in the middle of the fucking second great depression? is he daft?
Once the murder rate drops below 5million/capita, i'm okay with the cell phone law being a primary traffic offense. But I agree with other commenters that it should be a secondary offense that you can't get a ticket for unless you're pulled over for another moving violation.
In general, I would shy away from any law that gives DC cops any level of discretion.
DC police should definitely ticket drivers who are talking on their cell phones. As a runner who follows makes sure to cross at crosswalks when I have the right of way, I have never felt more unsafe in my life than when I'm running in DC. However, it would be foolish for police to focus on cell phone use while ignoring other equally-dangerous behaviors such as turning right on red without yielding to pedestrians or failing to signal a turn. And, unfortunately, police who discretion no matter how a law is written. That's just the nature of reactive law enforcement.
I never thought I'd give so many drivers the finger before I moved to DC.
DC police should definitely ticket drivers who are talking on their cell phones. As a runner who follows makes sure to cross at crosswalks when I have the right of way, I have never felt more unsafe in my life than when I'm running in DC. However, it would be foolish for police to focus on cell phone use while ignoring other equally-dangerous behaviors such as turning right on red without yielding to pedestrians or failing to signal a turn. And, unfortunately, police have discretion no matter how a law is written. That's just the nature of reactive law enforcement.
I never thought I'd give so many drivers the finger before I moved to DC.
DC police should definitely ticket drivers who are talking on their cell phones. As a runner who makes sure to cross at crosswalks when I have the right of way and always watch for traffic, I have never felt more unsafe in my life than when I'm running in DC. However, it would be foolish for police to focus on cell phone use while ignoring other equally-dangerous behaviors such as turning right on red without yielding to pedestrians or failing to signal a turn. And, unfortunately, police have discretion no matter how a law is written. That's just the nature of reactive law enforcement.
I never thought I'd give so many drivers the finger before I moved to DC.
If anything is done to the Distracted Driving Cell Phone Law, the fine should be raised to $250 or $500. I am sure once a few thousand drivers get tagged with that, word will spread.
I do not buy the Councilman's argument about people ignoring the law. So what?! As a police officer in DC, I witness more and more drivers ignoring laws against running red lights, running stops signs, speeding, driving drunk, driving with their seatbelts and the like. With that said, the city as well as other jurisdictions mount aggressive ads against those aforementioned infractions. You can turn on your tv and/or radio and get bombarded with safety ads like "OVER THE LIMIT AND UNDER ARREST", "SMOOTH OPERATOR- DRIVE SAFELY" and "BUCKLE UP" to name a few. However you will see or hear NOTHING about the Cell Law phone law.
I think the powers-that-be should warn drivers of the Cell Phone Law as they enter city. Also, travelers should be informed of the Cellphone Law as they leave the area airports, train stations and bus stations to head into the city.
In a nutshell, a more aggressive ad campaign informing people of the Cell Phone Law should be established immediately. But like I mentioned above, the fine should be raised to $250 or $500.
If anything is done to the Distracted Driving Cell Phone Law, the fine should be raised to $250 or $500. I am sure once a few thousand drivers get tagged with that, word will spread.
I do not buy the Councilman's argument about people ignoring the law. So what?! As a police officer in DC, I witness more and more drivers ignoring laws against running red lights, running stops signs, speeding, driving drunk, driving with their seatbelts and the like. With that said, the city as well as other jurisdictions mount aggressive ads against those aforementioned infractions. You can turn on your tv and/or radio and get bombarded with safety ads like "OVER THE LIMIT AND UNDER ARREST", "SMOOTH OPERATOR- DRIVE SAFELY" and "BUCKLE UP" to name a few. However you will see or hear NOTHING about the Cell Law phone law.
I think the powers-that-be should warn drivers of the Cell Phone Law as they enter city. Also, travelers should be informed of the Cellphone Law as they leave the area airports, train stations and bus stations to head into the city.
In a nutshell, a more aggressive ad campaign informing people of the Cell Phone Law should be established immediately. But like I mentioned above, the fine should be raised to $250 or $500.
The author of this article completely misses the point. Is the effectiveness of any traffic law judged by whether people continue to violate the law or not? Of course not. No one would argue that we should repeal speed limits because people continue to exceed the speed limit. Traffic laws are about safety. This law should be judged on whether having it on the books has reduced the number of accidents where cell phones were a contributing factor. If not, then repeal the law. Also, if this law stops one person from driving two miles an hour in front of me while I'm trying to get to work, then I'm in favor of it.
"You can turn on your tv and/or radio and get bombarded with safety ads like "OVER THE LIMIT AND UNDER ARREST", "SMOOTH OPERATOR- DRIVE SAFELY" and "BUCKLE UP" to name a few. However you will see or hear NOTHING about the Cell Law phone law."
Those ads are funded by the feds, so you won't see a cell phone one for several years at least.
My husband, my 3-year old and I were almost killed yesterday by a driver on a cell phone-- since he was driving a mega-SUV he would have destroyed the cab we were in... did not see the bright red light on Wisconsin avenue-- oblivious to the fact that other cars had already stopped.
$100 is not going to do it. We need to make it more painful ($15) and more importantly ENFORCED!
BTW_ My boss almost go hit by someone on a cell phone in DC-- also yesterday... we have had it!