Cell Phones and Cars

The POD has reached the end of his rope. On his drive home tonight, he almost got hit three times by drivers using cell phones and not paying attention to the traffic. The most egregious was at an intersection near the POD's house. A driver in a Red Ford Focus blew through a stop sign at 35mph. Talking on a phone and oblivious to what was going on. The POD's family often walk through this intersection. In Chicago it is "illegal" for a driver to drive while using a Cell Phone unless the driver uses a hands free device. The problem is that this is one of those important laws that should be enforced that has gotten caught in the morass of the useless laws regulating comparatively harmless social behaviors.

Smoke a Cigarrette in Chicago and you will be immediately be challenged and fined. Ignore any one of the many transit protocols and you will be challenged and fined. Fail to move a car on street cleaning day and you will, without question, get a $100 ticket (and be sure to check the street every morning becuase the City, to raise revenue, will often put up the sign at 8 am...) Ride a skate board in Daley Plaza and you will be arrested.

NONE of these is as nearly societally damaging as driving down a bike lane with your car, or passing on the right on city streets or driving while using a cell phone. But people are willing to engage in these far more dangerous behaviors because, for some perverse reason, society is unwilling to enforce these laws.

The law is on the books. Stop having the cops running around writing parking tickets and start writing tickets for driving while using a cell phone. It is far past time. Hopefully it will be in time to stop the idiot in the Ford Focus before he blows through the intersection again.