"you should watch where you're walking!"

[Crankin]

I agree with the 4 WD stuff. I have had one for years (although now I have a smaller AWD sedan), as it went a long way in reducing my fear at having to learn to drive in the snow at age 37. But, I always say 4WD does not mean 4 wheel stop! For a few years I had a 40 mile commute, one way to work. There were a couple of years with just horrible blizzards, where I would routinely see people flying by me in their 4WD cars, only to see them a bit later, rolled over, in the ditch.
Yes, I am not sure why people feel the need to be so connected constantly. I just don't have that many people to talk to, or that much to say. It's like they lose sight of everything that's going on around them, because they are on the phone.

Psyclepath, I have had similar thoughts about guys who drive around here with their snowplow attached to the front of their huge trucks, as soon as the calendar turns to November!

[Eden]

It's like they lose sight of everything that's going on around them, because they are on the phone.

It's exactly like that..... studies have shown that hands free devices in cars are really no safer than cell phones without headsets..... but no legislator has yet had the cahones to put an out right ban them while driving for everyone, though it is now illegal for teens with learner permits or intermediate (restricted) licenses to do any phoning at all, hands free or not, here in Washington.

[bmccasland]

Numb-nut was on a hand-held cell. One would think that if he could afford a Mercedes SUV, he could afford the hands-free blue tooth too.

[Selkie]

He's probably LEASING the car (she says in a snobbish/elitist tone!). ;-)

There was a recent article in the NYT about how these devices are making people less able to focus. Call me old fashioned but I refuse to buy an Ipod, blackberry, etc. My cell phone is for emergency use only. Luckily, none of this stuff can come inside the buildings at work (actually, I feel bad for anyone who HAS to have one of these devices for their job---seems like a 24/7 tether to the office....)

Yesterday at a red light, the woman in the car next to me was texting, kept looking up to see if the light had changed. Her window was open. I couldn't resist..... down went my passenger window, "HEY, quit text and pay attention to the road." up went my window...... I had to do it.

[HipGnosis6]

I almost got hit today by a guy on his cell phone on his bike. And I've all but stopped bothering calling out when I'm passing pedestrians and joggers because so many of them are listening to music or talking on their phone.

[Owlie]

Everyone who is likely to call me (family, BF, close friends) knows that I will not answer my phone while driving. I've seen people texting while riding a bike..how the heck do you do that?

Yeah, I'm guilty of walking around and talking on my cell (or plugged into my iPod), but I'm good about not running into people and checking intersections before I cross streets. People on paths--I check to see if they have music (iPod headphones are nice for that) before yelling. usually the ones on the phone hear me. The ones with music, I try to get around them as quickly as possible.

[marni]

I just love to shout out the acronym "gotpha" (get off the phone a******) or "gotphi" (get off the phone idiot) at people in cars when I ride by or as they pass me. Doesn't affect them but it makes me feel better.

I do wish texas would start applying some no texting or cell phone or hands free driving rules in areas other than selected school.zones.

marni

[Roadtrip]

Actually most of these newer luxury cars have blue tooth build right in so there is no reason for someone in a Mercedes/BMW/Porsche/Lexus to be talking on a cell without hands free.

I admit I DO talk on the phone while in the car, but it's always with hands free or the speaker phone.

I thought about getting a newer CPO BMW as I saw how nice my co-workers car was... but then I rode with him a few times and changed my mind. He was a totally different person behind the wheel. He even joked how he might as well live up to the "prick" standard owning a BMW came with.

[Crankin]

Wait a minute.
I am not a p**** (I don't like saying that word, although I have no trouble with much worse). I don't see the connection here. Because you have a BMW you are an azzhole? Geez, I bought my little 325xi because it was a) a small sedan and b) it has AWD and a hill descender feature that I wanted. At the time, (2003) I had very little choice in finding a car that wasn't an SUV or mini van that had those features, besides a Subaru (which I had already had and hated).
Sure, my car can be driven very aggressively, since it goes quite fast very nicely, but that doesn't mean I drive that way.
And, I do not use my phone in the car at all (no Bluetooth here).
This reminds me of the guy at the beginning of the group ride I went to a couple of weeks ago; as I was lifting my bike out of the back of my car he said, "Wow, you can fit your bike in the back of that little BMW and it has all wheel drive?" I was like, yes, and that's why I bought it....

[Eden]

I admit I DO talk on the phone while in the car, but it's always with hands free or the speaker phone.

You should understand that it is actually no safer to use hands free, though no where in the states has any government been ballsy enough to ban phoning in cars entirely..... its not so much the hands factor as the brain occupied elsewhere factor when it comes to driving and cellphone use.

WA state just passed a no texting and no talking without hands free law. The press release announcing the law comes out and says right on it that no cell phone use in cars is safe, even though it allows hands free devices..... cops say hands free isn't safe, research studies say hands free isn't any safer.

Over three days, the subjects took the wheel in various ways: sober and off-the-phone; legally under the influence of orange-juice-and-vodka cocktails; while talking with a research assistant by hand-held cellphone; and chatting over a hands-free cellphone device. The result: Compared with drivers exceeding the legal blood alcohol limit, users of cellphones -- hand-held or hands-free -- reacted 18% more slowly to braking by the car in front and were more likely to get in a rear-end collision.


It's too bad when it comes to cars in the US, politicians are so frightened to actually pass laws that have a real effect or any teeth....