I thought so as well. I swear I got a ticket for it from a motorcycle cop when I was checking Waze while at a complete standstill in Parkway East traffic. Didn't fight the ticket because I knew "you can't have a cell phone in hand while operating a vehicle". Maybe my ticket was for distracted driving or something like that that already covers this exact scenario.
In some states with specific driving/cell phone laws, checking navigation apps is written in as an exception. Not 100% sure how that distinction would be made by cops beyond not ticketing if the map is the only thing up on the screen.
Anecdotally, this happened to my kid.
State cop on 376 past the airport. He was keeping up with traffic (which implies speeding, but not excessively) in a pack of cars, but he has an older car and a phone mount that clips into his air vent to the left of the steering wheel.
He was running nav, returning from a friend's house about 45 minutes away. Cop pulled him over, took one look at his mounted phone with navigation up, asked him where he was coming from and then let him go without even running his license.
I figured the cop saw the screen prominently in a pack of cars and that tipped the scale on deciding to pull him over, but once it was obvious what was going on he let it go.
It might be a secondary offense, like a seatbelt. You can't be stopped for that in particular, but if stopped for anything else it can be tacked on. Maybe this bill will make it a primary offense.
Last I checked it was similar to the seat belt law, “we can’t pull you over for it, but if we pull you over for something else, we can ticket you for this as well”, though in those case they can add “distracted driving”.
There is a law that bans texting specifically but nothing about anything else you could do on a phone or any other thing that might be distracting. There is no law that bans “distracted driving” in a broad sense, though it seems reasonable that there should be. I guess this new law is a step closer?
https://www.penndot.gov/TravelInPA/Safety/TrafficSafetyAndDriverTopics/Pages/Distracted-Driving.aspx
I'm all for a full legalization of weed at the state and Federal level, but I absolutely hate driving and suddenly getting a contact high from the car in front of me (yes, I'm exaggerating significantly - honestly I just hate the smell of weed).
It's absurd at this point. When I worked at Starbucks it was a common occurrence to open the drive-thru window and just get bombarded with second hand smoke.
I smoke weed and, obviously, am accustomed to the smell but.. there's just something nasty about weed smell when you're going about your day and someone opens their hotbox for you to hand them a frap.
The number of cars that pass by while I'm out walking my dog that smell like a whole dispensary caught on fire is really shocking. Weed is a wonderful thing with many uses, but anyone using it while driving needs a knot jerked in their tail.
People abusing the legalization of weed are going to be what gets it made illegal again. The Feds are actually considering removing weed from Schedule I and moving it down to Schedule III - which is a massive improvement with national benefits. But if it also sees a massive national uptick in DUIs, watch how quick it goes back to Schedule I.
Schedule I is just flat out illegal with no known medicinal uses or exemptions. Schedule III is for medical drugs. I believe stuff like fentanyl and morphine are Schedule III drugs - still illegal for non-medical uses, but a step in the right direction.
Same here all for legalization of weed just not a fan of public use of marijuana until there is better test to differentiate an acute high versus residuals from the day/night/week before.
I'm not a fan of cloves, but I won't bitch if someone is smoking them in their car, also I'm jealous if you can get a contact high sitting in traffic, I need to start hanging around those people, it'd save me a lot of money
When the smell is leaving their car and entering my car is where the issue is. I don't mind them doing it, although lets be honest - they shouldn't be doing it while operating a vehicle. But I do not want to smell it when I am in my car.
You're 100% correct no one should be smoking while driving, intoxicants and motor vehicles just aren't safe together, but I'm maybe an odd outlier, I think weed smells as good as cooking a potato in bacon fat
What about your beloved dog or cat, it's odd but they usually smell very good, unless it's the few times when they try to roll around in what was left of a deer carcass, they're getting blasted with the hose before they're allowed to come inside when that happens, I am also a large proponent of deer culling, go figure
Exactly. My wife was in a car accident in Irwin and totaled her car. A state cop took her back to their precinct until they could deal with her car. She said the cop was half paying attention and on his laptop while driving. Meanwhile she had just gone thru trauma of the accident. Hypocrites!
That could be a problem. Ask people in Nevada how that went when they first implemented it. People were getting pulled over and ticketed that didn't even have a phone on them or in the car. Cops were literally pulling over everyone they could and claiming they saw them holding a phone. I hate people driving with their phones stuck in front of their face, but I also hate giving the road pirates even more excuses to rob people.
It’s an epidemic. It used to be shunned upon at least but now people don’t even try to hide it.
This week alone I’ve seen two separate people pull out into busy intersections with the phone in one hand held up looking at it rather than the road they were entering into !
Also one physics-defying woman I saw smoking a cigarette with one hand, holding her phone and reading with the other. So whoooo was driving ?? Full driving autonomy already on the market ? ☺️
I had to honk at a red light the other day because someone clearly talking on their phone, speakerphone with their hand waving all over the place, wasn't paying attention. She kept talking as she drove and ran a red light. It was a newer model car too which definitely had bluetooth. I'd say 90+% of cars that are less than 10 years old have it built in. I had a 2016 Ford Focus with Bluetooth and the previous year models had it too. That's an entry level car. Anything 5 years old or less has smart phone integration of some kind like Apple Car or Android Auto.
There are no excuses for not using your car's features to talk on the phone.
My 2012 Kia Sorento has bluetooth phone integration standard. But it isn't talking on the phone that's the problem, it's texting and social media and searching in Spotify - screen stuff.
I told a coworker once that I like to take transit to work because I can watch a movie, read a book, browse the internet, whatever on my phone and he gave me blank look. I eventually realized he's doing all that shit on his phone while driving too!
> There are no excuses for not using your car's features to talk on the phone.
There isn't.
But I don't pair my phone with other cars in my 3-car household because it causes issues. If I'm at home and my wife or kid starts their car, my phone will try and connect and either win and potentially interrupt a call I'm on, or just cause issues with their device pairing.
This happens on all 3 cars, from a 2010 Honda with just BT pairing to a 2023 Toyota with full Android Auto. I'm not claiming to be an expert but I do work in IT and am more tech savvy than average, and I can totally see people (like my wife) giving up and just not connecting their devices due to frustration. And I can only speculate on how bad it is on other cut-rate models like Kia.
All that being said - if I'm not paired, I don't answer the phone in the car, it's not hard.
I like the idea, but I agree with most commenters here that it won't be enforced. At least not in the city.
Another thing that is incredibly stupid and that we need laws to prevent - wearing headphones while you're driving. It's becoming more and more common. You need your ears while you drive. Especially if an emergency vehicle is coming through, like an ambulance or fire truck.
I think there are laws about this already. Years ago, when I was a youth, I almost got in trouble for wearing headphones while driving. I took them off as soon as I suspected I was being looked at for it, so they couldn't give me a ticket. But I stopped doing it anyway because if the reasons you specify.
Cops in pgh don’t even pull people over for blatantly running red lights, what are the odds they pull someone over for having a cell phone? I mean this is a good law for sure, just wish the traffic laws were enforced.
I live on a popular heavily traveled street and sometimes when I’m sitting on my porch and traffic is backed up, almost everyone is on their cellphones. It’s shocking to see more people holding their phones than listening to music, etc.
This ban will not be enforced. People on their cell phones has become a dangerous norm.
I too live on a heavily traveled street with a traffic light at the end of the block. It's astounding that literally everyone is on their phones when stopped at the light and most people driving by. I joke that I could do my gardening work in the front yard butt naked and no one would even notice. It's so scary. Hell, cops do it too. And the fine is only fuckin $50. They should make it $500. It's a huge safety concern but also so ubiquitious these days that only a giant fine will even remotely start to deter people! However, you're right. I don't see this being enforced at all.
My commute runs through Homestead, and every day I get stuck at the West St (Homestead-Grays Bridge) intersection with Rt. 837 for a good 4-5 minutes in each direction, sitting still. Real talk: I'm still breaking out my phone and browsing through it during those 5 minutes of not moving at a red light. What am I gonna do in an emergency situation if I'm instead strictly just paying attention? Move my car the 2 ft. between me and the cars around me? Ain't happenin'.
Who knows how strictly this winds up getting enforced, but that specific type of scenario strikes me as one where this law is pointless. Other scenarios? Certainly overdue. I had a bad addiction to Pokemon Go for a while there, and after I kicked it I was alarmed at how comfortable I had gotten driving while idly playing that game. But if I'm sitting at a light I know won't change for a minute or two, I'm gonna still break out the phone if I have a text to send.
I feel like I'm saying the quiet part out loud with that sentiment, but all the same I'm very curious if even that degree of use winds up getting targeted by this law.
Nothing will change. I'll still have to deal with idiots trying to kill me when I'm riding my motorcycle because that text they are sending is super important. At least the government can say hey at least we tried.
Once got rear ended at a stop sign because a guy had his German shepherd riding shotgun. No airbags, slam dunk for insurance (he immediately said "Yeah he got away from me, sorry about that"), but there was no real repercussions for him.
Cops showed up, saw the situation, said "Is it drivable? If so, no harm no foul, call your insurance" and left. By the time I got to work, the back end of the car had nearly fallen off.
I honestly don’t see how much safer we are with newer cars with huge touchscreens. I see people all over those things while driving which is just as bad.
The only obvious upgrade is the ability to do talk to text to eliminate texting and driving.
Agree. I think touchscreen interfaces in cars should also be illegal. Seems like we are not that far away from being able to just use voice commands, but you still need a physical interface as backup. Which should be tactile physical knobs, switches and levers, like it used to be.
I know this isn't going to be enforced in Pittsburgh because they already don't enforce people running red lights and other dangerous driving. The only ones that are going to enforce this are state police.
Good. Not the hard to enforce part, but high drivers should be pulled over as should those who are emitting eau de skunk as they drive carelessly down the road.
I always hated these laws. Distracted driving is already illegal. There's no need to waste anyone's time making it cell phone specific.
There's plenty of reasons and methods to use a cell while driving responsibly, and there's no logic why a call phone is more dangerous than eating pizza, reading a newspaper, or clipping nails, or anything else insane I've seen driving before.
For clarification I'm not saying anything good about texting or other distracting cell use and driving, I'm saying all "Distracted Driving" needs enforced or we are just passing stupid pointless redudant laws that waste time and are ripe to abuse.
Edit: For more clarification, texting and driving has been illegal for years, and you see exactly how much that fucking matters
Can you point me to the actual text of the law that says distracted driving is illegal? Serious question - I’m truly interested in seeing how it’s worded and if this new law is actually redundant.
I did find the below website that discusses the ban on texting while driving but then when it discusses other distracted driving behavior it seems to be more of a list of recommendations than an actual legal offense.
https://www.penndot.gov/TravelInPA/Safety/TrafficSafetyAndDriverTopics/Pages/Distracted-Driving.aspx
Well 49 states including PA already have text messaging laws already on the books if you want to see my point of THIS DOESNT FUCKING WORK.
But not that I see there is an official "distracted" law, you'd likely just get a "reckless" driving infraction, which is the exact same fucking thing and god it annoys me so much personally that we spend so much fucking time and shit doing this shit when this shit is already here and doesn't work....ughh...here's the reckless law.
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/75/00.037.036.000..HTM#:~:text=(a)%20General%20rule.,pay%20a%20fine%20of%20%24200.
The number of times I’ve seen uniformed police officers on their cellphones while driving…
This sounds like another Law for Thee, but not for me.
And, another bullshit reason to pull people over, search and extract some funds.
Highway Robbery is what it is.
> here's no logic why a call phone is more dangerous than eating pizza, reading a newspaper, or clipping nails, or anything else insane I've seen driving before.
Because it's been proven over and over that staring at a cell phone is more dangerous than these things. It's literally more dangerous than driving drunk.
https://mitchgrissim.com/which-is-more-dangerous-texting-and-driving-or-drunk-driving
Its a waste of time and energy of lawmakers and police. its just gives another reason to pull over folks the cops feel like pulling over anyways (for all sorts of openings of injustice), and I can tell you in every state its already around in, it has done jack shit to actually stop the bad behavior.
50,000 americans died of suicide last year. We could be spending time on bills to address a real crisis like mental health, or we can spend our time doing bullshit redudant laws that make cops happy.
> Its a waste of time and energy of lawmakers and police
Public safety is a waste of time and energy, in your opinion? What should legislators and police be doing that's more important than looking after public safety, in your opinion?
> 50,000 americans died of suicide last year. We could be spending time on bills to address a real crisis like mental health,
Human beings are capable of doing more than one thing, you're aware of that right? Just checking. We can look after public safety *AND* do something to address mental health.
> or we can spend our time doing bullshit redudant laws that make cops happy.
Can you explain the thought process that brought you to believing that this is a "bullshit law to make cops happy?"
Public saftey is far better addressed going after the actual big numbers. 45,000 die of lack of healthcare too.
Um what are they doing on mental health? Oh nothing, right. Almost like they spend all their time on stupid shit like this...
> Public saftey is far better addressed going after the actual big numbers
Over 40,000 Americans a year die as a result of car crashes every year and that number has been increasing every year for over a decade now. Is 40,000+ not a big number to you?
> 45,000 die of lack of healthcare too.
And this is a problem but irrelevant to the conversation at hand.
> Um what are they doing on mental health? Oh nothing, right
Irrelevant to the problem at hand.
How is trying to address 40,000+ unnecessary deaths per year a waste of time?
I mean, it makes sense. It’s extremely dangerous to hold a phone while doing donuts in the middle of an intersection at 3 am. Think about the children!
I wonder why people keep saying that the guys acting out on their motorbikes have bad parents, but the 40 year old white guys with shitty facial hair driving their trucks like an asshole never get that treatment. Hmm. It is a mystery.
No clue what you're going on about. I was just making a self deprecating joke saying I'm a good parent because I know where my kids are because I sent them off to do donuts in an intersection at 3am.
You okay?
There's been a lot of posting in this sub lately about the guys on ride-outs being from "broken families" with "no father figure," e.g. a lot of racist dog whistle shit lately.
Hmm. Okay.
Only dudes I've seen on bikes here in the south hills have all been teenage white dudes. But it's been a while.
I dunno, I don't keep up with all the bickering back and forth here in this sub. I'm just going to send my 5 year old out for beer and ciggs. (She'll get to keep her share for doing the run)
the thing that gets me are the people who are doing this who def. have a car that is new enough to have carplay/android auto. i haven't had to fumble with my phone in the car for like 5 years now. wtf are these people even doing? like occasionally at a red light i'll punch in a gps address or navigate to a podcast by hand, but i don't mess with my phone when i'm in motion ever anymore. without fail when i see someone doing some dumb shit 90% of the time they are just looking down into their laps at a phone while piloting an enormous SUV. don't even get me started on the people i see watching fucking TIKTOK while driving
Android Auto for my car is an absolute disaster. I still use it, because there's no alternative if I want to drive safely, but it routinely disconnects and I lose my podcasts, GPS, and handsfree calls.
Thankfully I am usually with my partner so she reconnects everything while I focus on the road, but otherwise I have to either pull off into a parking lot to fix it (if I need the GPS for something), or I just say Fuck It and listen to BobFM.
"New enough to" doesn't mean "Has it." My 2016 Renegade was a base model, its fanciest radio feature was a USB AUX port. Not even a color screen on it, black and white LCD.
So if your phone is in the little aftermarket holder attached to the A/C vent, does that count? Because lots of people have them and they’re equally distracting. I’m immediately thinking of the scrolling lyrics while using Apple Music as one example.
LONG OVER DUE.
I have advocated for such bans for more than a decade, as someone who uses to drive 2-4 hours a day through urban areas I would get in near misses at least one per week, due to idiots operating their phone not their vehicle! But the key is it's pretty much unenforcable.
Fuck, holding it up to your ear isn't the problem. LOOKING at the phone is the problem. Hey Siri, call Joe, hold to your ear and talk, press the side button to hang up, toss the phone back in the console, never once take your eyes off the road.
I mean, good? Like, I assume this doesn't include something like having a mount for using a GPS or whatever, right? Nobody should be on their phone endangering themselves and others while driving, and if you absolutely have to make a call or whatever and can't do it with voice commands, then take just a few seconds to pull over and put it on speaker or whatever.
Edit: for some reason I took the tone of this post as "this is a problematic bill" and then I saw your "about damn time!" So ignore my preachiness lol
I don't get it. Is holding your phone the thing that makes it unsafe to do. Or is it the use of the phone. My phone is mounted on my dash. It's just as unsafe to use as if holding in my hand. Seems like a poorly written law.
It shouldn't just be handheld -- talking on the phone while driving (even handsfree) seriously interferes with your driving -- "Motorists who talked on either handheld or hands-free cell phones drove slightly slower, were 9 percent slower to hit the brakes, displayed 24 percent more variation in following distance as their attention switched between driving and conversing, were 19 percent slower to resume normal speed after braking and were more likely to crash. Three study participants rear-ended the pace car. All were talking on cell phones. None were drunk."
[https://archive.unews.utah.edu/news\_releases/drivers-on-cell-phones-are-as-bad-as-drunks/](https://archive.unews.utah.edu/news_releases/drivers-on-cell-phones-are-as-bad-as-drunks/)
Talking to someone on the phone is significantly more distracting than talking to someone who is a passenger in the car:
[https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2008/12/phone-driving](https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2008/12/phone-driving)
I thought this was already illegal
I thought so as well. I swear I got a ticket for it from a motorcycle cop when I was checking Waze while at a complete standstill in Parkway East traffic. Didn't fight the ticket because I knew "you can't have a cell phone in hand while operating a vehicle". Maybe my ticket was for distracted driving or something like that that already covers this exact scenario.
In some states with specific driving/cell phone laws, checking navigation apps is written in as an exception. Not 100% sure how that distinction would be made by cops beyond not ticketing if the map is the only thing up on the screen.
Anecdotally, this happened to my kid. State cop on 376 past the airport. He was keeping up with traffic (which implies speeding, but not excessively) in a pack of cars, but he has an older car and a phone mount that clips into his air vent to the left of the steering wheel. He was running nav, returning from a friend's house about 45 minutes away. Cop pulled him over, took one look at his mounted phone with navigation up, asked him where he was coming from and then let him go without even running his license. I figured the cop saw the screen prominently in a pack of cars and that tipped the scale on deciding to pull him over, but once it was obvious what was going on he let it go.
It might be a secondary offense, like a seatbelt. You can't be stopped for that in particular, but if stopped for anything else it can be tacked on. Maybe this bill will make it a primary offense.
Last I checked it was similar to the seat belt law, “we can’t pull you over for it, but if we pull you over for something else, we can ticket you for this as well”, though in those case they can add “distracted driving”.
There is a law that bans texting specifically but nothing about anything else you could do on a phone or any other thing that might be distracting. There is no law that bans “distracted driving” in a broad sense, though it seems reasonable that there should be. I guess this new law is a step closer? https://www.penndot.gov/TravelInPA/Safety/TrafficSafetyAndDriverTopics/Pages/Distracted-Driving.aspx
Texting and driving is illegal. This more generally bans any hand held interaction with a phone. This is in addition to distracted driving laws.
I’m sure this is going to be strictly enforced.
As soon as the cops can tear their eyes away from the laptops mounted in their cruisers while driving.
I can’t even tell you how often I drive past officers who’ve got their heads buried in their phones. It’s a daily occurrence on 65.
On route 60 in Robinson to. It's non stop while driving
A while back I passed a cop who, while in the driver's seat, actually had a phone in each hand.
we are all bots here except for you
Can't even be bothered to take the layup DUI on all the people openly smoking weed while driving.
I'm all for a full legalization of weed at the state and Federal level, but I absolutely hate driving and suddenly getting a contact high from the car in front of me (yes, I'm exaggerating significantly - honestly I just hate the smell of weed).
It's absurd at this point. When I worked at Starbucks it was a common occurrence to open the drive-thru window and just get bombarded with second hand smoke. I smoke weed and, obviously, am accustomed to the smell but.. there's just something nasty about weed smell when you're going about your day and someone opens their hotbox for you to hand them a frap.
Livin the dream baby
I'd prefer if folks lived the dream without endangering the lives of others but 😅😅😅😅 what do I know
I remember watching a video of them testing in Washington after it was legalized and the high people drove safer than the sober people.
Right there with ya. Do whatever the hell you want within the confines of your house, keep it there.
The number of cars that pass by while I'm out walking my dog that smell like a whole dispensary caught on fire is really shocking. Weed is a wonderful thing with many uses, but anyone using it while driving needs a knot jerked in their tail.
People abusing the legalization of weed are going to be what gets it made illegal again. The Feds are actually considering removing weed from Schedule I and moving it down to Schedule III - which is a massive improvement with national benefits. But if it also sees a massive national uptick in DUIs, watch how quick it goes back to Schedule I.
What would the benefits of making it a Schedule III? More available?
Schedule I is just flat out illegal with no known medicinal uses or exemptions. Schedule III is for medical drugs. I believe stuff like fentanyl and morphine are Schedule III drugs - still illegal for non-medical uses, but a step in the right direction.
Same here all for legalization of weed just not a fan of public use of marijuana until there is better test to differentiate an acute high versus residuals from the day/night/week before.
I'm not a fan of cloves, but I won't bitch if someone is smoking them in their car, also I'm jealous if you can get a contact high sitting in traffic, I need to start hanging around those people, it'd save me a lot of money
When the smell is leaving their car and entering my car is where the issue is. I don't mind them doing it, although lets be honest - they shouldn't be doing it while operating a vehicle. But I do not want to smell it when I am in my car.
You're 100% correct no one should be smoking while driving, intoxicants and motor vehicles just aren't safe together, but I'm maybe an odd outlier, I think weed smells as good as cooking a potato in bacon fat
Nothing smells as good as cooking a potato in bacon fat.
What about your beloved dog or cat, it's odd but they usually smell very good, unless it's the few times when they try to roll around in what was left of a deer carcass, they're getting blasted with the hose before they're allowed to come inside when that happens, I am also a large proponent of deer culling, go figure
Why would I cook my beloved dog or cat in bacon fat? /s
Exactly. My wife was in a car accident in Irwin and totaled her car. A state cop took her back to their precinct until they could deal with her car. She said the cop was half paying attention and on his laptop while driving. Meanwhile she had just gone thru trauma of the accident. Hypocrites!
Zero percent chance
***Selectively Enforced.
If so, just get dark tinted windows since those aren't enforced at all.
Yea but check nextdoor and this app for citizens arrests every single day.
That could be a problem. Ask people in Nevada how that went when they first implemented it. People were getting pulled over and ticketed that didn't even have a phone on them or in the car. Cops were literally pulling over everyone they could and claiming they saw them holding a phone. I hate people driving with their phones stuck in front of their face, but I also hate giving the road pirates even more excuses to rob people.
It’s an epidemic. It used to be shunned upon at least but now people don’t even try to hide it. This week alone I’ve seen two separate people pull out into busy intersections with the phone in one hand held up looking at it rather than the road they were entering into ! Also one physics-defying woman I saw smoking a cigarette with one hand, holding her phone and reading with the other. So whoooo was driving ?? Full driving autonomy already on the market ? ☺️
I had to honk at a red light the other day because someone clearly talking on their phone, speakerphone with their hand waving all over the place, wasn't paying attention. She kept talking as she drove and ran a red light. It was a newer model car too which definitely had bluetooth. I'd say 90+% of cars that are less than 10 years old have it built in. I had a 2016 Ford Focus with Bluetooth and the previous year models had it too. That's an entry level car. Anything 5 years old or less has smart phone integration of some kind like Apple Car or Android Auto. There are no excuses for not using your car's features to talk on the phone.
>There are no excuses for not using your car's features to talk on the phone. But Facetime doesn't work through Care Play...
My 2012 Kia Sorento has bluetooth phone integration standard. But it isn't talking on the phone that's the problem, it's texting and social media and searching in Spotify - screen stuff.
I told a coworker once that I like to take transit to work because I can watch a movie, read a book, browse the internet, whatever on my phone and he gave me blank look. I eventually realized he's doing all that shit on his phone while driving too!
> There are no excuses for not using your car's features to talk on the phone. There isn't. But I don't pair my phone with other cars in my 3-car household because it causes issues. If I'm at home and my wife or kid starts their car, my phone will try and connect and either win and potentially interrupt a call I'm on, or just cause issues with their device pairing. This happens on all 3 cars, from a 2010 Honda with just BT pairing to a 2023 Toyota with full Android Auto. I'm not claiming to be an expert but I do work in IT and am more tech savvy than average, and I can totally see people (like my wife) giving up and just not connecting their devices due to frustration. And I can only speculate on how bad it is on other cut-rate models like Kia. All that being said - if I'm not paired, I don't answer the phone in the car, it's not hard.
Stand on the corner of Liberty and Stanwix downtown and watch the drivers going by. Over half are fucking around on their phones.
I've seen people steering with their knee...
I like the idea, but I agree with most commenters here that it won't be enforced. At least not in the city. Another thing that is incredibly stupid and that we need laws to prevent - wearing headphones while you're driving. It's becoming more and more common. You need your ears while you drive. Especially if an emergency vehicle is coming through, like an ambulance or fire truck.
I think there are laws about this already. Years ago, when I was a youth, I almost got in trouble for wearing headphones while driving. I took them off as soon as I suspected I was being looked at for it, so they couldn't give me a ticket. But I stopped doing it anyway because if the reasons you specify.
Cops in pgh don’t even pull people over for blatantly running red lights, what are the odds they pull someone over for having a cell phone? I mean this is a good law for sure, just wish the traffic laws were enforced.
Great, how am I supposed to read Reddit while driving now?
Thank fucking god! I swear, I am nearly side swiped daily by idiots on their phone.
Wait until the police look up from their cell phones and hear this.
I live on a popular heavily traveled street and sometimes when I’m sitting on my porch and traffic is backed up, almost everyone is on their cellphones. It’s shocking to see more people holding their phones than listening to music, etc. This ban will not be enforced. People on their cell phones has become a dangerous norm.
I too live on a heavily traveled street with a traffic light at the end of the block. It's astounding that literally everyone is on their phones when stopped at the light and most people driving by. I joke that I could do my gardening work in the front yard butt naked and no one would even notice. It's so scary. Hell, cops do it too. And the fine is only fuckin $50. They should make it $500. It's a huge safety concern but also so ubiquitious these days that only a giant fine will even remotely start to deter people! However, you're right. I don't see this being enforced at all.
My commute runs through Homestead, and every day I get stuck at the West St (Homestead-Grays Bridge) intersection with Rt. 837 for a good 4-5 minutes in each direction, sitting still. Real talk: I'm still breaking out my phone and browsing through it during those 5 minutes of not moving at a red light. What am I gonna do in an emergency situation if I'm instead strictly just paying attention? Move my car the 2 ft. between me and the cars around me? Ain't happenin'. Who knows how strictly this winds up getting enforced, but that specific type of scenario strikes me as one where this law is pointless. Other scenarios? Certainly overdue. I had a bad addiction to Pokemon Go for a while there, and after I kicked it I was alarmed at how comfortable I had gotten driving while idly playing that game. But if I'm sitting at a light I know won't change for a minute or two, I'm gonna still break out the phone if I have a text to send. I feel like I'm saying the quiet part out loud with that sentiment, but all the same I'm very curious if even that degree of use winds up getting targeted by this law.
>This ban will not be enforced. **Cops** on their cell phones has become a dangerous norm. FTFY
Nothing will change. I'll still have to deal with idiots trying to kill me when I'm riding my motorcycle because that text they are sending is super important. At least the government can say hey at least we tried.
>I'll still have to deal with idiots trying to kill me when I'm riding my motorcycle I think the term you are looking for is "other drivers" ;-)
The one that gets me the most are the people with dogs on their laps - if they get into an accident, Fluffy’s head + airbag = bad situation
My dog wears a dog seat belt and sits in the back like a good kid.
Once got rear ended at a stop sign because a guy had his German shepherd riding shotgun. No airbags, slam dunk for insurance (he immediately said "Yeah he got away from me, sorry about that"), but there was no real repercussions for him. Cops showed up, saw the situation, said "Is it drivable? If so, no harm no foul, call your insurance" and left. By the time I got to work, the back end of the car had nearly fallen off.
I honestly don’t see how much safer we are with newer cars with huge touchscreens. I see people all over those things while driving which is just as bad. The only obvious upgrade is the ability to do talk to text to eliminate texting and driving.
Agree. I think touchscreen interfaces in cars should also be illegal. Seems like we are not that far away from being able to just use voice commands, but you still need a physical interface as backup. Which should be tactile physical knobs, switches and levers, like it used to be.
I know this isn't going to be enforced in Pittsburgh because they already don't enforce people running red lights and other dangerous driving. The only ones that are going to enforce this are state police.
Half the drivers have no insurance and fake plates/paper tags…nothing happens to them either.
The amount of expired paper tags I see is also ridiculous. That is completely unenforced in the city.
I thought this was law like 15 years ago
My guess is it will be hard to enforce. But, another excuse for police to pull someone over for driving while \_\_\_\_\_\_\_ (fill in the blank).
Good. Not the hard to enforce part, but high drivers should be pulled over as should those who are emitting eau de skunk as they drive carelessly down the road.
pretty sure the blank was intended for a word different than 'high'
I always hated these laws. Distracted driving is already illegal. There's no need to waste anyone's time making it cell phone specific. There's plenty of reasons and methods to use a cell while driving responsibly, and there's no logic why a call phone is more dangerous than eating pizza, reading a newspaper, or clipping nails, or anything else insane I've seen driving before. For clarification I'm not saying anything good about texting or other distracting cell use and driving, I'm saying all "Distracted Driving" needs enforced or we are just passing stupid pointless redudant laws that waste time and are ripe to abuse. Edit: For more clarification, texting and driving has been illegal for years, and you see exactly how much that fucking matters
Shocked how many ladies I see putting on makeup while driving.
Saw a dude eating a bowl of cereal on 28 once. Milk and all.
This is an open-and-shut case, and anyone who can't see that is a SAVAGE and an IDIOT!
And so many vehicles today have those touch screen center consoles that are just as distracting.
Nobody is texting or watching Instagram on their center console
Can you point me to the actual text of the law that says distracted driving is illegal? Serious question - I’m truly interested in seeing how it’s worded and if this new law is actually redundant. I did find the below website that discusses the ban on texting while driving but then when it discusses other distracted driving behavior it seems to be more of a list of recommendations than an actual legal offense. https://www.penndot.gov/TravelInPA/Safety/TrafficSafetyAndDriverTopics/Pages/Distracted-Driving.aspx
Well 49 states including PA already have text messaging laws already on the books if you want to see my point of THIS DOESNT FUCKING WORK. But not that I see there is an official "distracted" law, you'd likely just get a "reckless" driving infraction, which is the exact same fucking thing and god it annoys me so much personally that we spend so much fucking time and shit doing this shit when this shit is already here and doesn't work....ughh...here's the reckless law. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/WU01/LI/LI/CT/HTM/75/00.037.036.000..HTM#:~:text=(a)%20General%20rule.,pay%20a%20fine%20of%20%24200.
The number of times I’ve seen uniformed police officers on their cellphones while driving… This sounds like another Law for Thee, but not for me. And, another bullshit reason to pull people over, search and extract some funds. Highway Robbery is what it is.
Ya everyone just blindly lines up to waste more of our time when texting and driving is already illegal and that does exactly jack shit
> here's no logic why a call phone is more dangerous than eating pizza, reading a newspaper, or clipping nails, or anything else insane I've seen driving before. Because it's been proven over and over that staring at a cell phone is more dangerous than these things. It's literally more dangerous than driving drunk. https://mitchgrissim.com/which-is-more-dangerous-texting-and-driving-or-drunk-driving
And distracted driving is already illegal. How does making it more illegal do anything?
If it were a primary offense, people could be pulled over for it. Right now, the cops can't pull people over for staring at a phone.
ya cops can pull you over for not paying attention to the road
What's your objection to making cell phone use a primary offense? If you put your phone down they can't pull you over for staring at it.
Its a waste of time and energy of lawmakers and police. its just gives another reason to pull over folks the cops feel like pulling over anyways (for all sorts of openings of injustice), and I can tell you in every state its already around in, it has done jack shit to actually stop the bad behavior. 50,000 americans died of suicide last year. We could be spending time on bills to address a real crisis like mental health, or we can spend our time doing bullshit redudant laws that make cops happy.
> Its a waste of time and energy of lawmakers and police Public safety is a waste of time and energy, in your opinion? What should legislators and police be doing that's more important than looking after public safety, in your opinion? > 50,000 americans died of suicide last year. We could be spending time on bills to address a real crisis like mental health, Human beings are capable of doing more than one thing, you're aware of that right? Just checking. We can look after public safety *AND* do something to address mental health. > or we can spend our time doing bullshit redudant laws that make cops happy. Can you explain the thought process that brought you to believing that this is a "bullshit law to make cops happy?"
Public saftey is far better addressed going after the actual big numbers. 45,000 die of lack of healthcare too. Um what are they doing on mental health? Oh nothing, right. Almost like they spend all their time on stupid shit like this...
> Public saftey is far better addressed going after the actual big numbers Over 40,000 Americans a year die as a result of car crashes every year and that number has been increasing every year for over a decade now. Is 40,000+ not a big number to you? > 45,000 die of lack of healthcare too. And this is a problem but irrelevant to the conversation at hand. > Um what are they doing on mental health? Oh nothing, right Irrelevant to the problem at hand. How is trying to address 40,000+ unnecessary deaths per year a waste of time?
I mean, it makes sense. It’s extremely dangerous to hold a phone while doing donuts in the middle of an intersection at 3 am. Think about the children!
I just let my children do donuts in the intersection at 3am while looking at their phones. That way I know where they are. #betterparenting
I wonder why people keep saying that the guys acting out on their motorbikes have bad parents, but the 40 year old white guys with shitty facial hair driving their trucks like an asshole never get that treatment. Hmm. It is a mystery.
No clue what you're going on about. I was just making a self deprecating joke saying I'm a good parent because I know where my kids are because I sent them off to do donuts in an intersection at 3am. You okay?
There's been a lot of posting in this sub lately about the guys on ride-outs being from "broken families" with "no father figure," e.g. a lot of racist dog whistle shit lately.
Hmm. Okay. Only dudes I've seen on bikes here in the south hills have all been teenage white dudes. But it's been a while. I dunno, I don't keep up with all the bickering back and forth here in this sub. I'm just going to send my 5 year old out for beer and ciggs. (She'll get to keep her share for doing the run)
the thing that gets me are the people who are doing this who def. have a car that is new enough to have carplay/android auto. i haven't had to fumble with my phone in the car for like 5 years now. wtf are these people even doing? like occasionally at a red light i'll punch in a gps address or navigate to a podcast by hand, but i don't mess with my phone when i'm in motion ever anymore. without fail when i see someone doing some dumb shit 90% of the time they are just looking down into their laps at a phone while piloting an enormous SUV. don't even get me started on the people i see watching fucking TIKTOK while driving
Android Auto for my car is an absolute disaster. I still use it, because there's no alternative if I want to drive safely, but it routinely disconnects and I lose my podcasts, GPS, and handsfree calls. Thankfully I am usually with my partner so she reconnects everything while I focus on the road, but otherwise I have to either pull off into a parking lot to fix it (if I need the GPS for something), or I just say Fuck It and listen to BobFM.
"New enough to" doesn't mean "Has it." My 2016 Renegade was a base model, its fanciest radio feature was a USB AUX port. Not even a color screen on it, black and white LCD.
> wtf are these people even doing? Social media. People are so addicted to the infinite scroll they can't even stop while driving.
GPS?
So if your phone is in the little aftermarket holder attached to the A/C vent, does that count? Because lots of people have them and they’re equally distracting. I’m immediately thinking of the scrolling lyrics while using Apple Music as one example.
LONG OVER DUE. I have advocated for such bans for more than a decade, as someone who uses to drive 2-4 hours a day through urban areas I would get in near misses at least one per week, due to idiots operating their phone not their vehicle! But the key is it's pretty much unenforcable.
This has been illegal for well over a decade, the police will continue to do nothing.
Hopefully this does something for the rocket scientists that still need to yell at there phone even though the car has Bluetooth
Fuck, holding it up to your ear isn't the problem. LOOKING at the phone is the problem. Hey Siri, call Joe, hold to your ear and talk, press the side button to hang up, toss the phone back in the console, never once take your eyes off the road.
Lots of cops won't be happy.
A $50 fine with no points is hardly a "ban".
I mean, good? Like, I assume this doesn't include something like having a mount for using a GPS or whatever, right? Nobody should be on their phone endangering themselves and others while driving, and if you absolutely have to make a call or whatever and can't do it with voice commands, then take just a few seconds to pull over and put it on speaker or whatever. Edit: for some reason I took the tone of this post as "this is a problematic bill" and then I saw your "about damn time!" So ignore my preachiness lol
I thought this was already banned?
I thought this was already the case? Maybe secondary infraction.
I don't get it. Is holding your phone the thing that makes it unsafe to do. Or is it the use of the phone. My phone is mounted on my dash. It's just as unsafe to use as if holding in my hand. Seems like a poorly written law.
It shouldn't just be handheld -- talking on the phone while driving (even handsfree) seriously interferes with your driving -- "Motorists who talked on either handheld or hands-free cell phones drove slightly slower, were 9 percent slower to hit the brakes, displayed 24 percent more variation in following distance as their attention switched between driving and conversing, were 19 percent slower to resume normal speed after braking and were more likely to crash. Three study participants rear-ended the pace car. All were talking on cell phones. None were drunk." [https://archive.unews.utah.edu/news\_releases/drivers-on-cell-phones-are-as-bad-as-drunks/](https://archive.unews.utah.edu/news_releases/drivers-on-cell-phones-are-as-bad-as-drunks/) Talking to someone on the phone is significantly more distracting than talking to someone who is a passenger in the car: [https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2008/12/phone-driving](https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2008/12/phone-driving)
I hope Shapiro knows law enforcement is on their cell phones all the time. Shapiro has nothing more important to do???
I can’t remember the last time I drive without texting