by Joe Buffaloe
Daily Lobo columnist
I don't know how the pioneers crossed the Plains in their covered wagons. They didn't even have
cell phones.
What if Pa was awaiting an important call from his dentist back in Des Moines, Iowa? Or poor Junior - what if his friend George needed to tell him about a new game for some primitive, 1800s version of the
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Nintendo?
The cell phone even played a prominent part in Lewis and Clark's expedition. Lewis noted many times when, standing at the helm of a canoe 500 miles up the Missouri River, paddling against the current, the latest Christina Aguilera hit would begin humming electronically from his pocket. According to his journal, one day the expedition not only progressed five miles, but he also saved 15 percent on his horse insurance after talking to a friendly
telemarketer.
Maybe somebody should tell the Albuquerque City Council
about this.
Monday, it voted 5-4 to ban cell phone use while driving, the second city in New Mexico to do so since Santa Fe passed the same ban in March 2002. It will still be legal if you're using a hands-free system or making an emergency call, but otherwise, talking could get you
in trouble.
If this law is truly enforced - you know, if it's even harder to get away with than not wearing a seat belt or driving faster than the speed limit - then a lot of us are in for an adjustment. Your car, like a classroom, will become a phone-free zone.
I expect many to ignore the ban, unable to break old habits or give up old luxuries. After all, it's still common to see people in class with their cell phones out, despite being against the rules. Also, there's been a ban on drunken driving for years, though our DWI rate is far from zero. Many will resent the ban as an infringement on freedom, a needless intrusion of the government into how we live our lives. Plus, it favors owners of hands-free systems. Though they're convenient in cars, I'm not sure how I feel about the government helping people who are too important to hold their phone themselves.
Yes, the ban may seem trivial at first. Talking on a phone doesn't make you drunk - no one gets more attractive, do they? Karaoke doesn't start sounding like a good idea, does it? Well, despite the lack of intoxication, all that concentration you put into the phone call could be used to pay attention to the road.
You have to look at the phone to use it, so you have to look away from the road, where a 10-ton metal box of death might be careening right at you. Or, you might be that out-of-control car. You wouldn't know - you're scrolling through your contact list.
Check whose call you missed, or get back into one of those lanes with cars going your direction? Tough decisions.
All the problems of cell phones add up to a great impairment on driving, some say as bad as intoxication from alcohol. It may not make perfect sense at first, but it's true - you're better at driving when you're not on a cell phone.
The close margin of the City Council's vote speaks to the divisions over this ban. The safety-first crowd has to be satisfied, and lives will be saved, but everyone now has to put up with an inconvenience and practice an annoying level of
self-restraint.
As far as the loss of convenience goes, I think we have too much of that already. If we as a society are so addicted to cell phones and other electronics things people seemed to get by without in the past that we can't even stop using them while driving, then we have serious problems. Banning phones while driving will benefit mankind, even if all it accomplishes is breaking our obsession with staying in contact every moment of our lives.
For my part, I don't think it's too much to ask drivers to hang up. The truth is, you don't need a cell phone to get from one place to another, especially when you're in a city, far from where you could be stranded without help. And when an unnecessary activity leads to extra deaths, it should stop.
So, soon you'll have to stop talking on the phone while driving. Deal with it.
And if you're wondering if text messaging is still allowed, you should give back your license -before I have to drive again.
