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READER FEEDBACK
How will the cell-phone ban change your driving habits?
I will use an earpiece.
I will ignore the phone while driving.
I will only take important calls.
I will look out for cops before picking up the phone.
I won't really change what I do.
I don't talk on the phone while I drive anyway.
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Daniel Rubin: Drivers, you've been warned

Pssst. Can I ask where you're reading this? If you're behind the wheel and stuck in traffic, I applaud your technological mastery.

Now pull over.

If you're not watching the road, you'd better be looking out for the cops.

Because as of yesterday, using a handheld device while driving is something Philadelphia police can stop you for.

That includes texting or tweeting, poking or posting.

For now, the police won't fine you; they'll only warn you. But come Dec. 1, it's going to cost. Violations start at $75 a pop. That amount can climb to $150, then $300, if you don't pay the fine on time.

Based on an unscientific survey taken Friday afternoon, I can't think of a quicker way to restock the city's coffers.

I went out with Officers Paula Robinson and Troy Brickle of the Ninth District as they handed out warning notices to those they saw holding a phone while driving. Talk about shooting fish in a barrel.

"This should be pretty easy," Brickle said as we walked up Broad Street to Spring Garden, where he and his partner planted themselves on the grassy median and looked for violators.

 

Not just motorists

Robinson held a stack of pink cardboard warnings that spelled out the law. The ban applies to use of any phone or wireless device while driving, skating, skateboarding, or bicycling on any city street.

There are some exceptions:

If your device is hands-free. If you're calling 911. If you're using a two-way radio while conducting official business for the city, state, or feds.

Otherwise, the law says to pull to the side of the road and put the car in either "park" or "neutral."

The law doesn't recognize any of the excuses that the two officers heard Friday.

"A customer called me," the driver of a Capital Dispatch cab explained, phone to his left ear.

"My wife had a baby October 21st," a guy in a Ford 150 truck said. "She needed something from the store." He showed Officer Robinson a picture of the infant.

"I don't have my cell phone on me," said the woman in a white Lexus RX300, moments after Brickle watched her drop her phone onto her lap, her call still connected.

Come Dec. 1, I predict there will be lots of similarly dropped calls.

Each driver got a warning.

Over the course of a half-hour, the officers tapped on the window of several dozen drivers.

All got the news - the dude in the white Escalade, the woman with the La Salle sticker on her blue Passat, the goateed guy in the silver Ford Taurus.

 

A familiar car

"Ah, Paula?" Brickle called after his partner, who was in hot pursuit of the goateed guy. "I think that's a detective."

He was. The goateed guy explained he was on the job. To follow the new law, he'd have to be on the two-way radio as well.

One motorist actually knew of the cell-phone law. His name is Matt Kennedy; he's 31, from Yardley. He's a computer programmer. And he was holding the phone to his ear when Robinson knocked.

"I know, I know," he said.

I asked what would make him change his behavior. "A $75 fine," he answered.

Brickle was telling me how people assume that talking while driving is a constitutional right. It's also dangerous as hell. Distraction is the leading cause of accidents; cell phones are the leading cause of distraction.

I told him of a survey I'd read that day that measured how people use Twitter, the social-media site that lets you communicate in up to 140 characters.

Crowd Science polled Twitter users in August and found that 11 percent of them had tweeted while driving, which could mean taking their eyes off the road for 140 keystrokes.

It's time to drop it and drive.

 


Contact Daniel Rubin

at 215-854-5917 or drubin@phillynews.com.

 

Comments   
Posted 07:22 AM, 11/02/2009
nuggett
Fianlly.....hard to beleive we can't go 20 minutes without talking to someone....How lame are we.....talk abut insecure.....can't wait till real fines are given out....we could balance the budget by catching all those texting and calling fools.....
Posted 08:39 AM, 11/02/2009
MASTERNC
I have no problem with the cell phone ban but I have a problem if people who visit from outside the area aren't made aware of it. There need to be signs on major entrances to the city announcing the prohibition of talking & driving. So far I haven't seen any and I pity the person from out-of-state who gets a $75 ticket for a law nobody warned them about.
Posted 09:06 AM, 11/02/2009
steven191
Finally. I do have a questions though. Is it the city's stance that emergency personnel are trained to use a phone while driving? Because no a days I do not pass a cop who is not on the phone. Did the city realize that there was no way to hand out tickets without handing them out to their own?
Posted 09:11 AM, 11/02/2009
Vasily
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Lots of places have lots of laws. If you want to get angry about something traffic related, how about all those areas in PA were there are only "End Speed Limit" signs. Now that's a revenue trap. In any event, it's stupid to talk and drive at the same time and you shouldn't be doing it legal or no.
Posted 09:15 AM, 11/02/2009
spider9
Studies show that it is just as distracting with a hands free device than with a hand-held phone. The law is bad. Either ban all talking on the phone while or don't ban it at all. This current law doesn't make it any safer.
Posted 09:30 AM, 11/02/2009
Ben Dover
the city needs to be sued for oppressive government actions. the state already has laws in place in reguards to this issue, now the city has created its own illegal law. and why is it ok for government people to use cell phones while driving?
Posted 11:29 AM, 11/02/2009
RudeyObnoxious
If you're from out of state, you throw the ticket away. Phf--k Philadelphia!
Posted 11:41 AM, 11/02/2009
LoganByrne2009
About Fing time, even my 5 yr old will see someone driving reckless and see them on their phone and yell, get off the phone. What does that tell ya.
Posted 12:46 PM, 11/02/2009
feudi
This is one law that is LONG overdue! If the Philadelphia Parking Authority really wanted to be useful, it would be out giving tickets to those vehicles where the driver is using a cell phone. That would free up cops to do more important things...like nailing coke and meth dealers.
Posted 12:47 PM, 11/02/2009
BrophyWilliams
Every evening, Philly's dumbest block traffic at 32nd and Market Streets in order to check drivers for seat belt and cell phone infractions. These idiot cops (yes, it is a redundancy) are a menace to traffic.
Posted 01:25 PM, 11/02/2009
JusWonderin
There'll be plenty of signs. Right next to the cell-phone lot signs at the airport.
Posted 03:02 PM, 11/02/2009
Fascism Rules
Excellent! Just need to enforce it. I'm amazed at the number of idiots who take their lives and mine into their hands every day while texting on the highway.
Posted 03:09 PM, 11/02/2009
pieman
Ben Dover ha ha!! Great name!!
Posted 03:24 PM, 11/02/2009
fmbjogger
They're stacking murdered bodies up like cordwood on a nightly basis in Philadelphia and THIS should be what citizens outta be concerned about ? It's sad to watch a once-great city die.
Posted 03:28 PM, 11/02/2009
GrownMan86
I love this ban. This lady almost hit me the other day coming out of the KOP mall parking lot because she was too busy on her phone talking away.
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