Daniel Rubin: Philly? Bad drivers? Gimme that phone!

Surely the actuaries at Allstate miscalculated last week when they declared Philadelphians the most dangerous big-city drivers.

You could check the numbers - we wreck every 6.6 years, they say, which is 50 percent higher than the national average.

Or you could ask someone who knows better.

For 14 years, Glen Macnow has taken calls from sports fans as they mobilize through our busy streets.

"Guy was asking me about the upcoming Eagles draft," the WIP-AM (610) host recalled, "and I heard a squeal and then a crash. He rear-ended another driver.

"Funny thing was that he didn't want to get off until we answered his question."

That happened just once, and Macnow has taken tens of thousands of calls. This is a metropolis of talented multitaskers.

People like James Padilioni, a Center City bank employee who has joined the Facebook group "I Text Message People While Driving and I Haven't Crashed Yet!"

The 23-year-old reports mastering the message while driving a stick. The key is memorizing his phone's keypad. He has experienced what can be called the texting-induced fugue:

"This one time I was leaving a friend's house in Berlin, N.J., and I got on the A.C. Expressway, ended up getting into a text conversation with someone, and before you knew it I was coming through the toll booth of the Walt Whitman. I remember thinking to myself, 'When did I end up here?' "

These profiles in focus make me wonder if State Rep. Josh Shapiro is overreacting.

The Democrat from Montgomery County wants to make Pennsylvania more like New Jersey and ban drivers from using cell phones unless the phones are hands-free.

Shapiro couldn't steer his legislation out of committee when he introduced it in 2006. But he has assurances it will make it to the floor this fall for a vote. And he's confident that, this time, it will pass with 150 votes. Violators would be fined $50.

I called the legislator to set up a time when we could talk at length. "Now isn't good?" he asked.

"I'm driving," I said.

"I hope you're wearing a headset," he replied, "or I'm coming after you." I think he was joking. At least that was what I wrote down in my notebook.

The next day he told me: "We live in a world where people drive while putting on makeup, drinking coffee. I would discourage that, but I wouldn't legislate against it."

Cell phones, however, can be made safer.

Shapiro cited a 2004 study by Design Science of Philadelphia, a research group, that compared drivers who held their phones and those who used headsets. The study found the hands-free drivers did significantly better handling curves, maintaining speed, and reacting to danger.

He also touted a 2006 National Highway Safety Administration report that found distraction to be the No. 1 cause of accidents, and handheld cells to be the No. 1 cause of distraction.

"Who are you to legislate my behavior?" some people have asked him. Shapiro counters that argument this way: "You have the right to have a phone conversation, but you don't have the right to render a 5,000-pound object unsafe for another motorist or a pedestrian."

Of course, the you Shapiro is talking about is me.

I dial and I drive. Text, surf. It's a conditioned reflex: I get in the car alone first thing in the morning, and I want to call my people without wearing one of those Bluetooth bugs. It's the other road babblers who make me most dangerous.

Like when I spot someone weaving and yakking and I make this telephone-receiver gesture with my thumb and forefinger and hold it up to my ear, whole-mouthing something gentle like "Shut up and drive!"

If the other driver is really annoying, I'll do it with both hands. The problem is, this often causes me to spill my coffee.