Posted on Thu, Sep. 18, 2008
A trio of Philadelphia City Council members want to bar the use of handheld cell phones while driving, cycling, scooting or blading.
City Councilmen Bill Green, William K. Greenlee and Frank Rizzo said they would introduce a bill today to require hands-free devices for drivers in Philadelphia.
The councilmen cited a 2006 study that likened driving while on a cell phone to driving with a blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent - in many states, the legal threshold for intoxication.
"We don't need drivers drunk on technology putting pedestrians and other drivers at risk," Green said.
A number of states, including New Jersey, New York and California, and cities such as Chicago prohibit the use of handheld cell phones while driving.
But the few cell-phone bans in effect in the state - including laws in Conshohocken, Lower Chichester, and West Conshohocken - have been enforced only sporadically after Bucks County Court struck down a local law in Hilltown Township in 2000.
In that case, the judge ruled that driving laws should be uniform across the state. And state legislators favoring a ban on handheld cell phones say that it should be done statewide.
"Certainly, we welcome the councilmen for their support of this issue, and I look forward to working with them," said State Rep. Josh Shapiro (D., Montgomery). Still, Shapiro said, "I think it is not wise to have individual policies, municipality by municipality - it's better to have one statewide standard."
Shapiro's 2007 bill would have required hands-free devices only for those driving vehicles, as opposed to people using skateboards, in-line skates, bicycles and scooters, which are covered by the Council bill. Shapiro said initial resistance from the telecommunications industry has waned, and Verizon Wireless now supports the measure.
At lunchtime in Center City yesterday, drivers and pedestrians spoke out in favor of the idea.
"I think it would be a great idea - there's just too many distractions out there as it is," said Mark Delaney, 47, of Eagleville. Delaney, who installs telephones for a living and is in and out of his truck all day, said he tried not to use his cell phone at all while driving.
"I've been talking on the phone big time for the last 10 years," said a laughing Ray Boyd, a union plumber who switched to hands-free recently and recommends it.
Rita Ozwirk's grown children know better than to talk on their cell phones while she's in the car.
"It's just not a good idea," said Ozwirk, 59, a law-firm clerk from Southwest Philadelphia.
Shapiro said he would reintroduce his proposal as an amendment to a teen-driver bill just approved by the House Transportation Committee.
State Rep. Joseph Markosek's bill would ban any kind of cell-phone talking or texting for a person with a learner's permit or junior driver's license. It would also forbid a junior driver from having more than one passenger younger than 18.
Shapiro's amendment would apply to adult drivers.
If Philadelphia beats the state to the punch, the councilmen agreed, it would create political pressure in Harrisburg to follow suit.
"Let's start it here in Philadelphia, and let the state legislature accomplish it statewide," Rizzo said.
A violation of the law under the city proposal would mean a fine of $75 if paid within 10 days, then $150 to $300 after that. A violation would not include points on a license.
Chicago's three-year-old law recently withstood a federal court challenge, with the judge ruling that the law was clearly aimed at protecting the public.
"We're really trying to eliminate a public-safety danger in the city of Philadelphia," Greenlee said.
Contact staff writer Jeff Shields at 215-854-4565 or jshields@phillynews.com.
Subscribe now! Daily Headlines Newsletter
Philly.com news blogs
today's 
