Who here gets road rage when people are on their cells?

the same time too. I also use a headset.

Drivers who slow down to a crawl or drive erratically when they're talking should pull over and talk. Yes, it is annoying.

I passed her, I saw she was jabbering away on her phone. She never even knew she almost caused a wreck :grr: However, I can be guilty of talking on the phone, too. I try not to, but...

hit me. As she flew by oblivious to all other vehicles on the road, I noticed a cell phone in one hand & a cigarette in the other.
Aaarrrrrrgggggggg

good conversation with themselves until I figure they must have one of those. Kinda like that Ellen Degeneres joke about singing to the radio while you are next to a car.

I have no problem with them. It shows the driver was responsible enough to get a headset, for one thing.

But people with cellphones regular style shouldn't be driving. Despite how amazing at driving a person can be, they still need to have both hands ready. I suppose they can drop the phone, but I find it to be a major distraction. Especially long calls where you keep switching ears.

safer. The issue is not what you're doing with your hands, it's what you're doing with your MIND. And if you're talking on the phone with someone outside the car, you're mind is not on your driving.

you on the road, which is a critical factor in the ability to concentrate on safe driving.

My counselor gave some first-class directive advice: People who drive aggressively, or are intoxicated, or talk on cell phones, or do anything else that distracts them from driving are assholes.

The best way to deal with asshole drivers is to put as much pavement as possible between you and them.

That's good advice. Follow it, live by it.

to count to 10 if I get mad, but that approach has never really worked for me, it just gives me more time to think about why I am mad!

Don't drive over the speed limit...Don't tailgate and above all, don't flip them the bird.

convertible, then held my nose as if to say, "You stink!"

He followed me for several miles, totally enraged. It was scary. This was BEFORE road rage had a name and BEFORE there were so-called "stalkers".

I learned my lesson from that one experience.

:shrug:

I've learned my lesson. That guy could have had a gun and shot me -- or worse!

insurance payments -- the volunteer trainer called them "hot doggers" -- changing lanes, flashing their brights to get you to move over, honking their horns, etc.

I try to avoid them like the plague.

turns with one hand or when they drift into my lane of traffic. I just yell to 'shut up and drive'.

and waiting for someone to turn right. The ass#ole with the cell phone usually stops, then remembers the light is green, then slowly wheels around the corner, babbling all the damn time, and either the light has changed, or oncoming traffic has caught up and I'm once again screwed. Its times like that that I think a paintball rocket launcher should come standard on my vehicles. Mounted on a gun turret.

My stupid.

But if they're in a big honking SUV with an "I luv W" bumper sticker, gabbing on the phone and not paying attention to anyone or anything but their BS conversation. Then I get a bit upset, because it causes MY insurance rates to go up.

Just because you're on the phone doesn't mean you don't have to use your friggin turn signal.

If people can drive properly and talk on their cell phone, I have no problem with them.

fix it. The problem is that talking to another person not in the car takes your mind away from the car and its environs. It's not the same as listening to music or the radio, because you're engaged in a personal transaction, rather than looking and thinking about the car and the road. I read somewhere that statistically, a cell phone user is as dangerous as a drunk behind the wheel, and I tend to think that's true.

she was yacking on the phone and didn't even bother to stop for the bus. Poor baby was hit and killed instantly.

Apparently she's had several previous driving problems. The community is so enraged they tried to make it illegal to drive and talk on a cell phone. They just haven't figured out how to enforce it.

I hope she does feel like shit.

I hope hse felt like shit, too. What happened with her. Jail time, probation, community service. What was she charged with?

Her trial date is sometime this month.

Oh..here's a link:

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050420/NEWS03/504200422&SearchID=73207067723693

Driver in fatality pleads not guilty


A woman who says she was distracted by her ringing cell phone when she struck and killed a 5-year-old boy after he stepped off a school bus in Oregon was arraigned yesterday in Lucas County Common Pleas Court on a felony charge of aggravated vehicular homicide.
Angelique M. Dipman pleaded not guilty before Judge Jack Zouhary. Ms. Dipman, 27, of Clay Township in Ottawa County, remained silent during her arraignment. Her attorney, Joseph Westmeyer, Jr., entered the plea on her behalf.

Dameatrius McCreary stepped off the bus March 24 and was crossing Starr Avenue to get home from school when he was hit by Ms. Dipman's westbound car. Dameatrius, a kindergartner at Coy Elementary, was pronounced dead at Toledo Hospital. Ms. Dipman told police she was distracted by her ringing cell phone when the accident occurred, and she saw the bus but not its flashing red lights.

Judge Zouhary scheduled a pretrial hearing for May 23 and continued Ms. Dipman's recognizance bond.

and plunged into the river. She got out alive and swears that being on her cell phone with her sister didn't impact her judgement.

(Believe it??? I don't...)

to drive, especially after the accident. That woman was lucky..too bad she didn't learn anything though..

related illnesses, but the ones who can't or won't give it up just don't understand that mortality is palpable and real.

Yesterday, Oprah showed lungs from a cadaver with cancer, and WITHOUT. Wow! When you actually see the damage that people can do to their bodies, it really hits home.

:wtf:

Using your logic, there should be no conversations in a car no matter what.

the dynamics of the car/traffic environment, and will subtly alter his or her communication based on what is going on with the driver, the car and the traffic.

Talking on a cell phone to a distant party is a very different matter. The driver's mind is literally somewhere else, outside the car and away from the immediate situation, and the person on the other end of the conversation, completely heedless of what may be going on with the traffic, will make demands upon the attention of the driver unthinkable by anyone riding in the car.

Talking to my toddler in my car is more distracting than talking, hands-free, to my father on the phone. I've also been known to toss the phone out of my hands when the road situation warranted. If you want a distraction-free environment, rip out your radio and instruct your passengers to be silent as well as powering down your phone.

And if you don't see the difference in focus between talking with someone at a distance and talking with someone in the car (and your toddler doesn't count, because he or she won't respect your need for concentration - just ignore him if necessary), then you're justifying a very dangerous and selfish practice. I just hope you're not driving on the street with me until you hang up get your mind back in the car.

that it is more dangerous to talk on a cell phone while driving than the other distractions such as eating, talking to passengers, and so on.

http://www.iii.org/media/hottopics/insurance/cellphones/

If you care to do some research, you could find more, I'm sure. My point is that when you are talking on a cell phone, or any telephone, your mind is somewhere else. Not the same as when you are talking with someone in the car.

And yes, there's a continuum of distractions associated with driving, all the way from talking to passengers to reading a book. Many of them are dangerous, some are not so dangerous. I think talking on the phone is one of the most dangerous, for the reason I stated above, and the fact that it's such a widespread and accepted practice makes it even more dangerous.

An August 2003 report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety concluded that drivers are far less distracted by their cell phones than other common activities, such as reaching for items on the seat or glove compartment or talking to passengers. The study was based on the analysis of three hour videotapes from cameras installed in the vehicles of 70 drivers in North Carolina and Pennsylvania. The most common potentially dangerous activity while driving was "reaching or leaning” (97 percent of drivers). Cell phone use, at 3 percent, was in ninth place.
http://www.iii.org/media/hottopics/insurance/cellphones

The data is clear: banning cellphone use while driving should only come after banning other, more dangerous activities like reaching for objects or talking to passengers.

Many times that number of accidents were caused by cell phone users in California alone in 2004.

4 lane Hwy, some twit in a tiny car, 65mph, couldn't even stay in her lane and nearly side swiped us..why? Cause she had a cell phone in her ear. We had to swerve to the side and slow down till she quite straddling the line. As we passed, we noticed she slowed down to about 40. Bet the people behind her loved dealing with her.

I wouldn't call it road rage..just a few harsh swear words..

There were TWO accidents right by my house this morning. The closest one happened right behind me, in front of the house next door.

:scared:

Especially when they almost cause an accident.. especially when my kids are in the car with me.

I have a bluetooth headset for my phone.. If someone calls, I'll ask them what they want and promptly get off. I dont gossip of "guess what so and so did last night". Its bad enough having to dodge people like that let alone talk and dodge.

i just shake my head. i think it should be illegal to talk on your phone while driving, i don't care how "good" someone is at "multi-tasking," that is just ridiculous.

i always like to ask those people what they did before they had cell phones...did they stay at home all the time for fear of missing a phone call? 99% of the times the call can wait.

Mainly just if being on the phone seems to be obviously worsening their driving. I'm guilty of occasionally talking on the cell phone while driving myself, though I try not to.

Now that I'm working as a cashier at a grocery store I will admit to getting quite annoyed at people who gab on their cell phones while checking out. Sorry if this includes any of you, but I just think it's rude. I'm expected to be all fake-friendly to every customer who comes through (I'm actually pretty friendly, but fake-friendly has never been my thing) even jerks who can't give me thirty seconds from their busy schedule to ring up their order. It's not just bad manners, it also often causes confusion for me and the person on the other line when we can't tell who the phone-talker is referring to in their gabbing.

was the one yakking on the phone and clearly considered it an enormous imposition on his valuable talk time (both times the offender has been male) to ring up my milk and chewing gum.

We're not even supposed to have cell phones on where I work. If I picked up mine 'cause it was ringing I'd definitely get a write-up.

I was riding with a Shell manager from the UK in Dubai and his cell started ringing and he would not reach for it. I said "do you hear your cell ringing?", and he said it is the company safety policy not to answer or otherwise talk on a cell phone when driving.

I like that idea so much I just let mine ring when driving and I'll answer the voice mail later....I figure, what's the rush? We survived without cell phones before they were invented.

Really scary :scared: Although, I do not see it often.

Just assholes.

But, since while I'm driving, I'm paying attention to my car, what I'm doing, the road conditions, and the speed and trajectory of the other cars, pedestrians, cyclists and animals, I don't ever actually notice whether the other drivers are on their cell phones or talking to their passengers, so I don't actually ever have a chance to get road rage.

I include a quick glance at what the drivers in front of me are doing. If they're on a cell phone, or gesticulating wildly in conversation with someone else in the car, or eating or whatever, I register the info that they're not paying attention to what they're doing and hence are a hazard to me. Armed with this knowledge, I can stay away from such folks and make myself safer.

And if someone pulls a bullshit manuver that endangers my safety, it's perfectly natural to glance and see what that person looks like. In the process of doing so it's kind of hard not to notice whether or not they're yapping on a cell.

someone else's car trying to figure out what kind of judgement to pass on them.

Three years ago I was driving back from the mechanic after getting my car fixed ( $400.00 job ) and some ignoramus on her cell phone made a left turn directly in front of me. This was one of those deals where I had the right of way, and she should have yielded to oncoming traffic. Again, this was directly after I dropped $400.00 getting my damn car fixed. What was she doing? YAPYAPYAPYAPYAPPing on her damn cell phone. Folks, don't get me wrong....they're great to have for emergencies, but we REALLY need to keep our frigging eyes on the road. If the phone rings while you are driving, is it really that difficult to pull over somewhere to answer it? A parking lot, the side of the road...somewhere. I had to wait around for at least a half hour waiting for the police to show up. She, on the other hand was carted away in an ambulance ( bruised arm or something ). My car was totaled. Get off the DAMN PHONES!!!!

People who are always walking around with these frigging things attached to their heads, like it's their frigging conjoined twin or something! They walk around pretending like they're doctors or lawyers or something ( oops! there goes my phone! Wait a sec! ) You people are nothing but a bunch of phony asses who lead lonely, miserable lives; you want everyone else to think " Wow, they must be popular" or " Damn, must be a business call or something." No it's not...your just a loser. Get over it...:D

"defensive driving". I've almost been hit more than a dozen times by people whose attention was elsewhere. Essentially, what you're doing is driving a killing machine if it's over 10 mph. Someone else, talking on the phone to a person driving has the luxury of being distracted, or concentrate fully on the conversation.

A driver MUST be distracted FROM the conversation at hand or run the peril of hitting/killing someone.

Why the @#%!@#% can't these idiots use an ear bud so that they can hold onto the steering wheel?!?

When they said that cell phones cause brain tumours I sighed with relief : finally the Universe had a sense of Justice.

Sadly, it wasn't true :(


Khash.

The other day, I was merging on to the interstate, and the person in front of me was going 30 mph....to get on the highway!
I finally was able to get over and pass her, and what was she doing, talking on her phone. I just usually say a few swear words to myself, no honking or anything. I only honk if someone's about to hit me.

I have used the cellphone while driving, but only for something important. Like I'm on the way to work, and a sudden rain storm has come up (it's Texas, it happens), and I can hear the tornado sirens going off, well, I'll spend the min calling into work while driving letting them know I'm going to be a little late. And this was a couple of weeks ago. Other than something along these lines, I won't use the phone while driving.

who's talking on the phone...wwhen I realise that that's why they're doing 10 in a 25 or 45 in a 60, I lean on my horn as I pass them-just to remind their lame ass where they are-at least interrupt the conversation.

Most people don't need one, they simply want one as a status symbol, "Look at me and how important I am!". And these damn things are intruding into more and more of civilized life, driving, in stores, at work, in movies and other performance venues, walking down the street. Frankly, there is no real use for one. Fifteen years ago most people didn't have one, and we all got along fine. Now people think that you're the odd one if you don't have a cell.

And now we've got cells with cameras. Great, complete strangers can take pictures of me without my permission. If I ever see somebody taking my picture with one of those, I going to run them down, rip the cell out of their hands, and throw it hard against the nearest wall.

Horrbile fucking invention, designed with the shallow American mindset in mind. I've never had one, and never will. In fact I'm thinking of investing in one of those cell jammers, but I can see where that would lead to even worse problems. Cell phone dies and Barbie starts paying even more attention to the dead phone rather than the road:eyes:

Oh, and for those of you with a cell made after '00(and some before), you can now be tracked whereever you and your cell go, thank you very much Mr. Clinton. There is a mandatory GPS unit in every new phone, for the sake of "safety":eyes:

The driving issue is the worst, but it also bothers me seeing all the people walking around malls on their cell phones, and sitting in restaurants yapping on their cell phones while ignoring others at their own table.

It's become a kind of destructive addiction.

representatives demanding that they outlaw the use of cell phones in moving vehicles. And make it a minimum $1K fine for a first offense. The a-holes driving everyone else off the road while they yap away with their friends are usually driving fairly expensive vehicles, and anything less than that would be meaningless.

I am so tired of seeing virtually every reckless, weaving driver yapping on a cell phone. That kind of behavior used to be reserved for drunks at the wheel. I suspect there are more accidents caused today by cell phone users than by drunk drivers.