Hands off your cell phones while driving

Some of us (the ones addicted and increasingly reliant on our wireless communication) have responded with sheer panic at the thought of not being able to use our phone at the slightest ring, while others have shrugged off the new legislation as a minor inconvenience and quickly responded by purchasing hands-free devices. While a number of studies seem to indicate that they don't seem to be any safer than hand-held cell phones, the fact remains that Quebec will now be joining the ranks of numerous countries and other Canadian provinces to ban or limit cell phone use while driving.

Common sense dictates that, arguments aside about too many laws enacted and the possible creation of a Nanny State, driving while talking on your cell phone is needlessly distracting and dangerous.

How many times have we all been driving behind someone driving erratically, who fails to turn on the blinkers to signal a turn or clumsily makes their way towards an exit, only to realize as we approach or bypass them that they are engaged (and clearly distracted) in a conversation on their cell phone?

While the new legislation has been introduced as one more measure aimed at reducing traffic accidents on Quebec roads, the question most people have been asking is: will it make a difference? How much less distracting is attempting to apply lipstick, eat a breakfast burrito or change CDs while on the highway? Are those activities less dangerous than calling the office to tell them you're running late?

Perhaps not, but what most fail to realize in this multi-tasking, self-absorbed and self-important society of ours is that, just because we can do something, does not mean that we should. Certain activities are privileges; not rights. It’s not an infringement on our rights and freedoms to be prevented from making a call while driving. It's not a violation of our God-given right to babble on about inanities while stuck in traffic.

While we're at it, why not take it one step further and enact legislation outlawing obnoxious cell phone use in restaurants, gyms, public transit and other public venues? We might discover that we actually enjoy the silence and –most revelatory of all—that the world won't come to a screeching halt just because we didn't pick up the phone the minute it rang.