Cell Phone Crackdown Today: Hang Up, Drivers

Would you believe this is no less idiotic than talking on a bluetooth while driving?

​If you've got a shoe-sized mobile phone like good o'l Gordon Gekko here, you couldn't find a worse time to flaunt it while driving. The California Highway Patrol is engaging in a cell phone crackdown today. If history is a precedent, plenty of you will get dinged -- 550 cell phone tickets were written during a one-day Bay Area CHP cell crackdown last year.

This year's crackdown, however, takes place in the wake of a recent CHP report claiming that cell phone usage is the No. 1 cause of accidents caused by "inattentive drivers." But while it's unquestionably foolish to use a hand-held cell phone while driving, it warrants mentioning that studies show it's no less dangerous than using a hands-free device -- which is legal.

California was just one of 30 states to consider a handheld cell phone ban in 2008. But studies have consistently shown that all the factors that make it inadvisable to talk on a phone while driving -- distractedness, slowed reaction time -- are exacerbated just as much by hands-free devices.

What's more, hands-free devices -- which are, again, legal -- offer drivers a sense of security statistics don't back up. Sadly, you're four times as likely to have an accident if you're yapping on the phone, according to some studies.

Perhaps the message for the day is this: If you're going to have a loud, graphic, personal discussion on your cell phone -- take Muni like everyone else.

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