If it were up to me, I would ban drivers from texting. -- Ray LaHood, U.S. Secretary of Transportation.
Three cheers for Ray LaHood. Yesterday at a news conference announcing a national summit to study and make recommendations on how to reduce the problem of distracted drivers, he said, "The bottom line is, we need to put an end to unsafe cell phone use, typing on blackberries and other activities that require drivers to take their eyes off the road and their focus away from driving."
I admire a politician who is not wishy-washy about what he believes. Any cyclist who rides regularly on the street (as LaHood does) knows that distracted drivers are the single biggest threat to the safety of bike riders. A nationwide ban on texting while driving--and 18 states already have a law in place to that effect--would most certainly save lives.
And I heartily endorse his implication that we take it a step further and make it illegal for drivers to talk on their cell-phones too. And the whole notion that "hands-free" is safer is bogus. Studies have shown that drivers just talking on cell phones have delayed response times, on par with drivers impaired by alcohol.
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