A New Jersey state lawmaker wants to make it a crime for drivers to touch the screen of a satellite navigation device in a moving vehicle. Earlier this month, state Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith (D-Hudson) introduced legislation to expand the state’s existing prohibition on using a cell phone behind the wheel. “This bill would amend current law to also prohibit the manual operation of a global positioning system (GPS) device or similar navigation device by the operator of a moving motor vehicle,” the official summary for A4064 explains. “The bill would allow the operator to use a voice-activated GPS device.”
Motorists pulled over for the newly created offense would face a $100 fine without license points. A more broadly worded proposal to ban GPS operation while driving has been adopted in Spain’s legislative body with penalties of 100 euros (US $140) with points.
While no vote has been taken on Smith’s idea, such bill introductions can sometimes reflect a national trend. In 2005, a bill introduced in the New Jersey legislature to ban smoking in cars carrying children went nowhere. Now the idea is law in Arkansas, California, Louisiana and Maine with three dozen states considering adopting similar bans.
What we need is a ban on NJ state legislators being allowed within 100 feet of the state Capitol building.
I’m all for banning handset use while driving, but the problem with operating a GPS or hands-free (or a radio, or climate controls) isn’t so much that it takes away your attention as that it’s so badly designed as to take away your attention in the first place.
I can use, say, an iPod Shuffle while driving. I can also make a phone call on my old Motorola MicroTAC. I can adjust the climate controls or tune my radio on my Sienna. I can drink a coffee from my spill-proof travel mug.
I cannot manage iDrive, use an iPhone, screw with a Jawbone headset or use any number of voice-activate systems. I can’t eat a burger. Why? For the Because they require you to distract youself to a far greater degree because their respective interfaces suck (within the context of automobile usage).
I think that some of the time spent banning and fining users, while helpful, would be better spent fining whomever comes up with user-hostile stuff like, oh, the telematics system in any German or Swedish car. A bad voice-activated GPS is worse than a good touchscreen one, and potentially worse than an awkward fold-out map.
Why do we even have to put more laws on the books in the first place?
Why not just do what the law ALREADY SAYS, and enforce it? If somebody is at fault in an accident, a proper investigation should be conducted.
If they were dialing the cell or texting or emailing, or if they were doing something else that drew their attention away from the road (like reading the paper or eating a bowl of oatmeal), then hit them with a $10,000 fine in addition to any court costs or lawsuit losses.
All it would take is two or four of these, and people would do what people do best. ADAPT. And ADOPT. Common sense, that is.
So I can legally unfold, read and refold a map while driving, but I’ll get a ticket if I’m making a choice on the touchscreen of my GPS (which limits me to some very basic functions while the vehicle is moving)?
Makes sense to me…
Sorry my car doesn’t have DVD Navigation with voice activation. KISS MY ASS New Jersey lawmakers.
What we need is a law that prevents any auto related bill from being introduced by anyone who doesn’t drive a car.
Golly. It’s the silly season as Heinlein was wont to call it. No map rustling, no falling asleep at the wheel, no ogling the blonde in the convertible in the other lane, no arguing with your passenger over what get played in the ICE, nothing but a Schumacher-worthy monomaniacal focus on us driving. Why the man will otulaw sex and fun next.
This is a start, but we need more.
Our highways will not be safe until people are also banned from operating their headlights, wipers, steering wheel and brakes while driving.
In order to use my phone hands-free with my GPS, I have to hit a button on the screen to accept or reject a call. WHICH IS IT, NEW JERSEY?
Teach Driver Education! Real Drvier Ed, not the brainless stuff, that teaches you just enough to get a license and then crash.
I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO glad I left that freakin’ state 12 years ago.
New Jersey – Where the concept of the Nanny/Police State is an art form…
Kinda reminds me of a poem written on a bathroom wall back in middle school (known as junior high school back in the day):
“You will obey me while I lead you,
And eat the garbage that I feed you,
Until the day that we don’t need you,
Don’t cry for help – no one will heed you!
Your mind is totally controlled,
It has been stuffed into my mold,
And you will do as you are told,
Until the rights to you are sold…”
1984 is one of my all-time favorite books, and I’ll be damned if I don’t see some parallels to what is happening today…
First NJ needs to enforce present laws.
The hands free phone law in NJ “crackdown” lasted a few hours.
Then it was right back to driving and talking without a care in a world. Just like the cops do.
The State Of New Jersey’s modus operandi:
“There is no law enacted that doesn’t provide a financial windfall for the legislators and their vested interests…”
Take that to the bank…(no pun intended)…
The only one of these laws I agree with is texting because it takes two hands to do! Even that would extremely difficult to enforce.
Judging from the comments, I’m guessing most of you don’t live in New Jersey. Fact is this law doesn’t go far enough. GPS UNITS SHOULD BE BANNED FROM USE IN NEW JERSEY ENTIRELY.
GPS units work fine in states where the cross streets and exits are spaced out at reasonable distances. In NJ, the cross streets and exits are are spaced at 50 foot intervals. Dozens of times a day I’m stuck behind imbeciles doing the GPS slalom. Because the streets and exits are spaced so closely together, the GPS unit can not provide directions quickly enough. Drivers approach what they think will be their exit, or turn, and slow down to a crawl, swerving from the thru lane to the left turn lane back to the right turn and stopping altogether while waiting for instructions.
Here’s a novel idea, how about determining your route BEFORE YOU SET OFF FROM THE DRIVEWAY? The general level of driver stupidity that has existed in Jersey for decades has been been lowered even further by GPS to outright retardation. Thanks, Tom-Tom!
If current enforcement of the law that prohibits talking on cellphones is any indicator, this law, if passed, will be selectively enforced. I live in New Jersey and I think that at least 1/4 of our drivers are on the cellphones.
I bet this passes. If for no other reason that as a motorist in New Jersey, I’m not qualified to pump gas. It requires special training. So all we have is “Full Service.” That means they pump the gas. That doesn’t mean they ask to check your oil, wash your windshield, etc.
“You will obey me while I lead you,
And eat the garbage that I feed you,
Until the day that we don’t need you,
Don’t cry for help – no one will heed you!
Your mind is totally controlled,
It has been stuffed into my mold,
And you will do as you are told,
Until the rights to you are sold…”
Frank Zappa – I’m the Slime
Ah, the Democratic People’s Republic of New Jersey.
I hate this state, can’t even stand flying over it. They charge you 3 – 4 dollars on the bridges just to leave.
Jon Corzine, the Supreme Leader, proposed new tolls on the turnpike amounting to 75 dollars one way to New York from the bottom.
No surprise GPS operation would be a target since almost everyone has one of these devices. Maybe Garmin and TomTom could just blank out New Jersey on their devices as a protest. On the screen would be a friendly reminder to turn off the effing device and stay off the phone too.
At least there are 49 other places to live. Imagine if New Jersey was in charge of the entire country. Let’s hope Corzine doesn’t run for president some day.
don1967:Our highways will not be safe until people are also banned from operating their headlights, wipers, steering wheel and brakes while driving.
That should be easy; the ban on operating turn signals has been pretty successful.
ZoomZoom :
June 21st, 2009 at 11:35 pm
Why do we even have to put more laws on the books in the first place?
Why not just do what the law ALREADY SAYS, and enforce it? If somebody is at fault in an accident, a proper investigation should be conducted.
If they were dialing the cell or texting or emailing, or if they were doing something else that drew their attention away from the road (like reading the paper or eating a bowl of oatmeal), then hit them with a $10,000 fine in addition to any court costs or lawsuit losses.
All it would take is two or four of these, and people would do what people do best. ADAPT. And ADOPT. Common sense, that is.
Because they then can’t issue tickets outside of an accident situation. It’s all about the money.
This also gives cops a reason to pull you over for a look see at your paperwork, a sniff of your breath, maybe a peek into the back seat. How many routine traffic stops turn into financial windfalls. Truckers get the roadside safety inspection, they can even weigh and measure your children to see if they should legally be in a booster seat (80 lbs and 8 years of age) and fine accordingly.
NJ should just set up checkpoints all over the place and hand out fines written in Esperanto that no one can decode, with 3 days to pay, and a little brochure about how great NJ roads, public schools, and community services are Thanks to You!
Contrary to the popular sentiment on this site, I think GPS units, cell phones, etc. are a big distrction and shouldn’t be used by the driver of a car. However, the problem is how would you even enforce this law? Just like a retired CHP officer told us in a driver safety class, the new law against anyone under the age of 18 texting while driving is completely unenforceable. The cops can’t know that soemoe was using GPS while drivign anymore than they can know that a teenager was texting while driving. There could be other reasons they were unable to keep the car on the road.
The real solution is to make people pay for their mistakes no matter the reason. Locally, a lady rearended a car stopped at a traffic controlled road construction site because she was paying bills over her cell phone while driving at 60+ mph. The lady driving the car that was rearended died. The punishment doled out after the moron was convicted for “vehicular manslaughter”? Five lousy years. The worst part was the offender was ticketed for using a cell phone while driving less than 6 months after the original murder (lets call it what it is), while she was out on bail. Killing somebody really made a big impression on her, didn’t it. Maybe the judicial system should have attempted to make a bigger impression by handing down a real sentence. And, maybe we should treat people as though they should be responsible for their actions rather than attempting to criminalize the acts that potentially lead to the real crimes.
Yesterday is was mobile phone. Today it is GPS. Tomorrow it is something else. Besides electronic gadgets, there are plenty of other distractions. Remember car stereo equalizers? Audiophiles would have to adjust the settings for every damn song that came on. That HAD to be distracting, but they remained legal.
Why can’t they simply pass a law that requires the operator to pay attention to the road?