PUT THE PHONE DOWN!

The following is for your editorial:
I love your magazine and have been a reader for years. I'm a Police Officer in NY and have been riding since I was 16. In NY we now have a cell phone law that prohibits usage (on hand helds) while operating a motor vehicle. I can remember when this law first came out because I can recall all of the news coverage and I noticed how this really had an impact with drivers. Is it me or do car drivers get paid by the minute now to talk on their hand held cell phones? I have been to some nasty MC accidents in my career and the fatals always tend to stick in my head when I'm having that leasurly ride which causes me to grip the crap out of my handle bars. Just recently I saw ads for technology for cell phones for motorcycles. What's next...blindfolds? I once was guilty of using a cell while in my patrol car until I noticed a 10 or so year old boy look at her mom while I was at a traffic light and ask in that ever so discreet child yell, "Hey that cop is using a cell phone!" as he pointed at my cruiser. I guess as a cyclist our duty is to lead by example and show every one that having that thing to your ear is the un-cool thing to do. I truly feel that this law is saving motorcyclists lives and allowing more of us to kiss our kids at the end of the ride. Until then...I have pleanty of $125.00 ticket to give out to cagers. Support us.

Josh T, NY  

I completely support that law. Almost every close call I have had commuting on my motorcycle involved someone in a car talking on a cell phone. They just stop paying attention to what is going on around them.

One outrageous fact: As I was commuting through LA a couple weeks ago, a motorcyclist passed me on a cruiser while talking on his cell phone. Yes ... he was riding his motorcycle while talking on his cell phone. It made me ill.  

they are trying to pass a law saying that drivers will begin to get tickets if they do not have a ear piece while talking. Sounds like a good idea to me.  

I have to agree 100%! I began riding in the early 70's and quickly learned that people don't see us. Not that they are blind but when cagers are driving and pulling into or out of a place, they are looking for a car, not a bike and the brain simply doesn't register the bike because they are looking for cars.

Flash forward to today.....the same condition exists today but to compound the matter, drivers are distracted with texting, talking on the phone, emailing, looking at their GPS (makes you wonder if they ever could read a MAP) and a host of other distractions. The author above who claimed that people on the phone were the cause of nearly every "close call" is absolutely correct. I've watched and he's right, almost every time that I've been nearly been torpedoed by a minivan, she (or he) was holding a phone! In my family we talk about it all the time and my kids(who drive cars) tell me that they've been paying attention too and almost every time someone makes a huge mistake in traffic, a phone was visible in the offenders car.

Personally, I'd love to see their use outlawed in a moving vehicle. I just don't want to hear "sorry, I didn't mean to hit you" when I'm lying on the ground broken and bruised along with my bike. It's going to ring a bit hollow at that point.

jeff