Robert Pratt
Here we go again with sloppy thinking on human behavior: Abilene’s police chief is pushing a proposal to adopt an ordinance which would make it illegal in the Key City to text while driving.
What’s wrong with that you ask? Well nothing if such bans actually worked to make the streets safer and significantly affected the behavior of higher-risk-tolerant drivers.
However, such bans have been shown empirically to be in-effective and thus what you are left with is yet another law that will be enforced, beyond any serious argument, in a capricious manner. Such unequal and spotty enforcement degrades the general respect for police and the Rule of Law, the concept which binds our society.
“One of the punch lines, I think, for policy makers in how we might think about these results is that simply passing a ban on something doesn’t always get you the intended results,” Kaffine said.
Years back the largest state in the Union, California, initiated an ban entirely on the use of any handheld phone which covered not only texting but speaking. It has been enforced in draconian fashion with huge penalties and is the largest data sample of such bans available.
Similar to red light cameras, the ban has failed to yield measurable safety benefits. “Our main result was that we found no evidence that the California cellphone ban decreased accidents,” Colorado University economics Professor Daniel T. Kaffine, one of the lead authors of the study, said in a statement.
“One of the punch lines, I think, for policy makers in how we might think about these results is that simply passing a ban on something doesn’t always get you the intended results,” Kaffine said.
“Even if drivers fully complied with the law, it is possible that accidents would not decrease,” the study found and it reminded that tolerance for “risk may vary across drivers.”
Only the ignorant think passing a ban will stop or significantly reduce the behavior given that evidence says bans don’t even effect the behavior measurably.
A city in this area has passed an ordinance against “distracted driving”. If you are eating, drinking, phoning, putting on make-up, combing your hair, or anything else that might distract you, you will be ticketed. I don’t know how effective it has been on preventing accidents, but it sure has increased the city coffers!
College Station City Council is once again pushing for a cell phone ban (talk and text) or any electronic device that can not be used hands-free. Despite many failed attempts over the years to pass such a ban, and the wealth of knowledge that such bans do not work, city council members just don’t want to let this cash cow prospect go.
I think even more than cash (enforcement seems to be rare) is the silly idea or feeling that “they did something” – such seems to motivate people and make them feel great even without results.
You are probably right about that. I took the time to email all the city council members and point out several studies showing that cell bans have not reduced any accidents where applied. However last night they voted 6 – 1 to instate the ban which will take place in 90 days. Aside from changing a music track on my phone, I am not one to talk or text while driving. It’s the never ending intrusion of government into our lives, who wish to micromanage our every action, that prompted me to speak out.