New Jersey – The state has already taken cell phones and text messaging out of the hands of drivers, and now one legislator hopes to do the same with in-car manual operation of GPS navigation systems, due to the potential for driver distraction.
Subscribe to our Daily Roundup Email
Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, a Democrat from Jersey City, introduced a bill specifying that only a voice-activated GPS may be programmed while driving. Violators would face the same $100 fine as anyone caught text-messaging or using a hand-held cell phone.
To be sure, manually programming a GPS unit from behind the wheel — the voice-activated model tends to be more expensive — is not a good idea. AAA in New Jersey spokeswoman Michele Mount noted that the GPS instruction manuals urge motorists to avoid programming while driving.
“I think it would be too hazardous to program it while you’re driving,” said Mike Baldini of Boonton Township, who bought a $150 GPS unit last year that he rarely uses.
Baldini described the protracted process involved in generating a GPS-guided route from point A to point B.
“You touch a couple of buttons. Then you get to a menu. Then it asks the town you want. Then you find the street (and) it goes to the street number. Then it asks if you want to take toll roads, or highways, or the least amount of highways,” Baldini said.
Wow, that seems like a lot to do while monitoring traffic flow and exit signs. Still, is a GPS device necessarily more distracting than a satellite radio box featuring hundreds of stations and streaming all the major league baseball scores on a tiny screen?
Maybe, maybe not. But, to our knowledge, no one is proposing a ban on manually operating satellite radio.
Perhaps satellite radio will be next, which is the fundamental problem with the current piecemeal approach to distracted driving.
Simply put, lawmakers will never be able to keep up with all the distractions and the process is fraught with subjectivity.
“What’s next, iPods?” Mount mused.
Assemblyman John Wisniewski, who chairs the transportation committee, favors a broader approach to combating distracted driving.
“You could literally do a statute banning grooming, eating, changing the DVD, changing the CD — the list goes on and on. But is this really how we want to proceed,” Wisniewski said.
Wisniewski proposed a catch-all ban on distracted driving in 2006. His bill, which was overshadowed by the ultimately successful cell phone ban, would have banned drivers “from engaging in any activity not related to the operation of the vehicle in a manner that interferes with the safe operation of the vehicle,” according to the bill summary.
Critics of Wisniewski’s measure argued that it would overlap with the careless driving law. He argued, though, that police might hesitate in assessing careless driving — a two-point offense — to a motorist caught applying their makeup, for example. Wisniewski’s bill proscribed a $100 fine, but no license points.
Regardless of the law, common sense should apply.
“No one should be programming their GPS device while their car is moving at 60 miles per hour,” Wisniewski said.
This is too much of an intrusion on personal freedoms. If you follow thier logic, it would become a crime to put on tefillin while driving.
Wisniewski’s measure should be called the distracted driving law as opposed to the careless driving law.
It certainly is a crime to put on tefilin while your driving. If you feel otherwise please get off the roads.
As a driver who commutes to NJ every few days, I se that NJ drivers are REALLY BAD. They deem it a mitzvah to cut you of without signaling, not to let you in when you have to change lanes, to speed up throuhj the intersection to avoid a red light. I have seen, first hand, some horrible sccidents on the Pulaski Skyway because of tailgating.
NJ is in a class by themselves. We need to be able to take cell phone pictures of the perps and send them to the police (before they confiscate our cell phones
The next law will be “driving without a gps system is like driving without a seat belt and punishble by $100.
People wake up it is not whether you do or you don’t do. The rule is they want your money. you will get a ticket because you have a gps and at the same time becouse you don’y have a gps.
rules are for stupid people. if you don’t know to keep looking back at the road while your programming your gps you shouldn’t use one. so there should just be one law: ‘stupid people are not allowed to drive’ and then
For some Driving while driving is hazardous!!! LOL !!:)
I think this A’man is distracted or more like distrubed. Amazing that there is nothing else they could worry about in NJ. How about LOWERING our taxes?!?!?
Na, what was I thinking?!
These rules are not done, there’s still more. Soon in 2010 there will be a new requiring law “all drivers must drive with both hands on steering wheels all the time.”
These guys have waaaaay too much time on their hands. Stop making up laws that regulate common sense since they wont be enforced anyway. They passed a cell phone law and what do we have? Hundreds if not thousands of people every day yakking on their hand held phones while driving and very few tickets issued. But they feel good because they passed a law. Our state is drowing in debt and we are being taxed to death – go spend your time working on those issues not GPS laws. By the way we already have a law that regulates GPS, Cell phones, CB radios and everything else. It is called careless driving and if it is done willfully it is called reckless driving. I guess it is too much to expect an elected assemblyman to know the law?
Fast food drive thru’s ? How many people take the food home as opposed to eating the food while driving? I think they should close all the drive thru windows, including the Dunkin Donuts drive thru’s. Wait, can’t do that, then the cops can’t get there donuts!! These bans are nothing but a money scam by corrupt politicians and law makers.