I’m fairly convinced that it makes sense to ban hand-held cell-phone use in moving vehicles. I’m not nearly as convinced that it makes sense to ban hands-free. Fox News has this on the subject, which includes the following statement:
The New York, New Jersey and D.C. laws allow hands-free cell phone use, a provision that concerns [Joshua] Cohen, [senior research associate at the Harvard Center for Risk Analysis,] who questions whether the distraction caused by talking is as great for drivers whether or not they are holding the phone.
Now if you read the article, this isn’t as bad as it sounds, since Cohen states that his study on driver distraction is not conclusive on the issue.
But sure as hell someone will take this statement out of context to try to ban driver/passenger conversations.
“The first thing we do, let’s kill all the idiotarians.”