Which Bay Area Drivers Aren’t Using Hands-Free Devices?

The statistical analysis is not very thorough.

For example, while the population might be evenly split between men and women, that doesn't mean that there's an even split of driver-hours between men and women. In my observations, men drive more than women. Like, when a heterosexual couple is driving somewhere together, it seems to me that in a pretty large majority of couples, the man drives most of the times. It's also probably that white people drive more on average because they have more money than blacks and latinos on average. (Though I'm not sure how the averages compare for asians.)

Anyway, I'm not sure that the demographic stats mean as much as he claims.

Was he taking pictures while driving to conduct this survey?

Here's what I sent her (quoting): "Only a year on the books and the California hands-free cell phone law is virtually ignored. I see people everywhere and every day driving and talking on their cell phones. There seems to be three types of people; those who do not use a cell phone in the car at all, those who use a hands-free device, and those who don’t. I was wondering why so many people seem not to care if there is a law?"

Respect for traffic laws is regularly degraded by feel-good measures like unreasonably low speed limits, obvious speed traps that have nothing to do with traffic safety, 20-mile-long highway "work zones" with no workers but plenty of cops, "traffic calming" devices such as unnecessary stop signs and obstacles, and countless other signs of governmental indifference to drivers' everyday concerns. Traffic laws are treated as optional because they are often completely unrelated to safety.

"Is it because they think the ticket is so cheap? Is it that their chances of getting caught are so low?"

There have been numerous studies suggesting that hands-free devices are no safer when driving. This is undoubtedly because when it comes to traffic safety, your presence of mind is far more important than where your hands are. Perhaps more drivers realize the truth of that idea than you might think.

I violate the hands-free law frequently, but never in a context where I'm likely to need the missing brainpower. I wouldn't behave any differently with a hands-free device because I know it would still be hazardous for me to do so, based on my own driving abilities and general absentmindedness. Michael Schumacher can use his phone anywhere he wants, but I'm too easily distracted to get away with that!

I think it was Jaron Lanier who defined virtual reality as "the place where you're at when you're on the telephone." Virtual reality, whatever it is, doesn't sound like a good place to be when you're driving. My suspicion is that hands-free laws don't work for anyone except legislators who are pandering for votes and/or desperate for revenue, and cops who are always looking for excuses to stop people who aren't doing anything wrong besides driving in the wrong car, in the wrong place, and/or with the wrong skin color.