Driving and Cellphones

There is a reason why talking on a cellphone while driving is illegal in Ontario, and I just got to witness it first-hand, as I do many times a week now that I'm unemployed and walk the kids back-and-forth to school a lot. There is one set of lights on their walk to school, and we were waiting at it about 10 minutes ago waiting for the crossing light to go green. I noticed the signal for the cars went yellow, then red. A guy in a crossover stationwagon / minivan with cellphone clearly held up to his left ear with his left hand, initially stops at the red light as I enter the crosswalk with my kids, but then calmly proceeds through it!

Lucky for him he was on the far side of the street driving from my right to my left. Had he been on my side, he'd have gotten a swift boot to the side-panel with my steel toed shoes. Lucky for me I noticed that he pulled in to the side of the road just beyond the intersection, so I walked over and tapped on his passenger window. He was still jabbering away on his cell phone - I guess in a way it was a good thing that he seemed to recognize that he should pull over to talk. I very calmly said to him "You know you just went through a red light, while talking on a cell phone. Both of which are illegal in Ontario". "What red light?" he replied with, just as calmly. "The one right back there that you just went through, while talking on a cell phone, both of which are illegal in Ontario." Then I motioned to my boys who were back about 10 feet where I told them to stand and said "And you cut off my kids in the crosswalk in the process".

Fortunately he was one of the 90% or more of people who when caught red handed are willing to own up to it and apologize. Lucky for me only a small percentage of people get obstinate and irate when caught red-handed.

Coincidentally, a few days ago a friend was conducting an informal poll on her blog, asking whether this-or-that were rude to do with a cell phone when you were with someone else. She listed a whole range of activities and asked for people's opinions on them. I do a lot of thinking about cell phones - I don't have one, and I don't really want want. And they are a bit of a pet peeve for me for a number of different reasons, not the least of which being that most people throw theirs away every year or two and get a new model. For me they are a symbol of consumer culture at its worst. But I realised after reading this informal poll, that another reason I pick on cell phones is that even the nicest people can become completely different people when using them.

I answered my friend's poll with the explanation that I think cell phones to some degree pre-select for rudeness. I said it was like looking for alcoholics - sure you can find them at the supermarket, but you are a lot more likely to find them at the liquor store. Cell phones are by definition bought by people who have a degree of self-importance to them. And by definition, self-important people can be rude. How can I make such an audacious claim? Hear me out.

Generally speaking, people buy cell phones because they think they need to be reachable at every waking moment of the day. And precious few people who have them, really-and-truly need them. I certainly don't think I am important enough to need to be reachable at every waking moment, so I therefore feel safe in my claim that people who own cellphones do think they are. You buy it because you think you need to answer it when it rings. And like Pavlov's dog, the salivation begins as soon as it does ring, and simply by reflex whether driving a car or having a real-life conversation with a dear friend, that ring must be answered this instant! Not true, you say? I say that someone would be pretty foolish to buy a cell phone if they did not intend to answer it when it rang, would they not? So by definition, generally speaking, people with cell phones are going to be rude with them. Of course, not all people, all the time. But I'd wager most people, at least some of the time. More than half. And as I just saw a few minutes ago, being rude can lead to downright being dangerous. And that ain't cool, especially not when my kids are in that crosswalk!

In any case, I don't mean to crucify cell phone users. I just mean to offer a different perspective on a part of everyday life that most people take for granted.