Discussions

Time for a bit of a unique experiment.  
The point of this thread is to share information on sightings of people that are locally using their cell phones while driving, which of course is in contradiction with legislation that's been enforceable law for almost a half year ago now.  
 
Should you be out and about in the city and notice the obvious use of a cell phone for the purposes of talking or apparent texting by a citizen operating a motor vehicle, please post the following:  
1) the type of vehicle. Eg car, truck, mini van, suv  
2) the colour of the vehicle  
3) the approx time that you saw what you saw  
4) the quadrant of the city that you saw this in, options being Northeast/Northwest/Southeast/Southwest and the dividing lines being 18th Street and Victoria Avenue.  
5) whether or not you believed the driver to be talking or texting based on your observation  
 
Please don't go any further than the information that's asked for. The point of this thread is mainly to give a sense for how much abuse of this law is going on, to bring a tangible feel to it, to possibly draw conclusions on whether it happens more frequently in particular parts of the city or at certain times of the day and to whether or not there are any patterns relating to vehicle type. For legal reasons we don't want to go as far as to specifically identify people to others without proof of their violation, but perhaps as a side benefit there will be enough information for cell phone drivers to see themselves.  
 
Some ground rules:  
- this is not another "I saw a Police officer doing it" thread. That debate has been done to death and the fact is it's legal. This thread is for sightings of illegal usage. In the same token, this isn't intended as a bash on Police relating to enforcement... we're just sharing data and are hopefully respectful of the fact that Police can't be everywhere all the time.  
- this is not another debate on whether or not this law should exist. We have plenty of other active threads on that particular topic  
- please do NOT give a description of the driver, any further description of the vehicle including year or identifying marks, a plate number, a picture or anything beyond the vehicle type, colour, the time that you saw it, the quadrant of the city that you saw it in and whether they appeared to you to be talking or texting. I don't want this thread to become a place of alleging specific people to have broken the law  
- this isn't a debate about whether or not this thread should be here. If you aren't interested in reading or taking part, please take part in a discussion that does interest you. Feel free to drop me a PM if you dont have anything to contribute in line with the very specific topic but you'd still like to chat about the thread itself  
- if you see a post that you feel specifically identifies someone (or yourself) please click on the "report this" link to let me know. Please only report posts where it's obvious to people other than the driver who is being talked about. 
- last and certainly not least, I'm sure it goes without saying please don't go out of your way to collect information to the point where you're changing your regular routine or diverting your concentration. Your safety and the safety of people around you comes first. Many of us already note these things as part of our walking or driving in the city, these situations where you've made a mental note are the situations where a post to this thread would be great.  
 
To start....  
 
Approx 4 PM today, silver mini van, Northeast part of the city , talking

Edited by admin, 2010-12-21 21:42:22. Reason: addition of additional ground rule