Historicist: "The city that nobody loves"
Elsewhere in the Ist-a-Verse
An officer was shot at earlier today which prompted a manhunt in Etobicoke. Police kept a nearby school and community centre closed for safety reasons.
A retired gang cop points out that Toronto had a number of great anti-gang units which were dismantled a decade ago. He argues this is one of the reasons the city has seen more gang-related violence in recent years.
The CAA is calling for a ban on cellphones and MP3 players for new drivers. We don't see any reason why the ban shouldn't apply to all drivers.
Are taxi shields actually unsafe? Taxi drivers have been complaining that the shields, which are currently on trial right now, hamper vision and depth perception.
Ryerson is sticking with its guns and awarding controversial ethicist Margaret Somerville an honorary degree next week despite protests from many at Ryerson and the city's gay community. Somerville is an outspoken critic of same-sex marriage.
Howard Moscoe will be writing a letter of apology to council for leaking information to the media about the firing of members of North York's Committee of Adjustments. Many on council see this as a sign that Moscoe is unfit for the role of TTC Chair, a position which often deals with confidential material.
Finally, the new Opera house opens. The Star's Martin Knelman seems to be in a post-gala high and writes:
Last night's long-awaited gala opening concert at Toronto's new opera house was the cultural equivalent of the Leafs winning the Stanley Cup in overtime....
Hmmm, we didn't hear any cars honking down Yonge Street or opera hooligans using air horns and cheering for the new Opera House. Did you?
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If you can't drive and operate a cell phone, you probably shouldn't be driving.
Well, if you can't drive while having an argument with your girlfriend on the cellphone, editing your iTunes playlist and drinking your venti caramel macchiato then you're just totally wasting all of that time you're spending in traffic. Shit I'm totally writing this comment while I'm in traffic on my blackbe... oh shit... I hit something. F%$#% Get back to you in a sec.
Yeah, if you can't drink and drive you shouldn't be driving either!!
List of studies that have shown that driving while talking on a cellphone impairs the user as much or more than alcohol: http://www2.potsdam.edu/hansondj/DrivingIssues/references/1104194636.html#1
Pah, studies/statistics/logic/facts these are all irrelevant to Torontoist readers!
I just think a ban is silly when adults can make these decisions themselves.
That's exactly it though: they can't. I've seen so many near-accidents because of drivers talking on cellphones. As a bicyclist, a pedestrian, and a driver, I've seen the worst of all three worlds.
People in a car are not in a protective bubble. Their decisions inevitably impact upon - sometimes quite literally - those around them. This is, incidentily, the exact same argument you could make for drunk driving. It's not drivers own decisions if it can affect others.
Why Stop at Ipods, why not just ban radios as well, and cd players. Statistics say that billboards cause people to lose focus on the road, lets ban them too. Hurrah! No more accidents!
But David, communication on the phone is nessecary for some people to do thier job. No one needs to drink and drive. To compare the two is a stretch. By your reasoning, a lot of behaviours should be banned. Instead, why not let people be responsible for thier actions? If you get in an accident while on the phone, you should get an automatic reckless driving charge.
Michael:
I just don't understand why it's so hard to pull over. I understand that drinking and driving and using a cellphone are not the same in themselves, but they have similar effects on the driver: they're incredibly distracting and dangerous.
As I said before, if you get in an accident while on the phone, not only you are involved in the accident: you seem to be missing what I'm trying to say, and it's really the crux of my argument against your previous point. If you get in an accident on the phone, you might kill someone.
Bob:
The issue isn't about people listening to music; it's about people taking their eyes off the road to shuffle through their iPods.
Michael - I'm sure cyclists and pedestrians and other drivers hit by distracted drivers will take great comfort in the knowledge that their skull fracture, broken leg, or smashed fender are in that state because a responsible adult made a decision.
Is it really so difficult to grasp that a ban would cut down on the actual number of accidents these distractions cause (if enforced)?
David, I agree, its a distraction, but my point was that you take your eyes off the road all the time. (car stereo, billboards, cyclists, joggers.) If you're attentive, your risk is minimal. Ban them, and people are still going to find other ways to lose attention in traffic. To single out ipods is ludicrous.
Lets ban driving. Surely this will cut the rate of car accidents somewhat.
That I agree with, Bob. I have an iPod and iTrip, and I have a "driving" playlist that I play in the car...my hands never touch the ipod except for when I first turn everything on. I still think that cell phones pose a bigger problem, because if you're using one in the car, while driving (whether with or without a headset), there's no extreme degrees of distraction (like with an iPod, where you could say that just playing music is not dangerously distracting, but holding it up and browsing through artists to find your favourite songs probably is).
"Many on council see this as a sign that Moscoe is unfit for the role of TTC Chair, a position which often deals with confidential material." Oh my God, I have the best effing story about this from Council yesterday. Remind me to tell you the next time I see you, Ron.
If you look at the stuides, it's not the eye issue, it's the attention. People are just as distracted talking into a headset as they are dealing with a handheld phone. It's the overwhelming of the cognitive bandwidth that's the problem, rather than the specific issue.
If you are going to deal with the actual problem, rather than just a symbol, you do need to ban eating, radios, passenger conversations, etc just as you do with phones and iPods. Good luck getting that through, never mind enforcing it.
Somethings just can't be dealt with through law. Leave people alone, with the knowledge that their behaviour will be held against them if they cause an accident and harm to others.