Court to drivers: It's ok to use a cell phone to look at a map

look, and if there is, then stop the vehicle

Too many people think they can multitask while driving, but they can't. There are to many variables out there that need constant attention.

Managing:

1. Trunked radio
2. Moving radar
3. Cell phone
4. Dispatch computer

Guess what, some people can do more than one thing at a time. Some of us are specially trained for it even.

cross walks also. Anyone whose visual attention is off the road puts people at risk. Cell phones have something called hands free.

If a dispatcher computer is needed visually, the partner can view it, otherwise, audio GPS works just fine thank you

"Some people are specially trained for it", bull. Taking your eye off the road happens, but puts people at risk, training or not.

The famous last words are doing an unsafe operation just before an accident occurred

Where do you live that they travel in pairs in the same vehicle?

I honestly can't remember the last patrol car I saw with two cops in it.



"Taking your eye off the road happens"
You actually don't have to take your eyes off the road to use a phone.

but the technology has been around for some time

No doubt most police don't have partners, which I take your knowledge on it, however, that is putting them at risk, without having a partner to backup if an unforeseen perp incapacitates one officer

One still has to wake it up and activate the voice function.

putting them at risk, without having a partner to backup if an unforeseen perp incapacitates one officer

I view that as a labor issue, and they are understaffed to cut costs, where costs should not be cut. That endangers everyone, officers and general public.

way of doing texting while driving. My phone ties to my car via bluetooth. I use a button my my steering wheel to wake up Siri, and say "Tell the wife I'll be 30 minute late getting home from work. Sorry." Siri reads it back to me and I'll tell "her" to send it. I never have to take my eyes off the road the entire time. When I get a text, I push the same button and say "Check my messages." and it'll read them off to me.

LOL!. This person I guess was in a traffic jam. I would assume they weren't moving very fast if at all. There should be exceptions for traffic going 5 mph or less.

an alternate route?

I agree, do it while vehicle is stopped. But in CA you can still get ticketed for texting if you do it while stopped at a red light. So this is seems to allow using gps while stopped at a red light at least.

Stop the damn car and look.

"Hey!! A grenade!! coooooooollll!"
" Pull the pin Bobby!!"
"Yea pull that pin!!"
"Okay..." *click*
"aww nothing happ kablooooooooommm!!!
SHIIIITTT!!! HE is all over me!!!

...it should ALSO be illegal to consult a printed map while driving -- which is something millions of people do, and which has never been illegal in any state in the land. Otherwise, it's nothing but the usual knee-jerk attempt to blame that Ol' Debbil Cellphone.

Traffic Jam.

The next best thing to being parked.

I live in So. Cal and don't see a problem with this.

This changes when traffic starts to move even at 5 mph.

I see it every day! Assholes!!!

if you pull over to send/read a text or use your phone or anything - that's actually illegal and the ticket is comparable to texting while driving fine. Staties will always stop for a stopped vehicle and if you don't have a "good" reason - ticket.

Lesson is - always say you had car trouble if this happens to you.

I've been meaning to pass that along to my mother as she pulls over for any sort of phone use.

"Weird, it's off now."

Though, I wonder, statistically speaking, is it safer to merge in from the shoulder, or drive on the phone...

Reason being that as long as the vehicle is running it could conceivably move into traffic or something I guess.

That was in the Starts And Stops section of the Sunday Globe (a must read for locals. I only recently learned that right turns can be made on red right arrows) about a month or so ago. The explanation in the article is that it more or less, "wastes the troopers' time."

I mean if you're driving through the city you have to be able to pull over, there's parking along roads, right?

You can't pull over on L.A. freeways except for emergencies either. You'd have to get off the freeway and do it on a city street.

Not sure about state routes that troopers also patrol.

I drive through DC traffic all the time and traffic jam can be defined in many ways. It's easy to go from a dead stop to a 5 to 10 mph stop and go.

I've been stuck behind many accidents that resulted from a 5 mph impact (no damage, but they had to stop) and who knows how many of those were related to cell phone usage.

Most people don't recognize the difference between parked and a 5/10 mph stop and go.

who are you calling an "Asshole"

Cell phone users while the vehicle is moving.

Okay?

It's really maddening. There are times I've had a passenger and we wanted to plug in an address and couldn't. There should at least be a passenger override, like if the passenger air bag is activated due to weight in the seat then activate the use of navi while vehicle is in motion. Personally I think it should be usable at all times, I'm allowed to use my audio system which is in the same unit.

and was wondering if it would make it's way to a higher court.

My thought at the time it was reported was that if he had been looking at a paper map he wouldn't have been issued a ticket.

So why should you be ticked for looking at one form of a map, but not the other?

The law obviously needed to catch up with technology.

Maybe the driver should have been stopped for distracted driving?

On one hand, there are laws that specifically state that using a GPS is legal in a car. These laws were pushed by the automakers, trucking companies, and GPS companies like Garmin long before smartphones were an issue.

On the other hand, California has laws that prohibit the use of handheld communication devices while driving. These laws were generally written to ban you from using any apps on the phone.

So we have two state laws that are essentially in conflict with each other. If you are using your handheld communication device AS a GPS device, is it legal or not? According to this judge, the answer is that they're legal.

My car has a phone mount in the bottom left corner of the windshield (where California law says that GPS devices are legal), and I usually have my phone in the mount running my dashcam software and Waze whenever I'm driving. It's mounted there specifically because Waze is a GPS application, and running my phone as a GPS device in that spot SHOULD be legal under California law. The judge agreed.

Are you on Android or iOS? Or Windows?

It's an Android app.

It's pretty nice because it can run in the background and just overlays a tiny icon over your mapping software. It captures videos in a running series of files along with your speed, GPS location, and a few other data bits. If something happens that you want to store, you just tap the icon and it protects the video from being overwritten. Otherwise it continually overwrites your oldest videos to stay within your space limits. It also automatically saves the video if it detects a sudden impact, so you don't need to remember it if you get it an accident.

It does have a couple of downsides. The initial setup can be a bit tricky because it has a LOT of options, and you'll have to specify the location where it can store its files, the maximum amount of space it can have, etc. You will also need to have the phone plugged in when you're using it, because the software is a real battery hog. It's also easy to forget about it when you get to your destination since it's not actually on screen. I've unplugged my phone more than once and got out of my car with the camera still running, only to find my phone dead in my pocket an hour later.

Overall I like the software. I now have it running in a configuration I am happy with, and got into the habit of checking the software every time I unmount my phone, so I don't really have any complaints. There are a number of dashcam projects out there, and nothing else even comes close to it.

Oh, and it's free

Sounds interesting.

The only think I don't like is that I'd have to mount it up on my dash/window. But it might be worth it. Oh, and I don't like it recording my speed! Although I think my car does that anyway.

Just about every feature can be turned on or off, and the application is massively customizable. That's both good and bad, because it gives novices a LOT of choices without a lot of information to make those choices with. It probably took me a week of tweaking before I got it to work exactly the way I wanted.

I personally use a Boxwave Tinymount for my phone, which can mount to either the dash or the windshield. I like it because it's pretty small and unobtrusive, and folds up when you're not using it so it's not distracting. It won't work with some of the monster phones coming out nowadays though. It was designed for an iPhone, and can barely handle my LG G2...my wife's Note 3 would snap it in half.

One other advantage to dash mounting is that it discourages you from playing with your phone, but makes it less distracting to do so when it's needed. My car actually has a BT receiver built into the car, but forces me to answer the call initially on the phone itself. When I get a call behind the wheel, I don't have to take my eyes off the road to see who is calling, and only need to tap the screen next to the steering wheel to answer. It's much safer than fumbling around with a phone on your lap, and is probably even safer than changing your radio station.

Thanks!

Dailyroads Voyager

IF you're just looking at a still image and not using the touchscreen or keyboard.

Maybe a bit smaller screen but it is still a GPS map you are looking at.

...now we'll have drivers out there who are LOST and...DISTRACTED.

I may have to start driving sober.


.

Get lost when I drive drunk ha ba