Quote:NJ Cracks Down on Talking on a Cell Phone While Cycling
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) -- New Jersey may have unresolved problems with taxes, child welfare and gangs, but lawmakers are ready to crack down on one perceived danger: talking on a cell phone while riding a bike.
A legislative committee has approved a bill that would make it illegal for people to use a hand-held telephone while riding a bicycle on a public road. Hands-free devices would be allowed and lawbreakers would face fines ranging from $100 to $250.
Assemblyman Jon Bramnick, a bill sponsor, said the measure is meant to protect bicyclists and the people they may strike when riding and yakking at the same time.
Cause hundreds of thousands of people die every year in bicycling accidents...oh no wait...that's CAR ACCIDENTS! Why doesn't NJ crack down on cell phone users as well? Why just last week me, Briney, and Eric were almost hit on Westnegde because some chick in a nice car was talking on a cell and thought the perfect time to pull out was when she was telling her bf "you just don't understand"...coincidently this was the same time we were about to be in her path of destruction. Way to go chick...way to live up to the woman driver stereotype!
But seriously...bikers causing deaths because of cell phones? Oh but wait just read on...won't you?
Quote:``That is, in our judgment, a danger to pedestrians as well as to the bicyclists themselves, due to the fact that now they have one hand on the handlebars, they're talking to someone and they're on a public highway,'' said Bramnick, a Union County Republican.
What?! What?! What?! They're not only a danger to themselves but a danger to other pedestrians AND THEY'RE ON A PUBLIC HIGHWAY?! Doesn't NJ have sidewalks?! What are pedestrians and bikes doing on the highway?! Isn't that a trifle dangerous?! Not to mention this law should be for cars if anything! You have one hand on a 2 tonish vehicle rather than on your 10 speed Huffy that's about 20 pounds. In one vehicle you knock someone down and at worse you sprain their shin. In another the least you do if fling a person 33 feet away from where you hit him!
Quote:The bill, among 6,928 introduced this session by New Jersey lawmakers, was given the nod Thursday by an Assembly public safety panel and now can be considered by the full Assembly. The Senate has taken no action on the idea.
Pete Garnich, owner of Knapp's Cyclery in Lawrence, said it's a waste of time.
His store takes people out on weekly group rides and Garnich said he can't recall anyone talking on a cell phone while riding a bike.
``I wouldn't say it's a problem,'' he said. ``You can't breathe and talk. It's absolutely ridiculous.''
Now I would agree with this guy and he makes a valid point but he's talking about the professional riders...not to guy with the bike from 1924 that's made of more rust than anything else and he's got a sack of Shiltz on one handle bar and the other holding his phone. But these people are too slow to cause any damage...unless you know...THEY'RE OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE FREAKIN HIGHWAY! Which this article implies.
Quote:In 2005, 784 people were killed, including 17 in New Jersey, and 45,000 were injured in bicycle crashes in the United States, accounting for 2 percent of traffic fatalities, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. An agency spokesman said no statistics are kept for crashes involving cell phones and bikes.
2%?! 2%!? Why what's the other 98%?! Could it be pedestrians running into each other? Noooo. It's frackin involves motor vehicles! Not to mention look at the statistics they use. They sandwhich two statistics to imply this law needs to be written in NJ. First there were 784 killed involving bikes in the ENTIRE US. This statistic does not say who was involved. A little child is on the street riding a bike and some CAR runs over him. The statistic is not very well explained. Then they say 17 were killed in NJ. Yet how many of those 17 involved cell phone use?! AND which ones had drivers using cell phones? Then they again say that 45,000 were injured in bikes crashes in the US. Well I'll give them that some of these are actually serious enough to warrant a police report but how many are just reporting it to sue the biker and how many of them are just the bikers falling down or bike malfunctions that result in injury? Also are we talking about bike races as well with 3,000 bikers packed into a small starting line and traveling over rough terrain? Also, the statistics do not at all list how many involved cell phones.
Oh but just read this next line...conveniently hidden in brackets!
Quote:(While 25 percent of the nation's bicycle fatalities in 2005 involved alcohol, the state attorney general's office says it's not illegal to bike while drunk in New Jersey.)
WTF?! So why not make it illegal to DRINK AND BIKE?! You could save 25% of the nations bike fatalities! Nooo it's those awful cell phones that have no statistics on them what so ever.
Quote:Bramnick admitted he also has no data on injuries caused by distracted riders. He called the cell phone biking bill ``a common sense proposal'' based on observations he and others have made ``in the more densely populated communities.''
Oh so one guy can be out with his friends and see one biker alone by himself (remember this is suppose to protect bikers from huge crowds...yet this guy can observe guys on bikes in the crowd...in fact he probably saw them while driving and had to use a cell phone to call his buds up and complain about it...narrowly avoiding the old lady trying to legally cross. His next law...ban old ladies from crossing the road. They account for 489% of all fatalities ever!)
Quote:Not all legislators are eager to support the measure.
``As my father used to tell me, 'You can't legislate common sense,' and that's exactly what this bill tries to do, as the Legislature has already tried to do on so many other occasions,'' said Assemblyman Richard Merkt, R-Morris. ``Is anyone dumb enough to use a cell phone in a dangerous manner while riding a bicycle really going to be smart enough to know about or pay attention to some legislator's new law? Seems unlikely to me.''
Umm is it unlikely that someone would make toast in the bath...oh wait that's been done. Has this guy read Fark lately? Also how common sense is it to say ohh drink way to much alcohol and get into a 2 ton vehicle. Or kill someone over a ham sandwich. This guy needs to rethink why he became a legislature. You can't regulate common sense? Then let's get rid of our govt. .... Wait...stay in office!
Quote:It was unclear Friday when legislators might take more action on the bill, or when they would take up other proposals offered by lawmakers. Those include declaring September ``Handwashing Awareness Month,'' a plan languishing in an Assembly health committee.
Ya I know I took this article way too seriously but hey...I had fun and I hope you did too. Do you guys think we're becoming a Fark site? It seems like all we do is post stories. I mean I'm fine with it but are you guys? Welp now it's time for me to observe national Handwashing Month. So I'll see ya.
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