L.A. Can't Drive » cell phone

San Francisco vs. Los Angeles – Redux

I-95, U-405 — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 04:33:50 +0000

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So we’re back from San Francisco, and it has been almost 2 years exactly since I last did a comparison between SF and LA. We flew up there this time around and didn’t rent a car, so I was seeing everything from a pedestrian’s point-of-view. Perhaps I was a bit kind in my August 30, 2007, assessment of the driving ability in this town, or perhaps I just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but I actually witnessed one really bad collision (involving a sedan, a minivan taxi, and lots of airbags) and two very near misses that could’ve gone quite badly. The taxi drivers are as bad as the drivers in NY, though they are actually more dangerous since they can go much faster in less traffic congestion. They also signal way less than the taxi drivers in NY. In fact, the frequency of signaling for everyone I saw driving in SF went down on the whole from 2 years ago. Furthermore, there were more instances of leapfrogging at traffic signal regulated intersections. I don’t recall seeing any instances of leapfrogging from drivers other than taxi drivers 2 years ago. This has apparently changed. I’ve also noticed more drivers rolling through stop signs. In fact, one of the near misses involved one guy blowing through a stop sign and nearly getting T-boned by a service van. Now how about the positives? People were definitely doing more driving and less anything else while behind the wheel. If you told me that you saw something trying to fry an omelet in the passenger seat in LA, I wouldn’t be phased. In that respect, SF drivers are more like NYC drivers with a focused aggression behind the wheel. For the most part, the drivers up north are still very attentive to cyclists and pedestrians. Additionally, I only saw 2 drivers driving around at night without headlights on (one on each night I was there), and as we know that percentage is considerably better than anything you will see in LA. So there you have it…taxi drivers are insane, more aggression, less signaling, and on the other side you have more awareness of cyclists and pedestrians, proper usage of vehicle lamps, and less distractions while driving. Oh, I also saw less drivers holding cell phones are texting while driving, so that’s a big plus in my book.

I didn’t get any photos (I couldn’t whip out my phone fast enough), so I dug through the archives and found one of this BMW 328i on La Brea in Los Angeles. This impatient jackass was driving behind me in medium traffic and somehow felt the need to pull up beside me at Wilshire Blvd. at a red light. When the light turned green, naturally he gunned it and cut in front (no signaling) while missing parked cars in the curb lane by several feet. This type of mini-drag racing really boggles my mind since there is such a clear disparity between risk and reward. Then I suppose if you incorrectly treat driving like a game, concepts of safety and responsible driving become moot.

On a side note, I’ve done some freelance writing for Brand X, a publication affiliated with the L.A. Times. You can read my articles on the Bus Riders Union, digital road rage, and the new ignition interlock law here.

Transplant in Ford Texting While Steering with Her Knees

I-95, U-405 — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 00:49:55 +0000

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I pick on Angelenos a lot for texting and driving, not only because it’s illegal and extremely unsafe but because we spend so many more hours behind the wheel than anyone else in the country. We need to concentrate on driving safely and defensively more than the average citizen because of the hours we log on the road, yet we fail to do this on a consistent basis. You will without fail see more than a handful of drivers texting, browsing, messaging on their phones while you’re driving on any given street in any given hour in this town. But to be fair, we all know that texting and driving is a national–even international–problem. I took a photo of this clueless brunette with Missouri license plates in a Ford (Focus, I think) on La Brea in Hollywood while stopped at a light. I first noticed her vehicle because she was swaying a tad in her lane and wasn’t keeping up with traffic. As I pulled closer, I saw her looking down, typing away into her smart phone/Blackberry with both hands, and steering with her knees. Oh, did I mention that it was stop-and-go rush hour traffic? Just what this town needs…another clueless transplant.

5 Adults, 1 Driver Holding His Cell Phone, 1 Aggressive Mercedes

I-95, U-405 — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 04:41:47 +0000

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The lack of enforcement regarding hands-free cell phone use mirrors the lack of enforcement regarding signal use for turns and lane changes. Both examples provide poignant insights into our driving culture in Los Angeles and highlight driving behaviors that are so pervasive that even the police have a difficult time enforcing the law. You can certainly throw leapfrogging at intersections and California-cutting across multiple freeway lanes to reach an exit 100 feet away into the mix. Here’s my issue: if you want to ignore the hands-free cell phone law at your own expense, that’s your prerogative. But yapping away into a phone in your hand when there are 4 other adults in the car is just outright flagrant. By the way, quoting studies that say hands-free cell phone devices do nothing to curb cell phone-related accidents is futile since doing so only reinforces the point that you shouldn’t be talking on the phone in the first place while you’re driving. In this particular instance, this speeding (80+ MPH), non-signaling, yo-yo tailgating bearded dad in this cream colored Mercedes E63 AMG was chatting animatedly into a cell phone he had in his right hand despite the fact that he had his wife and three grown daughters (I’m making an assumption about the family tree) in the car with him. One could hardly say the conversation was private given everyone in the vehicle who was privy to every word; and if the conversation were business related, it’s probably best not to discuss such intricate matters while bumper-humping and erratically cutting in front of other drivers on the freeway (210 East near Arcadia). Seriously, hang up the damn phone or hand it to your wife to either finish the conversation or tell the other party that you’ll call back. If this were just a simple hands-free cell phone violation, then that’s one thing…but this jackass was driving recklessly and without abandon. And for all you passengers out there, do everyone else including yourself a favor and tell the person who’s driving to hang up the phone.

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Using a Dog as a Neck Pillow While Driving

I-95, U-405 — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 04:03:13 +0000

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

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Exhibits A and B are for our wall of shame…more hands-free cell phone violators submitted by a regular contributor. Exhibit C is of a photo I took (I forget where) of a dumb-looking sow with a smirk in a Toyota Highlander who was using a scruffy-looking lap dog as a neck pillow. I sh*t you not, she had this dog draped over her shoulders and behind her neck like some runty boa. The kicker was that part of the dog was actually under her seatbelt. Seriously? As if that’s going to prevent the dog from flying anywhere in the event of an accident? More importantly, that thing she probably calls a headrest is actually a head restraint; it’s there to prevent/reduce neck whiplash, and certainly no one should be roaming the streets in a huge SUV with a dog between his/her head and the head restraint. I mean, who does that? Clearly people in this town do.

It’s Time for a Dose of Cell Phone Law Violators

I-95, U-405 — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 03:47:38 +0000

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

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More cell phone law violators! Truth be told, I could post at least half a dozen of these every day given the rampant and flagrant dismissal of our state’s cell phone laws. The lack of enforcement aside, it would be nice to see the fine increased to something more substantial. Cell phone violations should also be moving violations; if people got points on their licenses and are forced to sit through driving school to remove said points, maybe they’d think twice about doing what these two ladies are doing in this submission I received yesterday morning from one of our regular sousveillance contributors:

“Yesterday late afternoon during very heavy traffic (between 5 and 5:30pm)…as I was a PASSENGER in my boyfriend’s car, I had the opportunity to photograph some cell phone idiots for your viewing pleasure. This was on the Southbound 101 in the Woodland Hills/Encino/Reseda area.

Exhibit A: A young girl driving along in her shizzy red Toyota Corolla so oblivious to other motorists while yakking away on her cell phone. Wow, in this shot her eyes are even closed and it looks like she is sleeping! LIVE DANGEROUSLY, IDIOT!

Exhibit B: A woman on her phone, but because she was using a “speaker” on her handheld phone, this must be OK. NEWSFLASH!!! THIS DOES NOT QUALIFY AS “HANDS FREE”. If you have any doubt about the meaning of hands-free, GOOGLE it, for God’s sake!”

Although it would be pretty funny if the girl in Exhibit B actually thought she was being legit by not having the phone up against her ear, chances are she doesn’t give a rat’s ass about her behavior. FYI, the ratings are so low because traffic was crawling along during rush hour; it’ll be pretty hard to kill someone in a cell phone-related accident at 2 MPH.

Blindly Driving and Texting in a Ford F250

I-95, U-405 — Thu, 03 Jun 2010 17:49:09 +0000

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

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Given that I was recently rear-ended by a Ford F150 (nothing major) and my friend was badly rear-ended a couple months ago by another F150, I have placed inattentive, careless drivers of these behemoths on my sh*t list. We were in stop and go traffic on the 101 Fwy North this weekend and came across this bald jackass in this tank (a Ford F250, in fact) killing time by texting and driving. It’s hard to see in Exhibit A, but you can just make out the glint of the side of his smart phone (iPhone or Droid of some sort). No one likes traffic, but the fact that he was trying to preoccupy himself by texting and driving–especially in a vehicle of this size–in unpredictable traffic really annoyed me. How thick do you have to be to do crap like that? On several occasions he had his eyes off the road and on his phone for as long as 6 seconds. I’m not making this up….six seconds! Thank god we were moving slowly; can you imagine how much road this moron could blindly cover if he were traveling at top speed on the freeway? And if this guy plowed into another driver on the road, chances are he would emerge in better shape from the accident than the poor victim who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Take Oprah’s “No Phone Zone” Pledge

I-95, U-405 — Wed, 05 May 2010 03:26:46 +0000

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This was submitted to me from Orange County:

“A near empty parking lot, and this is the best they could do.”

Again, there will be plenty out there who will roll their eyes and think what’s the big deal. I suppose if they don’t really care about principles, then there really isn’t much one could say or show them to make them change their ways. You just need to do your best to avoid these drivers on the road and not let them get to you when they doing something asinine. I bet that the person who parked this way is the same type of person who could give two sh*ts if his/her shopping cart runs into the side of a parked car in a lot outside Costco. Did I say Costco? Why yes I did, because some jackass did that very thing to my car in the parking lot of Costco in Burbank last week…minor scuffs and two small dimples on the side, but annoying nonetheless. On a tangential note, if you have kids or are around kids, do us all a favor and teach them to be aware of their surroundings while getting in and out of cars. Treat this as the new MADD…Mothers Against Dented Doors.

Anyway, some of you might have already heard about this, but a few days ago I heard Oprah Winfrey’s “No Phone Zone” PSA on the radio. She created a fabulous website directed at getting drivers to take a pledge of making the automobile a “no phone zone”. As of now, the site has 308,379 total pledge submissions. On April 24, she also wrote an interesting op-ed piece in The New York Times about the perils of texting and driving and how, as creatures of habit, we’re finding it very difficult as a culture to shed all the extraneous activities we do behind the wheel and just focus on driving. Both links are worth a look.