Boston's Alternative Source! image!
   
Feedback
[This Just In]

CONFESSION
Ode to cell-phone driving

BY NINA WILLDORF

If everything were right in the world, I wouldn’t be allowed to set foot in Brookline. I’d be banned from the Booksmith, laughed out of Zaftigs, shunned at the Coolidge. I’d be banished to Boston proper or the ’burbs, escorted back to Allston, cuffed and shipped off to Cambridge.

That’s because I am one of them. The hated, the selfish, and the irresponsible — a person who uses a cell phone while driving. To makes matters worse, I use it often, with pride, with relish, and with no shame.

Last November, Brookline’s town officials voted to pass a bylaw putting the brakes on drivers’ use of hand-held cell phones. But earlier this month, Massachusetts attorney general Tom Reilly voided the law, saying Brookline’s attempt was a violation of Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 90, Section 13. For those of us unfamiliar with the minutiae of state laws, that means that as long as you have one hand on the wheel, you’re good to go.

Still, I must admit that even with one hand on the wheel — even with two, employing the uncomfortable phone-raised-to-ear-from-the-shoulder scrunch — I probably drive irresponsibly when I’m on the phone. Sure, I take precautions: I dial at stop signs; I rarely check my home voice-mail, which requires lots of glancing down to the dial pad to erase and save messages; I keep the talking time to a minimum. No freeways. No taking notes. And no phone fights. But while chatting it up on my cell, I’ve been known to veer slightly into other lanes. Sometimes I come a little too close, sometimes I go a little too fast. I lose track of where I’m going and take my sweet time if I’m having an especially sensational or shocking conversation.

In short, Brookline’s city officials are right. Talking on a cell phone is a dangerous distraction for drivers. And an unnecessary one at that. We should reclaim our streets, save the kiddies, and all that stuff. With all the inclement weather and inherently bad drivers out there, why take additional risks?

But never mind all that — thank God Brookline’s efforts were thwarted. To resort to third-grade tantrum thinking, talking on my cell phone while driving is my right. If I can own a gun, if I can drive a gas-guzzling SUV, if I can choose not to recycle, if I can diss the president, then what’s the harm in a teensy cell?

What’s that saying they have in New Hampshire? Live free or die? Well, I have another. Driving with my cell phone, I should be allowed to live free and die.

Hate me? Give me a call, let’s talk about it. I’m available during rush hour.

Issue Date: March 15 - 22, 2001