下载

This is our Things Considered from NPR News. I’m M L. And I’m A B. OK, be honest. When was the last time you at lost driving and call your friend on your cellphone to get direction or dial your spouse to get a heads up that you are stuck in the traffic? Five states have passed legislation banning calls on hand-held cellphone while driving. Now Washington State has gone one step further. It has passed the first explicit ban on text-messaging while driving. F J reports.

When she starts driving, Jane Dimond in Seattle first has to get Rave Radiostation, then directions.

Your entire route is now shown.

Then her four-year-old Delisha has request from the backseat, lots of them.

Then recovering the grapes from Delisha who is now dropping them on the floor. There is a toy rolling up Jane’s feet, and of course the never ending pounding on her back.

You are kicking my chair.

And then, a text message from her partner. Closed to home, Jane takes back, 5 minutes, and then.

Actually that last part didn’t really happen. But it could, when the text message ban in Washington State goes into effect, January 1st, 2008. But everything that did happen the DJ GPSing and beating the kids all still legal, although Jane’s parenting magazine does make her feel guilty for it.

One of our magazines that we got said you shouldn’t do anything other than drive while you are driving, but nobody does.

Really? No one just pays attention to driving? I jump out of Jane’s \ van and to Linda Stone’s BMW to find out.

So we are in the highway. Let’s see what people are doing. We are in spy mode, and you are the spy leader. My spy follower, Linda Stone is \ executive who’s now a tact consultant writing a book about attention. At first, we only see minor offenses: a girl doing her hair, some guy eating chips, but then we hit traffic. And the criminals could out of the woodwork. That woman is text messaging, right there. She is. She is totally stopped in text messaging. I’m looking down on her lap.

OK, OK, I know that is bad. But I’m gonna play the role of a rule upsets five-year-old tear for a minute and ask the obvious: what about the guys we just saw reading the paper? How come that’s not banned? Or the woman we see flosing her teeth. The close-eyed singing. Or the tons of people we see eating. There are hundreds of things that we do in our cars that are potentially dangerous destruction. But Linda Stone says the ban on text messaging is symbolic. She says that represents a larger push to do one thing at a time.

We are looking at different ways to protect our time. You see the signs all around of people caring more about protection in quality of life.

Signs let how everyone and their mom does \ these. And literal signs saying no cellphones in restaurant or even some stores. Stone says the text ban is the final declaring: Enough is enough.

I think that if someone is trying to legislate this even five years ago, there is no way that they would have been able to pass this bill. And I think that is because people are so ready to start making changes.

For those of you in Washington State who are not ready to start making changes, very soon there would be $101 ticket waiting for you. And \ just you know, in traffic, yes you can tell.

She’s doing even well, oh my god. She is not so eyes on the road. She is so eyes on her blackberries, now hiding it because she knows……


For NPR News I’m HF in Seattle.