| Re: NJ legislators & bicycles in the news
Justa Lurker wrote:
> From today's paper .....
>
> ASSOCIATED PRESS
>
> TRENTON — 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.
>
> "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.
>
> 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."
>
> 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. The agency today couldn't immediately
> determine if statistics were kept for crashes involving cell phones and
> bikes.
>
> (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.)
>
> 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."
>
> 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."
>
> It was unclear today 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.
It's a pity that NJ legislators (who could be doing something useful
i.e. property tax reform) resort to devices like this to make news, and
divert public attention from important issues. I have yet to see any
accident caused by bike/cellphone conversations. In fact the legislator
who proposed the measure admits that he cannot cite any incidences of
accident(s) caused by this practice.
No doubt the practice is somewhat unsafe, however, this legislation is
designed to solve a non existent problem. You cannot protect people from
themselves.
EJ in NJ
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