Doesn't this bill discriminate between tge rich--those who can afford hands-free sets--and the poor--those who can't?
Hands free sets don't cost that much. If you can afford a car and a cell phone, you can afford a hands free set. Again, I'm not sure I'm on board with banning manual cell phone calls while driving (although I am on board with texting bans). But I don't oppose it for a monetary reason.
The reason why I insist on banning manual phone calls is twofold. On the one hand there have been numerous studies that showed how dangerous it is if the driver talks on a phone while driving. It simply is a major distraction and leads to many accidents that could be prevented by a simple and effective ban. Of course, having a conversation with other passengers can be distracting as well, but there is just no way to regulate that.
On the other hand I think it makes sense to treat texting/typing and manually talking on a phone in the same way. If you talk to someone on the phone while driving you have to type in a number and hang up at some point; these actions involve some sort of typing or at least pressing a button, which most of us agree should be forbidden.
If you get a call and assuming your phone's not in your pocket, it's quite easy to flip it open, talk, and flip it shut.
