Distracted Driving vs Personal Responsibility

I've opined before on distracted driving laws vs personal responsibility.

It's getting worse:

• Slashdot: Ray LaHood et al want to digitally enforce the "distracted driving problem."
  
• Gizmodo: Only 3 percent of Americans think it should be legal to text and drive.
  
• Wall Street Journal: NYC cracks down on cabbies on cellphones.

I see quite a few problems here...

• Why do Americans have such a hard-on for telling others what to do? Is the whole world this holier than thou?
• NYC: help me understand where exactly cabbies are supposed to pull over.

Finally, this "distracted driving problem" that LaHood wants to digitally enforce. Is there a real problem? Are Americans just badass drivers that are victims of distractions? I think not.

• Our drivers exams are some of the easiest in the world...
• We start playing bumper cars at the first sign of precipitation...
• Left lane blocking, the rudest faux pas imaginable in the civilized world, is de rigeur in the US.
  

Distractions don't kill any more than speed does. Every year bullshit checkboxes on police reports turn into bullshit statistics for the DOT/IIHS/et al racket. The real problem is that Americans can't drive worth a shit with or without a cellphone. The only thing another ban will do is bring in another revenue stream to municipalities. Another hidden tax sold under the guise of improving safety. Deja vu?

LaHood's proposed solution to this newly invented epidemic? There's an app for that. Don't worry, it's for your own good.  Companies are popping up left and right advertising GPS-based phone-disabling apps for smartphones (some examples: ZoomSafer, CellControl, iZup). Makes you wonder who lobbied for all this it's good for you nonsense in the first place doesn't it?

Also remember, anytime you install anything on your smartphone (or anything for that matter), it just might be a trojan horse... 

On another note, I'm in Helsinki, Finland this week, and took a cab ride across town a couple days ago right after their first snowstorm of the year. I think the cab driver drove faster than I remembered the others driving in the dry - Finns are all rally drivers at heart I guess. As he navigated his Volvo touring down the highway at 100km/h in the fresh snow, occasionally dialing in opposite lock with his left hand, he continued nonchalantly typing inputs on the taxi-information touch screen using his right. Distracted? LaHood would think so.  Able to drive 10x better than most Americans could dream of with their hands at 10 and 2 and all their energy focused on the task at hand? Believe it...