JJR512
Forum Deputy Chief
- 1,336
- 4
- 36
When I hear a song I really like, I pay more attention to it.
Changing the station takes some attention away from the road, to, especially if I'm not in my own car and I want to find stations that aren't on preset buttons.
Finally, not everything on the radio is music. There's talk, too. Sports games and discussion, political commentary, news, etc. And that's stuff that the listener hasn't heard before, so the "subconsciously paying less attention to it" argument might not apply.
The radio might be perfectly harmless in many circumstances, but it does have the potential to be a driver distraction. The same can be said for cell phones. They can be used safely and intelligently so they don't create a hazard. They can even be used by people in the vehicle besides the driver. So they're not always a hazard but they can be...just like the radio: it isn't always a hazard, but it can be. So if you want to ban one, you should ban both, and everything else that can be a hazard, a distraction to the driver. But if you think one should be left alone, then it would only make sense to argue that all potential driver distractions should be left alone. The latter is how I feel. Catch and punish distracted drivers, regardless of what caused the distraction. Don't ban potential distractions and ruin it for everyone, especially when the people that really want to get around the ban will probably wind up doing so quite easily...just like felons that want guns.
Changing the station takes some attention away from the road, to, especially if I'm not in my own car and I want to find stations that aren't on preset buttons.
Finally, not everything on the radio is music. There's talk, too. Sports games and discussion, political commentary, news, etc. And that's stuff that the listener hasn't heard before, so the "subconsciously paying less attention to it" argument might not apply.
The radio might be perfectly harmless in many circumstances, but it does have the potential to be a driver distraction. The same can be said for cell phones. They can be used safely and intelligently so they don't create a hazard. They can even be used by people in the vehicle besides the driver. So they're not always a hazard but they can be...just like the radio: it isn't always a hazard, but it can be. So if you want to ban one, you should ban both, and everything else that can be a hazard, a distraction to the driver. But if you think one should be left alone, then it would only make sense to argue that all potential driver distractions should be left alone. The latter is how I feel. Catch and punish distracted drivers, regardless of what caused the distraction. Don't ban potential distractions and ruin it for everyone, especially when the people that really want to get around the ban will probably wind up doing so quite easily...just like felons that want guns.