We have a few simple and relatively inexpensive items to add to this year’s public works budget: Large signs downtown encouraging those piloting automobiles not to talk on the phone while driving.
Perhaps it is because so many Citizen staffers get around on foot or by bike that we’ve heard a number of first-hand reports of motorists whooshing by crosswalks or sweeping around corners with one hand on the wheel, the other cradling a phone and their minds about as far from what they’re doing as the cell towers south of town. In one such incident, a young, talkative person in a large utility vehicle narrowly missed one of our staffers and the Carrboro chief of police (in full uniform) in the middle of the crosswalk at the Century Center.
We’ve even seen drivers express exasperation that our appearance in a crosswalk interrupted their conversation. You know, that “hey I’m on the phone, here!†look.
With downtown getting more crowded and society, it seems, getting even more chatty, there’s a real necessity to curb such behavior.
So, we’d like to see a creative approach to letting motorists know that it is not OK to behave that way with a ton of hurtling metal. How about placards prominently displayed along the roadways leading downtown that say something like “Please Don’t Talk and Drive†or “Extinguish Cell Phones While Driving.â€
We’re even happy to chip in some free ads for the effort.