http://amarillo.com/news/2013-02-02/beilue-cellphone-ban-castor-oil-drivers

My pal Jon Mark Beilue once again has done a great job explaining what occasionally is the unexplainable.

In this case the issue the city’s ban on handheld cellphones while driving a motor vehicle. Some naysayers are circulating petitions around the city seeking to put the measure to a vote. They have until the middle of the month to get slightly fewer than 4,000 valid signatures.

My hope is that they fail and that the Amarillo City Commission’s decision stands on its own.

I was proud of commissioners for actually leading and deciding that, yes, driving while operating a motor vehicle inside the city limits is too risky an endeavor to tolerate. The best quote came from Ellen Robertson Green, who I’ve declared publicly to be my favorite city commissioner.

“As Americans, we love our cars so much that we forget driving is a privilege, not a right,” Green said. “But you have to get a license, insurance, an inspection and registration. You can’t drive drunk or have an open container and (must) wear a seat belt and follow traffic laws. We’re driving a missile, and that comes with responsibility. So often we think, ‘my car, my road, my right.’ It might be your car, but not really the other two.”

Green’s point, I think, is that when we take that “missile” onto our public streets, the drivers’ business becomes every other motorists’ and pedestrians’ business. They need to follow the laws set down to seek to ensure a safer driving environment.

The cellphone ban will take some time to embed itself in motorists’ minds. I’m still waiting for some visual evidence that the activity has subsided since the ordinance went into effect. I hope it comes, and I applaud city commissioners for forcing the issue on drivers.