{"id":24890,"date":"2017-09-22T23:10:55","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T23:10:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=24890"},"modified":"2017-09-22T23:10:55","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T23:10:55","slug":"still-looking-for-cell-phone-ban-sign-at-border","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=24890","title":{"rendered":"Still looking for cell phone ban sign at border"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Ban-on-cell-phone-while-driving.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-24893\" src=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Ban-on-cell-phone-while-driving-300x199.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"199\" srcset=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Ban-on-cell-phone-while-driving-300x199.jpg 300w, https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Ban-on-cell-phone-while-driving.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>I was hoping to see something the other day next to the &#8220;Welcome to Texas&#8221; sign that greeted us on our way back from a long-weekend trip to Colorado.<\/p>\n<p>It would be a &#8220;No cell phone use while driving&#8221; sign.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#8217;t see it when we re-entered Texas from New Mexico along Interstate 40. <em>Dammit, anyway!<\/em> Where is the warning to motorists coming here from elsewhere that they need to put their cell phones away while they&#8217;re driving on Texas highways?<\/p>\n<p>The Texas Legislature this year approved a cell phone ban while driving bill. Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law, which took effect Sept. 1.<\/p>\n<p>Most states have laws that ban cell phone usage while driving; even more of them ban texting while driving. New Mexico has a &#8220;local jurisdiction&#8221; ban, by the way; Colorado bans cell phone use if the driver is operating on a learner&#8217;s permit. Colorado also bans texting while driving; New Mexico has no such statewide ban.<\/p>\n<p>My point is that states that ban this act of sheer stupidity should be sure to let motorists know it when they enter those states.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m proud of our Legislature for agreeing to implement a statewide ban; I also am proud of Gov. Abbott for signing the bill into law, doing something his predecessor as governor, Rick Perry, declined to do in 2011, citing a ridiculous notion that such a bill was too &#8220;intrusive&#8221; on drivers&#8217; private lives.<\/p>\n<p>The state needs to take the next step and erect those signs at all its entry points that warn motorists: Keep your cell phones put away while you &#8220;Drive Friendly, the Texas Way.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n<div class=\"twitter-share\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?via=jkanelis\" class=\"twitter-share-button\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I was hoping to see something the other day next to the &#8220;Welcome to Texas&#8221; sign that greeted us on our way back from a long-weekend trip to Colorado. It would be a &#8220;No cell phone use while driving&#8221; sign. I didn&#8217;t see it when we re-entered Texas from New Mexico along Interstate 40. Dammit, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=24890\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Still looking for cell phone ban sign at border<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[7321,898,2006,4653],"class_list":["post-24890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-state-news","tag-cell-phone-use-ban","tag-cell-phones","tag-greg-abbott","tag-texas-legislature"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24890"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24890\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24894,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24890\/revisions\/24894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}