Howdy Webriders! Dr. VW here. There has been a lot of focus on the new cell phone law of late, and there have been opinions on both sides of the issue. However I wanted to talk about some that might have slipped by under the radar. Here are a pair of Bills that are being debated in the CA legislature this week:

Driving with Pets Bill

When I read this, I rolled my eyes and thought “It’s about time”! I can’t believe that people are up in arms over chatting on the cell phone while driving while Fido gets to ride in Mommy’s lap. According to a recent AAA study, pets and loose objects were ranked as bigger distractions for drivers than cell phone use or eating and drinking. While most people don’t drive with the family Lab in their laps, I can think of plenty of drivers that I’ve passed on the freeway with a dog (and sometimes two!) in their laps. Besides being in the way and being a distraction, one has to wonder about how safe it is for everyone involved in the event of an accident. Somehow the idea of having Spot catapulted through the windshield to an untimely death seems to put a damper on what might otherwise be a simple fender bender. In that regards, kudos to Assemblyman Bill Maze for this little gem of a bill.

Another Bill, perhaps not as well thought out, is the Quiet Vehicles Bill.

Counter-intuitively, this is not a bill to reduce exhaust noise, but actually to increase it! Senator Alan Lowenthal of Long Beach is concerned that new hyrbrid and electric cars are too quiet for the blind and hearing impaired to recognize, and as such are a danger because they can’t tell they’re about to be run over. This Bill proposes that new hybrid and electric engines are built so that they make enough noise to be heard by the blind and by those with less acute hearing. While well intentioned, one of the major selling points for people who buy green cars is that they run almost silently, and this bill proposes to do the opposite; make them noisy on purpose. One has to wonder if cowbells might be attached to future Tesla’s and Clarity’s, though I think todays technology might be put to better use than making hyrbids and electrics louder. Instead, why not affix vehicles with some kind of universal RF signal emitter that makes a wrist strap vibrate when a blind or hearing impaired person is in close proximity to an oncoming car? For some reason, making cars noisy on purpose smells of an incompletely thought out approach.

Although both pieces of proposed legislation have their benefits, we wonder how well thought out the noisy car bill is. Hopefully it’ll get ironed out in the legislature before going on the ballot. Anyways, hope that wasn’t too boring! Remember to leave a comment and head down to the forums for lively discussion. This is Dr. VW- out.