Soapbox Time!

This one is near and dear to me, and has been for some time. Distracted driving has become more and more of an issue as the number of guests, gadgets, or food items increase in cars these days.

I have a long history of gadget admiration and consider myself to have been a bit of a road warrior in the past (how's Pascagoula, MS to Portland, OR solo in 52 hours?). After acquiring a wife, house, and two small children, the gadgets and road trips are much fewer and far between. I used to have a small, but delightfully overpowered Chevy Corsica that was near to invisible on the road. It was fully outfitted with counter-intelligence equipment for optimal "safe driving", which meant I had a good idea of where I could get away with speeding and where I couldn't. Here's what I had tucked away in there:

• CB radio: After throwing a rod (thanks Jiffy Lube) and getting stuck between Charlottesville, VA and the Blueridge Parkway with two guests, I didn't want to be without some form of emergency communication, should the need arise. The first thing I bought after getting the engine replaced for $95 (thanks Chrysler warranty) was to purchase an under-dash Citizen's Band Radio. The first one I had was a little large for the space available in my car, and was quickly replaced by a Cobra everything-in-the-handset unit once I read about my next "safe driving" aide. I purchased a cell phone mounting kit (for cell phones that had separate handsets, remember?) to keep it beside the center console, where I could hear it clearly and grab it quickly if I had anything to say (which didn't happen often). After getting a free paint job (thanks for the peeling paint, Chevy) I changed from a trunk lid mounted antenna, to an adhesive glass mount antenna on the upper right portion of the rear window. I had read up on how antenna placement can affect the directionality of your reception, so I compromised between ease of installation
  and center placement, with the antenna for the next gadget already being present on the left side of the same window.
• Mobile Police Band Scanning Radio: This was one was the most fun I've ever gotten from a "driving aide". It was my main reason for replacing my first CB radio, as there was no other adequate place to install it than under the dashboard, above my left knee. This was a revolutionary idea in police detection at the time. I had been living in and out of Virginia, where RADAR detectors are illegal, but wanted some fair way to detect the fuzz residing outside my naval. The Uniden Beartracker BCT-2 didn't have more than a two-digit display, but the trick it had was listening for mobile repeaters installed in the vehicles of state and local law enforcement. They have about a 3-mile range to make sure the officer's hip radios work properly. If somebody keyed their microphone on any of those systems and my BearTracker picked it up (with wild beeping and a bright flashing red light), then I knew I was close to old Smokey. I had to look around to finally find a store that had one, and it was at a Truck Stop, no less. A few years later, I replaced it with a BCT-7, which added a real scanner diplay, more monitoring bands (including CB), and fit in the same bracket. Not having seen any active use in a number of years, I recently loaned my BCT-7 to a friend who was in training to become a police officer. I like to think I helped, as he has since graduated from the academy he later attended.
• RADAR detector: I went through two of these too! Both from Uniden. Having been a fan of the Valentine One detectors since their inception, but not wanting to fork over the cash for one (thanks for never dropping the price, Mike!) I found a fairly capable Uniden 4-band detector (how many do they do now? this was back in 1993!) for my car. Having read and re-read any dectector comparison I could get my hands on, I was looking for optimal placement, that would not be too obvious to the casual onlooker as I was all about stealth, and keeping passers-by passing by. My decision was to cut the clutter of detector and power cord that would be found by attaching the detector to the base of the windshield, and put it just below the window tinting, on the right of the rearview mirror. I powered it by tapping the power to the map lights in the mirror, keeping the cord short, and minimizing the visual impact of the detector. Instead of suction cups, I used adhesive lock strips to anchor the mounting bracket of the detector to the windshield. I replaced this detector with a newer model later, featuring Voice Alert to verbally announce alerts.
• Stereo system: Nothing fantastic. No extra amps or processors. Just a Pioneer KEH-P8200 with 12disc CD changer. Before you dismiss this little-known head unit, know that it was the most complicated car stereo I have ever seen. Literally, you could not perform many basic functions, like track/station seek without using the remote control. The state of the world when I bought this "car radio" was such that CDs had not fully displaced tapes, and I was still using tapes on a semi-regular basis. The P8200 had a great tape transport that could actually repeat songs, and had a number of features to make tapes sound their best, including Dolby C Noise Reduction. How was the radio? Amazing! In the early days of RDS, with spotty usage at best, Pioneer came up with something less flexible, but more complete: Attached via fixed umbilical cord was a small box containing the entire list of FCC licensed AM & FM radio station, their format, and approximate location. You could tell the stereo what state it was in, and it could scan the bands to tell you what city you were close to. I could drive across the country listening to only the format of radio station I wanted.
• My last road gadget was not affixed to the car, but was always ready in the center console. It was one of the early pocket-sized highway directories. I could enter the state, interstate highway number, direction, and mile-post to find the closest services or find out how far to specific businesses. It was quite invaluable when used in concert with AAA Trip-Tiks.

My whole point here it that I had a few simple devices, and a few more that were rather complex. Today I was reading some opinions about cell phones, GPS, and other distractions on the road, and which ones should be allowed. One particular opinion struck a chord with me. They said that any driver should wanting do anything else while driving should take driving test doing that same thing, be it eating food, reading a book, fiddling with the stereo, or anything else.

I whole-heartedly agree. I think that anybody performing a task that could have a potential effect on anyone else should have some level of qualification for that task. If you are all alone in an empty parking lot, and can verify nobody else is present, then I say you can take that opportunity to play around. If not, then you had better be practicing your best "all business" driving. The latest benefits of technology can provide such great benefits, PLEASE make sure you are well versed in using them. Look for ways to minimize the requirements for your attention to leave the road, and keep your eyes open for the other folks not doing such a good job.

Thanks!!