Yesterday, the Austin City Council adopted a ban on drivers using hand held electronic devices, including cell phones.\u00a0 The ban, to go into effect on January 1, 2015, doe contain exceptions for hands-free devices and for 911 or other emergency calls.\u00a0 You can read more about the ban in this article by KXAN<\/a>.<\/p>\n I have some mixed feelings about this.\u00a0 On the one hand, I see these problems daily, and I preach about the dangers of distracted driving, including the curse of texting<\/a> while driving, and, overall, I’m in favor of the ban.\u00a0 On the other hand, I’m a bit concerned that this might be overreaching.\u00a0 Talking on cell phones has become accepted, and it’s hard to legislate away such accepted conduct.<\/p>\n I hope the biggest effect of the ban is that we don’t have to see so many people texting while driving<\/a>.\u00a0 Police officers think the overall ban will make it easier (more…)<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Yesterday, the Austin City Council adopted a ban on drivers using hand held electronic devices, including cell phones.\u00a0 The ban, to go into effect on January 1, 2015, doe contain exceptions for hands-free devices and for 911 or other emergency…<\/span><\/p>\n