I think they should do that here, I tired of getting cigarette butts in my intercooler, and all over the road.

That’s because smokers are idiots. Quite simple really. Stupid enough to smoke, stupid enough to get in an accident.

the smoking i can deal with cause i dont smoke so it doesnt effect me — -but the no drinking or eating ?????? no im not some fat bastard but come on isnt the whole concept of a drive thru based on the assumption that you’ll snack away in the car — i dont like to “eat” in my car but i have to have something to drink when ever i get the urge and thats ridiculous to outlaw that

Wow, stopping you from making personal choices in your personal property. Zieg Heil!!!

Good idea, but lets start with cell phone usage. I do agree though, that drinking a soda or whatever can cause you to crash. Seeing how you basically look at the roof of the car while doing it. Smoking too, but damnit, lets ticket those rotten slobs for throwing them out the window onto our streets also. You’re sick enough to suck on one, so why is it such a gross thing that you can’t keep it in your car?

Driving a car is a privelage not a right. Obvious distractions to driving should be limited to help prevent accidents and carlessness behind the wheel. Would also be nice to not have cigarette butts tossed at my car all the time too!

Drinking a soda in the car is sometimes the only thing that keeps me from passing out at the wheel. I might beable to see getting rid of eating because you have to look around sometimes, but even that is over kill.

My last comment I should have noted that drinking a drink with a straw. Canned drinks should be a no seeing as you have to look up. I figure that most drinking and eating in a car is from fast food where you get a straw.

i second drinking while driving…it keeps me up. sucks to be a smoker these days..

I don’t agree with a ban, but if you need something to stay awake perhaps you shouldn’t be behind the wheel in the first place.

Lets ban music and talking to your passengers too

Let’s just ban idiots from driving and call it a day.

BS. All of it. Any of you morons who think this is a good idea must really like a big brother state. Next it will be in your own house where the government will tell you what you can or cannot do.

Morons.

Again, I’m not for a ban, but smoking a cig, or eating McDonalds in your own home doesn’t place other motorists and pedestrians in danger.

This is America, land of the free, I don’t smoke, but think this is a bad idea.

I’m not a smoker, but I do snack-especially on a lonng trip. The ban won’t happen, though. The cops don’t really enforce the seatbelt rule except during the holidays, anyway. And the peeps who don’t wear them are the dead ones.

Let the police deal with drunk drivers, not the silly stuff. No matter what, the MFG’s have made our vehicles comfy and full of all kinds of options. The only way to stop it is to remove cup holders, radios and the like.

Like red light cameras, this government ploy is simply a fat cash grab. There absolutely is no concrete evidence that smoking causes accidents. But there is overwhelming evidence that cell phones, spilling food or hot/cold beverages or putting on make-up does. Let’s call it for what it really is. Greedy governments that are now strangling the now smoking minority who are the last group of people on earth the government should focus on. Focus on others like violent criminals, pedophiles, terrorists, fraudsters, the homeless problem, etc… Waste of financial resources when our hospitals, schools, and social services are suffering due to lack of funds. All allegations that smoking tobacco leads directly to cancerous results are unproven and unfounded. Cancer is unsuppressed in your body because of a combination of things in your life, mainly environmental exposure, lifestyle and the kinds of foods we eat. How many of us know of those 70 or 80 plus year olds who have smoked all their lives and are still healthy. The public is being conned, fooled into believing someone else’s agenda. Wanna keep the roads safe? Have every single driver re-assessed once every 3-5 years and take those accident causing idiots off the road. Done.

I am a professional truck driver with over a million incident free miles, and I smoke. Smoking should be the least of their concerns. If a police officer determines a driver is distracted by any activity they can cite them for it. Trouble is, they don’t. in most cases the cops are out there travelling at 15-20 miles per hour above the speed limit, with no desire to enforce the little things there is no money in. Speeding for example- big money for the ticket and the insurance companies. DUI- same thing. seat belt- small fine, no surcharges, no enforcement. The true goal should be to make the roads safer. Here’s another one: how many of us have seen a car in the center lane travelling 5 miles an hour below the speed limit, while cars behind them are hitting the brakes and changing lanes to get around them. How about issuing an impeding the flow of traffic citation. Again no money…change the mentality of the cops and the roads will be safer

First of all, I am a smoker.
Smoking a cigarette in a car does not cause any harm to other drivers and I don’t understand how it could be justifiable to pass a law like this, it really feels like Big Brother is in full swing here.
To all those who said they are pissed about smokers tossing their cigarette butts out the window, well do me a favor: go to all car makers and tell them to put back ashtrays in all cars. I own a 2005 Mustang GT and a “smoker group” (=lighter+ashtray) doesn’t even exist as an optional ! What am I supposed to do, put the cig off in my hands ?!?!?! Get real !!!

Al, please tell me that you didn’t just try and defend the practive of ashing/throwing your butts out the window. Becuase it certainly looks that way. If you did, and you do toss your garbage out the window, I can only hope that you find yourself with a nice fat ticket. Take your lazy ass down to the local auto parts store and buy an ashtry that sits in a cup holder.

Also, regardless of what any one personal experience is (a million miles, etc.), I don’t believe smoking is any less (or more) dangerous than eating, drinking, or using a cell phone. Whats the difference from reaching for your Big Gulp or reaching for your lighter? What happenes when you drop a lit ciggerette on your lap?

Finally, I want to thank Jason, who with comment #17 has provided the biggest laugh I’ve had all day.

“All allegations that smoking tobacco leads directly to cancerous results are unproven and unfounded.”

Hey, Jason you wouldn’t happen to be employed by or own stock in a tobacco company, would you?

“What am I supposed to do, put the cig off in my hands ?!?!?! Get real !!!”

How about don’t smoke it? It’s pretty simple. Plus you smell like **** and make a Mustang GT look bad. I don’t mean much personal offense but smoking is beyond idiotic these days.

Anyways, cell phone bans are already going into place. Chicago, Illinois has one. These bans aren’t a bad thing. They affect things that hold your hands from the steering wheel. It makes perfect sense. If you’re holding your hand doing something other than driving than if something were to happen you wouldn’t be able to react. And before any of you go off on manual shift cars, you’re driving, you’re not doing anything else with your hands so you’re paying attention to the road and what’s going on around you. That and you’re used to driving one handed because that’s all you drive.

I can understand banning smoking while driving, but banning eating while driving? That’s stupid.

smoking is idiotic, i cant believe there are people who still willingly do it other than stupid kids trying to look cool…anyone else should really feel foolish for being so weak minded.

A person should be responsible and that responsibility includes the well being of self as well as others, but man, I tell you, this country is the last bastion of individual freedom in this planet. If they start passing laws like that, we’ve had it. Most people seem to have a herd-type mentality that cries for the government to control every facet of our lives for the benefit of those too terrified to live, too scared to be free. Too bad they are the majority and will force it upon the rest of us. The rule of the majority, of the sheep, of the slave.

Nice speech but safety issues aren’t exactly falling into your category of loosing freedoms. Why don’t we allow drinking and driving? Because it hurts people. Why are there speed limits in the city? Because people get hurt. Why are there air bags, safety belts, security features on cars? Because they’re trying to help people not get hurt.

I am not for the government controlling everything, I’m not for them looking up data on our cellphone calls, I’m not for them controlling our lives. This isn’t part of that though. Driving is a privledge that most people don’t take seriously and think that they DESERVE to drive and it’s their own private property. That’s not true. You’re on the road where you can kill others instantly. We need automobiles in our society but we should be making it as easy as possible to save lives. Not giving excuses once someone winds up dead.

I’m not saying you or any one here is uncapable of doing two things at once. I’ve had a soda in the car or a sandwhich while driving. But if they didn’t allow that because of safety measures I’d have no problem, because I know I’m in the vast minority that actually is a good enough driver to handle it. A lot of people can’t even drive when they’re not doing anything else, let alone have something occupying their time.

There’s a difference between the government taking over our lives, such as getting data on our cell phone calls, and laws being passed to help people not die or get hurt in anyway on the road.

Tell me this, what do you see more often? A person driving 10mph below in the left lane because he’s talking on his phone while everyone is going mad cutting him off causing multiple chances of an accident or a person smoking and going below 10mph doing the same? Obviously, the answere is clear. Also, I see lots of people just chilling crusing in the left lane talking, drinking, eating, watching TV (!) or just being lazy to drive properly while people who are trying to get to work in the morning get pissed and cause problems. Europe and Germany have a way more organized way of driving, left lane is only for passing. Thus the reason why America has the most road rages on the road than anyone else! You pass a person you merge right, it’s simple but too hard to start in a country like America. You people are lazy. Plus, most cars in Germany have no cup holders. Atleast NOT XXXXXXL sizes, they have little cup holders for a bottle of water.Drink water, don’t eat McDonalds while driving. It’s not that hard, plus MAYBE America will solve it’s OVERWEIGHT problems.
You people are pathetic.

Smoking, drinking, eating, talking on phone, talking to someone in the car and constantly looking at them,driving with one hand or no hands at all,holding your dog in your lap,reading the paper, putting on makeup,etc. should be banned. Even those that have attention deficit disorders should be banned from driving without their medication…all attention should be on the road…

Dear Akh-Med,
Glad I was able to brighten up your day. And no, I don’t smoke and I don’t own any stocks in any tobacco companies. I sincerely apologize if my blog #17 sounded kind of intense as I am very sensitive to government control. While I believe in keeping roads safe, share the road don’t own it, bla bla bla, I am also a believer of a free society and understand the importance of balancing both. Let me clarify this. I am against any sort of unfair government manipulation. At the same time, I am willing to sacrifice a fair amount of my civil liberties in order to protect ourselves against threats like terrorism, gun smuggling, drug smuggling, etc… And as for Akh-Med’s silly question about “what do you do when a lit cigarette falls in your lap?” Fair enough, as in the not too distant past when I was smoking it happened to me on the highway. Let me ask the same question in a different light and say “what would you do if a bee was to fly into your car going 60 mph on the highway?” If it happened to Akh-Med, according to him, he’d smash his pimped out 1987 Pontiac 6000 LE into the minivan carrying a load of girl scouts travelling next to him. Akh-toooey.

To # 25: Adam, of course I see your point, safety is important, but can’t you see the slippery slope? You know well enough that one could list any number of items that if prohibited would increase the public safety. How many lives do you think could be saved if there was a law that forced both hands on the wheel at all times, for example? How far would you sensibly go to save say, one more life every year? I don’t think driving and talking on the phone should be allowed but driving and drinking some coffee or a soda? Come on! I am more in favor of legislating regular and more intensive driver education–now THAT would save many many lives and actually lead to a better experience on the roads for all.

Government now reeks bad, welcome to hell on earth. Or better stated, those aren’t the issues at all. Where are you going to spend eternity? There will be no smoking on Gods side, and probably plenty in hell.

And they took prayer out of school for this?

So, Adam, what’s next? No red meat in our diet?…after all it contributes to heart disease, increased society health costs, etc. You can make a safety excuse for everything.