A hands-free phone doesn't do you any good...

[Shalom]

... if you hold it in your hand while you're driving.

There are two kinds of buses here, the official New Jersey Transit ones, and the jitneys, which everyone around here calls "the Spanish bus", probably because they always have Spanish music playing on the loudspeaker. These are 50¢ cheaper than the official bus, they run more frequently, plus they always run express between Passaic and Union City (which the official buses only do in rush hour), so they're quite popular with all segments of the population here.

I got on one the other day to go into the city. I noted that the driver had a Bluetooth in his ear. I thought, fine, he's equipped for hands free use as per state law, right?

Except for one thing. Every time the phone rang, he picked it up, held it in his hand down by his leg, and had his conversation, while steering the bus with his other hand, which also had a large wodge of cash in it, this being his receipts for the trip. (No fareboxes on these buses, you pay the driver directly.) When he was done talking, he put the phone down.

So what was the point of the hands-free device again? I thought it was so you could have both hands on the wheel, right?

[Midnight12]

he is either very ambidextrous and good at this -doesn't make it right -
or super rushed that day.
Either way is there someone you can register a complaint with?

[EvilEmpryss]

Don't know how things are in Jersey, but in some states that's still illegal. Hell, in NC it's illegal for bus drivers to be on any kind of phone: they're supposed to be driving, not conducting personal business. If you care enough, get a video of what he's doing. If you don't get video showing how he's using his hands, he'll just defend himself by claiming he was just using his headset.

[LilacLady]

50cents

Maybe if riders would pay the extra 50 cents, the bus driver could afford the cast box for the money.

[vikingchyk]

So what was the point of the hands-free device again? I thought it was so you could have both hands on the wheel, right?

Hands-free law just went into effect here in MD a couple of months ago. Instead of holding the phones up to their ears, now people are using a hand to try to keep their crappy, ill-fitting Bluetooth earpieces in their ear. Swell.

[PepperElf]

heh.

i had that issue with my push-to-talk radio ... so i clipped it to my seat belt. granted i still had to use my hand to push the talk button but i could at least do that without taking my eyes off the road, cos i figure it's not much different than the old CBs