Be brief: The road is never a place for idle chatter, long-winded gossip or extended negotiations. Say your piece and hang up. An ideal cell phone call (second to none at all) goes something like: "Hi, I'm running 15 minutes late. See you then. Bye."
No emotion: Don't continue a cell phone conversation while driving if it strays into emotional territory. Politely ring off, if you must, and pull off in the first safe place where you can call back. If you are on a land line, avoid raising emotional topics with a person you know is driving. It's not cool to break up with your significant other while he or she is driving. Don't fire people while they're behind the wheel. Don't tell them they've won Mega Millions. In fact, money issues of any kind can wait until the cell-phoning driver has pulled off the road.
The road is boss: Hazardous road conditions are always a good reason to terminate a call or decline to answer. A driver who ends a call abruptly because of a tricky merge or icy conditions is not being impolite. In fact, it is a breach of etiquette to take offense, because that implies your feelings are worth more than the driver's safety.
Do ask, do tell: It is perfectly proper, if you answer the phone while driving, to tell your caller right off that you are on the road. It is good form for the caller to ask if the cell phone user is driving. If either is behind the wheel, that is a signal to keep it short and sweet.
Don't make things worse: If you pull off to take a call or to concentrate on a conversation, do so in a safe place - not the shoulder of an interstate highway. It's probably more hazardous to re-enter the traffic lanes than to continue the call.
Don't dial while moving: You're not that skilled a driver. Nobody's that skilled a driver. That's what red lights and gridlock were invented for.
Forget the hands, mind your mind: Most cell phone bans make a questionable exception for hands-free units. Studies show that calls on these phones are almost as distracting as hand-held units. It's not what's in the hand that counts; it's what's on your mind.
Please don't construe these suggestions as an endorsement of cell phone use while driving. We all know it's something we ought not do. Think of the etiquette as a transitional step to a law.
Readers are invited to send their own suggestions for cell phone etiquette - either here or to Getting There: The Blog at http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/traffic/
Worse is better
The Free State can take pride in its ranking as the third-worst state in the nation in terms of its traffic laws and enforcement by the National Motorists Association.
Why? Because the NMA is a fringe group that opposes just about any sensible highway safety measure ever enacted into law. The organization is fervently dedicated to speeders' rights and does all it can to discredit legitimate law enforcement.
This is a little bit like being ranked near the worst in health laws by the nation's tobacco companies.
Maryland ought to toughen its laws further and knock off No. 1 New Jersey and No. 2 Ohio for the distinction of Worst State in America.
