Ald. Lyle on the ban of cell phone use while driving

A little background:

Chicago's law forbidding cell phone use while driving is supposed to get people behind the wheel to hang up and drive. But breaking that law doesn't result in a ticket very often.
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Chicago banned driving while using a cell phone without a hands-free device in 2005. But drivers don't appear to be hanging up.

In 2006, Chicago police handed out just more than 13,000 tickets to drivers talking on the cell phone. That number went up to more than 17,000 in 2007. In 2008, it dropped to just more than 10,000 tickets. That means in 2008, of the estimated one 1.3 million drivers on the road in Chicago every day, Chicago police only ticketed an average of 28 of them per day for driving while talking on the phone.

Here's more from the Alderman:

"You want to look at these numbers and say, oh it's working, but that's not true, because I see people out here all the time driving with cell phones," said Alderman Freddrenna Lyle.

ABC7 took our findings to Alderman Freddrenna Lyle. She's on the city council committee that created the ban and says both drivers and the police need to take it seriously.

"Obviously there's some enforcement but it's not one of those high priorities," said Lyle. "But clearly, there's not a, a push to enforce it by the numbers that you've shown," said Lyle.
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In May of 2008, the city changed the type of ticket drivers get when the only reason they're pulled over is driving while they're on the phone without any other infraction. But between the change and the end of the year -- nearly 75 percent of these new tickets -- were dismissed by the court.

"This is kind of surprising," said Lyle. "We want people to take it seriously, that's why we imposed it, it's not just trying to come up with stuff to irritate the citizen, we want people to be safe."

Hey get this!

Court officials say they threw out many of the violations because officers just wrote "cell phone use" on the ticket without mentioning driving or if they were using a hands free device.
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The city says after so many tickets were thrown out last year officers were retrained on how to write the new type of cell phone ticket. So far it looks like it's making them stick. Drivers have been found liable for nearly 89 percent of the 3,300 administrative tickets ruled on since the beginning of the year.

You know I never understood those people who need to be on the phone whether on the L, and talking a whole of smack loudly with no consideration of their fellow passengers or driving behind the wheel chatting on a phone. I don't believe it's illegal to be on the phone if you were on a handsfree headset. Why can't drivers use such sets? Aren't bluetooth headsets still popular?