Streetsblog New York City

I actually liked the NYT article. Notice what he's NOT complaining about? Price

From his report, his problem was that he didn't have a quarter, not that he thought the price of the parking spot was too high. All he wants is a more convenient way to avoid the indignity of getting a ticket with all the associated feelings of guilt, rage and inconvience at fighting it. All he wants is an easier way to pay more money to the city more conveniently with a Muni-Meter.

This is a classic win-win. Get rid of all the old quarter meters and bring in a higher revenue producing, state of the art Muni-Meter that can charge more market rate for parking without the hassle.

from the Times op-ed "Cellphone towers could be engineered to not transmit while a phone is traveling. After a phone had stopped moving for a certain amount of time — three minutes, maybe — it would be able to transmit again."

Ian, you are right that this is pure windshield perspective, that they are not even thinking about people on trains.

But I would be glad to get rid of the cell-phone yappers on the train. That would make it easier for me to concentrate on my work.

Distracted driving is a classic case where you have something that is very dangerous to society, but which is difficult to catch people in the act. In those cases (such as illegal dumping) the typical approach is to make the fine really really high - say $2,000 - so that even with the risk of getting caught is small, the ultimate penalty is stiff enough that you wouldn't chance it.

It's much cheaper than a technology solution...

How about simply prosecuting people for manslaughter or property damage caused by negligent operation of a motor vehicle, and laying off the precrime prosecutions of people who're just being idiots but haven't yet hurt others?

I think mine is the last outlandish proposal in all the distracted driving threads.

Charles, solution to that is quiet cars, already available on civilized train services elsewhere. Typically quiet cars prohibit not only cell phone calls, but also loud conversation and small children. In my opinion at least, cell phones are too valuable a productivity tool to ban them systemwide.