Brick and other municipalities statewide would be better off holding off on any plans to enact further bans on hand-held cell phone use for drivers.
It has nothing to do with the dangers of driving while gabbing, which are arguable. Whatever your opinion is on that issue, such bans seem to be the wave of the future around the nation.
Gov. James McGreevey and the government in Trenton appear to be moving ahead with a state ban, albeit slowly. Pending their action and further studies on the matter, the state has discouraged local municipalities from enacting further bans at the moment.
In the interest of fiscal responsibility, fairness to motorists and successful enforcement, individual towns should wait for the state to make its decision.
Around New Jersey, a patchwork quilt of towns with bans are popping up on our road maps. Motorists unfamiliar with the ordinances of local towns are put in an unfair position when they aren’t familiar with the imaginary lines where a ban begins and ends.
Anyone who has driven through Marlboro, the first New Jersey municipality to enact a ban, may notice that there are signs announcing it at each entrance to the township, but nothing to tell a motorist where it ends. It’s a confusing situation for drivers and a headache for police, who can’t help but sympathize for the non-locals who are stunned by getting pulled over.
Consider how that would play out in Brick, a shore town that draws thousands of summer tourists to its numerous state highways and county roads. Imagine the enforcement headaches along the Garden State Parkway or Lanes Mill Road, which runs through Brick, enters Lakewood for a few blocks and re-enters Brick as Chambers Bridge Road.
Some mention also should be made to the cost of the road signs that must be placed at every entrance to the town’s borders before a ban can be enforced.
In Marlboro, it took about a year before that process was concluded. It would be a unique waste of tax dollars for any municipality to buy these special signs, only for the state to render them obsolete with its own law before a town can finish planting them in the ground.
Brick’s Township Council discussed the issue briefly at a recent caucus meeting after a resident expressed support for a township-wide ban.
No action was taken, and we believe it should stay that way until the state government makes its decision.