Saw this and wanted to say a couple things – see below.

Several U.S. states and some two dozen countries around the world already have restrictions on mobile phones while driving but now such a law has come to California--where the car is king and much of life is spent on the famously snarled freeways.

Californians interviewed by Reuters mostly supported the law requiring hands-free phones in cars and outlawing cell phones entirely for drivers under 18, which takes effect on Tuesday--though they were puzzled by a loophole that allows seemingly more dangerous text messaging.  [Awesome!  I’ll use my Blackberry to IM with people instead of talking to them.  That’ll be safer.  Nice job, legislature. – JCL]

Others cast a jaundiced eye on lawmakers, who they blame for failing to build more freeways or public transportation in the face of increasingly gridlocked roads in the nation's most populous state and say hands-free conversations are no safer.

"I can't believe that (Californians) will put up with all these nanny, nit-picking laws," KFI-AM radio talk-show host John Kobylt told Reuters. [I said “wingnut” before I read AM talk show; they love to use the word “nanny.”  Yeah, it’s such an unreasonable nanny-state restriction to want drivers to pay attention to the road. – JCL]

Source: California to drivers: Drop the cell phone, dude | Tech News on ZDNet

Thank God I don’t live in California and have to deal with the traffic jams.  I’d kill someone…