Victorian Drivers–You Can Once Again Navigate With Your Cell Phone

For a while there, drivers in Victoria in Australia were about to be forbidden from using their cell phones as navigation devices while driving.

This actually may have been a good idea, if somewhat unenforceable–you’d have to actually see into every car to find out who was doing it, especially if they kept the phone below the window line–because, after all, most cell phones are distractions waiting to happen in cars, and distractions are just accidents that haven’t happened yet.

But VicRoads, the agency that oversees Victorian road use, realized they were sort of tossing the baby out with the bathwater, and instead agreed to allow the devices if they were in cradles or remotely operated.

This is probably all for the best anyway as, when it comes to car navigation, you really want something that announces your turns and such, not something you have to read, especially while you’re driving.  You want your attention focused as fully as possible on the road ahead, not on some LCD screen in your car.