Council could ban drivers from using cellphones

A proposal to ban handheld cellphones while driving faces a bumpy road at city hall.

Sioux Falls City Councilor Michelle Erpenbach plans to introduce a measure Tuesday to prohibit the use of any handheld electronic devices, including cellphones, while operating a vehicle on Sioux Falls streets.

“It’s a hands on the wheel, eyes on the road attitude,” she said. But supporters of the idea recognize it will likely face resistance from council members. The ordinance would provide exemptions for law enforcement and drivers in emergency situations. It would also allow for the use of hands-free devices like Bluetooth and dashboard GPS navigation systems.

Sioux Falls already has a ban on texting while driving but some say it doesn’t go far enough because law enforcement struggles to differentiate between texting and dialing a phone number, which is allowed. And talking on a handheld phone while driving is just as dangerous, Erpenbach said.

“It’s equal to being legally drunk. You have the same distractions, the same impairment as if you’re legally drunk,” she said. “I struggle with that idea that we absolutely have to be able to make a call from our car when we’re driving.”

Erpenbach's proposal was inspired by Safer Streets for Sioux Falls, a group of residents, businesses and organizations that helped convince the council in 2012 to adopt the texting while driving ban. In May, the group acknowledged it was organizing a push for stricter distracted driving rules in Sioux Falls and seeking city policymakers to carry the legislation.

Safer Streets for Sioux Falls founder Rich Lauer said the 50 citations issued to Sioux Falls drivers for texting and driving between late 2012 when it took effect and May 2015 aren’t representative of the amount of distracted driving happening in the community. When police see someone using their cellphone, he said, it’s nearly impossible to know if they’re texting or making a phone call.

“The cell phone ban is one that’s difficult to enforce because people hide the cell phone or they claim they’re making a phone call. So this ordinance says you cannot drive in the city while using a handheld device,” he said. “That’s going to take care of all of it.”

The Public Services Committee will hear Erpenbach’s proposal at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Carnegie Town Hall following the council’s weekly informational meeting. Whether her colleagues will support the measure, Erpenbach couldn’t say, though she does expect at least some resistance.

“I haven’t counted votes. I want people to have that opportunity to talk about it in front of their constituents,” she said. “I know it doesn’t have 100 percent support.”

Councilor Greg Jamison said he isn’t likely to support the proposal. Rather than add more rules for drivers, he said he’d like to see the city do more to educate the public about the dangers of distracted driving.

“Educate before you confiscate,” he said.

Last month when the council adopted the city’s 2016 budget, $50,000 was set aside for a safe driving campaign to pay for radio and television advertising. Jamison said at the very least the council should wait to see what impact those efforts have before adopting a handheld electronics ban.

“We would love to see that program continue on … until we’re to a point where we’ve made a difference,” he said. “We want to make sure that that money that we just appropriated gets used to help further the cause of educating drivers.”

Convincing the public of the need for getting cellphones out of the hands of drivers might be a tough sell as well. Michael Rowe lives in Sioux Falls and primarily travels by foot. Although he finds drivers using handheld devices to be a serious risk to public safety, he doesn’t expect burdening drivers with more rules will have a significant impact.

“We should leave the texting ban in place and keep educating those people and let them know it’s not good to text in drive,” he said.

Sioux Falls resident Charles Santee isn’t thrilled about Erpenbach’s proposal – but not because he thinks it won’t work. Rather, Santee said it doesn’t go far enough. Law enforcement, he said, are equally susceptible to being distracted by electronics while operating their patrol cars and shouldn’t be excluded from any new restrictions the council adopts.

“Cellphones I don’t think should be used by any vehicle operator, and you can’t rule out handheld radios,” he said. “Handheld device bans should be universal.”