It seems as if I can't make it through a conversation with anyone lately without it being interrupted by someone's cell phone ringing.  It happens even at work.  Is every phone call THAT important that you have to answer it while your're talking with someone?

To do my part, I wrote an article about cell phone etiquette several months back, but apparently no one read it, because it just seems to be getting worse and worse. 

I've also noticed that cell phone use is moving more and more to the car which can be dangerous if you don't have a bluetooth headset or your car has built-in Bluetooth integration like my Audi A6.  Holding the phone up to your ear while driving = not a good idea. 

In fact, many cities, including my hometown of Chicago, have outlawed the use of cell phones in the car unless you have a handsfree device.  With that in mind, I decided to perform an unscientific test while driving home from work in rush hour.  I would look at the driver and see if they had their hand up to one of their ears, implying that they were talking on the phone.  If I was in a position where I couldn't see their hand, I didn't include it in my count.

My results were startling:

I counted a total of 30 cars that I could see the person's hand and of those, 8 were using a cell phone without a handsfree.  That's more than 25%.  I even saw a mom on the phone with her kids in the back.

I know that this was just one sampling and completely unscientific, but it doesn't make me feel any better when I'm driving home that more than one in four cars is distracted.  Why is this?  Is it that difficult to plug in a headset to your cell phone?   Surely there have never been that many people shaving or putting makeup on while driving as there are that talk on cell phones.

If more cities don't crack down, this is going to become a more and more serious issue.  Here's a great article I found on the subject:

http://www.iii.org/media/hottopics/in...

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