Cell Phone Bans Don't Work

Here, MSNBC reports that cell phone bans have not lowered the number of vehicle collisions in cities that enacted them. Apparently, overall driver behavior is unchanged.

TAE has a theory: people are simply ignoring the law. How many times have you, dear reader, been driving down the highway at the speed limit, and muttered under your breath because almost every other driver around you is speeding? Do you occasionally speed? It's okay if you do, because we all do...
...isn't it? I mean, it's not like 2 miles per hour over the speed limit will get you pulled over.
But the law says go XX miles per hour, and yet the vast, overwhelming majority of drivers use that not as a strict ceiling but rather as a guideline, and surely think to themselves "it is clearly safe, according to the local DOT, to go XX miles per hour, so I, with my amazing reflexes and skill, will go XX+5 miles per hour, which is still slow enough that police will not pull me over, because they only care if I drive XX+10 miles per hour or more."

Why wouldn't this translate to cell phone bans? Surely people say "I cannot use my cell phone in my car...but if the cops don't see my bluetooth headset, then they won't pull me over. And maybe a quick call here and there is okay. And look, all the drivers around me are basically ignoring this new law, surely it's okay if I ignore it a little too." Subsequently, you have a change in local laws but not a change in local behavior; people have been ignoring traffic laws for decades, why stop now?

Here's TAE's solution: if unquestionable data exists that Americans are put in danger because of drivers using their cell phones, then simply do what they have done in the past: mandate auto manufacturers install safety measures in the cars.

But how, the dear reader may ask, does a car manufacturer possibly make some sort of device that prevents cell phone users from killing other people?

The answer is a Faraday Cage. Relatively cheaply, and without any inventing genius whatsoever, a car manufacturer could include add a wire mesh to the shell of the car, which would block radio waves from entering or leaving the car. This would not block the car's radio, because it has an antenna mounted on the exterior of the car.
Drivers would be unable to send or receive cell phone signals while inside their cars. If they needed to make an emergency call, they need but exit their vehicle - difficult to do while the vehicle is moving.
Some would argue that such a restriction would impinge upon civil liberties...people have a right to be morons in their car! But no one has successfully challenged cell phone ban laws. And when seat belts were mandated, people complained that they lost freedom of movement. But now seatbelts are standard and just a part of the driving experience. And the positive effects of seat belts are far-reaching and statistically obvious. Would not a passive device to block cell phones achieve the same effect?
It's not like society would screech to a halt, either. Americans got by until the mid-80's before "car-phones" even existed.

It just makes sense.


Update: A savvy-minded person might suggest that the Faraday Cage could be circumvented if a cell phone user simply mounted a receiving antenna on the exterior of their car. This is true. But it would also make the car fairly easy for attentive police forces to spot and apprehend.
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