NJ's biggest problem? Auto GPS D-Assemblyman.

Amid fiscal problems and a legislature and governor without a plan, what pressing issue does Democrat Assemblyman Harvey Smith think needs urgent attention? GPS use while driving. From Fox news:

Democratic State Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith has introduced a bill that would “prohibit the manual operation of a global positioning system (GPS) device or similar navigation device by the operator of a moving motor vehicle”. If passed, the ban would be the first of its kind in the nation.

Once again our legislature shows how out of touch they are with the real world. Let me offer a case in point. We have a cell phone ban. Try a test tomorrow morning. Count how many people on your way to work are on their cell phones while driving. You get 5 points for civilians, 15 for state workers in public vehicles and 25 points for public safety personnel(anywhere) or turnpike personnel on the turnpike. I bet you have a 50/50 chance of scoring over 100. I would give you a 25% chance of scoring over 200.

And you will never see someone get cited for it because everyone does it. And only a local police department who is looking for revenue will ticket it.

Now add the GPS ban. The joke here is that people who are unfamiliar with their surroundings cause an inordinate number of accidents. But Harvey doesn't care about that because he is really the undersheriff of Hudson County. And this bill is just one more revenue opportunity for the cities and state. The only problem is that with citizens fed up with higher property taxes, I don't think there is much of an appetite in any intelligent town hall for using the police to hawk revenue this way. Nice try Harvey.

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