Laws are a waste of time

Recently Irish law was amended to make it an offence to "operate" a mobile telephone while driving a vehicle.

In other words if you are spotted by the Gardaí (Irish police) holding a mobile phone handset while driving your car you will be stopped and given a fine and some penalty points on your licence.

All well and good but since this new amendment to the law was touted a long time ago, when mobile phones were becoming commonplace, the incidence of mobile phone usage while driving is at an all time high.

This is interesting because in recent years ownership of mobile phones in Ireland has reached incredible heights. According to this recent article from the Irish media:

Mobile phone ownership here has risen by a staggering 2,566 per cent here in ten years. In 1995, just 158,000 people owned mobiles here; by the end of last year there were more than 4,213,000 in this country - more mobiles than people.

Amazing. At the same time we, the Irish, are working longer hours and commuting longer distances and spending more time in the car than ever before.

Taking a look at the whole commuting thing, a 2002 census in Ireland revealed that:

One million Irish households own at least one car, according to the 2002 census. The figure represents a rise of a third in just ten years.

Since that census the population has grown dramatically and car ownership has skyrocketed. Back in 2002 the census showed that 70% of people travelling to work did so by private car.

So that's a bad combination. We are mad for cars (hence stuck in traffic) and mad for mobile phones (hence talking on the phone while driving).

So in theory it makes sense to ban the use of a hand-held phone while driving. If the law can be enforced then it makes sense.

That's our problem in Ireland. We have a ton of new laws and amendments to old laws but we don't enforce them.

That would explain why, on the M50 motorway on Tuesday, I happened to see a Garda patrol car driving along slowly by the edge of the motorway. Pursuing a slow-moving criminal? Nope.

Driver talking on the phone using a handset while driving a police car? Yes.

It does seem sometimes that laws are a waste of time.

What's it like where you are? Are there any laws that make sense but they are useless because nobody enforces them?