Earlier this month, the Chapel Hill Town Council voted against a motion to repeal last year’s ordinance banning cellphone use in cars.
The town council should reconsider and repeal this impractical ordinance.
The council has been instructed many times over the last year that the ordinance, which bans both handheld and hands-free calling, was unenforceable.
In August, a Superior Court judge said as much when he overturned the ban, citing the inability of police to enforce it. Yet the town council continues to waste the town’s resources by pursuing legal action to appeal the court’s ruling.
Before the ban was passed, the council received a letter from the N.C. Attorney General’s Office informing it that the town did not have the ability to enforce a ban. Confusingly, the town council proceeded to pass the ordinance.
The ordinance originally was passed with good intentions. But, this group’s continued attempts to fight a losing legal battle does nothing but waste time and resources.
Moreover, dropping the appeal would give the town council the ability to lobby state legislators to pursue a statewide proposal.
A ban would certainly make the roads of Chapel Hill safer. But the Chapel Hill Town Council needs to drop its stubborn pursuit of an unenforceable ban. Wasting town money and resources does not benefit residents.
