Posted on 02/07/2010 3:49:00 AM PST by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Earlier today I was driving to Google for a product briefing, minding my own business, talking on my Google phone with Google PR and trying to figure out what Google building I was supposed to be driving to. I stopped at a crosswalk for a bunch of Googlers to pass. And this guy, who’s wearing a Google employee badge, decides it’s time to take a stand against cell phone use in cars. So he stands in front of my car and won’t move. That’s right, it was his Tiananmen Square moment.
Cars behind me start swerving. I back up to go around him. He steps forward, vigilant in his defense of the law. I’m off the phone now, and snapping this picture didn’t help getting him to move on. The light changes. The light changes again. Cars are now backed up behind me.
I’m not sure what comes next in a situation like this. I can either drive over him or park my car. So I put the car in park, open the door to get out and discuss the situation with him. That’s when he ran away. His mission, apparently, accomplished.
I’ll note for the record that I was absolutely violating the law. California is one of a handful of states that bans cell phone use while driving, and I was flaunting that law with careless abandon. I am now subject to a $20 fine.
Whereas blocking a street and creating a traffic hazard is a $220 fine.
And the cell phone ban hasn’t actually resulted in less accidents.
And I’ll end with this. If this Googler feels smug enough about cell phone usage to stop traffic and nearly cause an accident, then of course he’ll be quitting his job at Google soon. Because, frankly, how can he work for a guy who does the same thing that I did?
If anyone knows who this is, please let me know so we can send him a TechCrunch tshirt.
>>If anyone knows who this is, please let me know so we can send him a TechCrunch tshirt.
If anyone knows who this is, please kick him.
Mr. Arrogant Snotty Young < insert your favorite expletive here>, personified, just from his look. And I’m no fan of driving while non-hands-free cell phoning.
Yep, he’s reaching for something all right! Obviously this is a car jacking in the making.......run him over!
This is why 130+ db horns are available. http://www.hornblasters.com/
Powder..patch..ball FIRE!
Those are just too cool.. 5 bills for horns is just too much for me though...
Wonderwomb
Google: Tiananmen? Never Happened!
Too funny.
You open your window, pretend to dial 911, and say in a really loud voice “911 emergency? Some guy just ran across the streen in front of me, and I ran over him, and I think he’s dead.”
Why should we care about a google employee in California getting irritated about having to follow a sensible law?
I’ve nearly been hit by idiots driving on cellphones who aren’t paying attention to the road.
Consider this ‘intervention’ to be a wake up call.
Last act on earth?.
I appreciate your passion...but I have no idea why you responded to me.
I’m just laughing at the Tiananmen Square reference. And the little man’s defiance...until the specter of confrontation was upon him.
BTW, the “Googler” putz was the little man who ran away from the author. The photo of the metrosexual taken through the windshield is of the “Googler”.
It’s not exactly wise to plant yourself in front of a moving object that weighs at least 3000 pounds, even if it is temporarily stopped.
Neither is it wise if you are in operation of said vehicle to be concentrating on a phone call.
It must smell springtime fresh with two douches like Arrington and this guy Shields in one place.
Wow, that photo really says it all. What a smug, self-righteous, nanny-stater little bitch.
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