You wake up late and jumped in your car to rush to class. Singing along with the radio, left hand clasping a breakfast burrito, right hand lifting hot coffee to your lips, you steer with your knee to swerve around a flashing police car. The officer pulled over another cell phone user. The roads are now safe.

Of course this situation is only hypothetical. In Iowa it’s still legal to talk and drive, but for how long? Iowa lawmakers are considering banning this behavior. People caught would be fined $30. The Des Moines Register reported that “Some lawmakers say there is a good chance of it becoming law this year.”

One member of the Editorial Board knows an elderly woman who pulls over every time she makes a call. She feels she can’t drive and talk at the same time. However, some of us can use cell phones with minimal distraction. Some members of this generation can even text message without looking.

Delivery drivers, taxi drivers and police officers regularly communicate over the airwaves. For more than 30 years, truckers have chatted on CBs — some doing this while hauling a 50,000-pound load, careening at 70 mph down a public roadway. Is a CB less dangerous than a cell phone?

The bigger issue is, where do we draw the line between public safety and individual freedom? Do we need to be sheltered from every activity deemed not quite safe?

When the cell phone debate began back in 2000, the Harvard School of Public Health studied the issue. They said that “expanded production time,” “reducing the number of trips” and “peace of mind” made cell phones worth it. The study also said phone users have been effective in alerting authorities on drunken driving and other dangerous behaviors, as well as reporting accidents in a timely manner.

The act of driving a car is unsafe in and of itself. By choosing to step into a car, you have already increased your risk for injury. This is a law that would protect us from a minimal risk of danger. What would come next? No food or drink in cars? No talking with passengers? Are driverless cars the logical conclusion when traveling down this road? If so, General Motors will be ready. Last year they reported that they could have cars that drive themselves for sale within ten years.

“Do you have any drugs, weapons or cell phones in the car?” Enforcing this law is not worth the time of law enforcement, and we the people would pay for it. An educational campaign about safe usage seems like money better spent. We can start talking about this in drivers ed — discourage phone use, but don’t criminalize it.