As of Monday, if you are holding a cell phone in your hand and yakking on it while driving, you will be committing a no-no in the eyes of the law.

Now I understand the logic behind imposing this prohibition, even if I have a few questions about this logic.

The fact is you should have both your hands on the steering wheel when driving an automobile, which is impossible if you’re holding a cell phone in one of those hands. But it is also a fact that many people use their hands while driving for things other than holding the wheel.

Some people smoke when they drive. There were several years when I was in that group. That means using at least one hand to reach for the deck of smokes, extracting one, fooling around trying to find a light, frequent flicking ashes into the ashtray and then putting it out at the end. Unless you have kids in the vehicle, none of the activities described in this paragraph, to the best of my knowledge, are illegal.

I drive a car with a standard transmission, so I am obligated to take my right hand off the wheel frequently to shift gears. Yet there are no prohibitions against such vehicles.

And there are other things things requiring the use of hands while driving, like adjusting the heating and ventilation, fussing with mirrors, changing the channels on the radio to drown out the wrong-headed opinion of of some dumb radio talk show host, bestowing a one-finger salute to some other motorist who clearly does not know how to drive, etc.

So I’m not sure this ban on talking on cell phones, or using other hand-held devices to multi-task, is really going to accomplish all it’s meant to.

Besides, I see this as another attempt by government to regulate common sense, and there comes a time when we have to just let people make up their own minds and bear the consequences if they get it wrong. I’ve always understood that was part of what being an adult was all about.

Perhaps part of my problem is I can see this prohibition is going to be inconvenient for me, and the fact is if I don’t stand up for matters of my own convenience, it’s unlikely that anyone else will.

Now I admit that I have made calls on my cell phone in the past while I’ve been driving. Usually, it’s to call home to tell my wife I’m going to be late (I’m seldom early). Sometimes it’s just to check in with my office. In most cases, these calls could be deemed to be unnecessary.

But what if the phone rings while I’m driving? Am I supposed to ignore it?

Many such calls are from people I have been trying to get for one story or another I’ve been working on, and since they are busy people like me, I usually have to talk to them when I can get them. Now before you get the wrong idea, I’m not in the habit of conducting interviews while driving at 80 km-h. I’m pretty sure that would be deemed against the law, and my insurance company wouldn’t approve either. I pull to the side of the road before I start trying to take notes.

But how is a guy like me supposed to know if the call is really important if I don’t take one hand off the steering wheel and reach for my phone to answer it?

Enter the hands-free devices that are supposed to solve the problems.

I have been using one of thee things for a little more than a week, and I have my doubts that it’s going to solve anything.

My brother gave me this device for Christmas last year. In keeping with the way I normally embrace technical innovations, I stuck on a shelf in my basement, and there it languished for the better part of 10 months. I have bad habit of procrastinating on any task that I’ve never performed before if it requires tools with which I am not familiar.

I spent about 10 minutes the Sunday of Thanksgiving weekend fixing a toilet in my house. The job required me to purchase a $5 part from Canadian Tire and install it. The highlight was Beth was impressed that I did the job so well. The lowlight is it took me about two months to get around to doing the job (don’t worry, we have three bathrooms in our house). But I digress.

Like most of us, I realized that the deadline that arrived Monday was fast approaching. I also knew I had this thing Big Brother gave me for Christmas, so I spent about an hour last Saturday night trying to figure out how it worked (I’m evidently faster when it comes to fixing toilets). I had to go out that evening to take a picture, So I left the house carting this thing with me.

I sort of figured out how to install it. It plugged into the lighter of my car (with smoking in such disfavour these days, I’ve sometimes wondered why car manufacturers still include lighters). and then was able to figure which of five cords that came with the thing I was supposed to use to connect it to my phone. Somehow, this all worked, and I tested it by phoning home. So there I was, sitting in my driveway of a Saturday night, talking on the phone to my wife, who was about 50 feet away. I never said this was going to make sense, did I?

There have been other complications too, not the least of which being remembering to hook everything up when I get into the car. Worse, I have to remember to disconnect when I get out. Twice in the last week I’ve had to excuse myself from meetings because I suddenly realized my cell phone was lying in plain view in my parked car.

Even when I’m using this hands-free device, I find my attention is distracted from my driving to my conversation. That’s also the case when I’m talking to a passenger.

So is this really going to work?