Don't even think about using your cell phone while driving in New York City on Thursday March 12. That's the warning from the New York Police Department.

NYPD is cracking down on drivers who scoff at New York's traffic law that bans cell phones while driving. And it's not just those that "drive and dial." If you're spotted texting—or even just holding—a cell phone while behind the wheel, be prepared to get pulled over for a $120 traffic ticket.

The move is part of a wave of enforcement of cell phone driving bans, mostly in some of the 23 states that now have laws, such as New Jersey, which last week announced its own crackdown. Legislative debates are also underway in some states, such as Colorado, that do not yet have laws.

The laws and the crackdowns vary in their stringency. For example, exempt from this week’s New York crackdown: Drivers using their phone to call 911 and those who use hands-free options—their cell phone's speakerphone feature, wired or wireless Bluetooth headsets or the Bluetooth connectivity now built into GPS devices such as the Garmin Nuvi 1200 and Nuvi 1300 models, for examples.

According to the New York Times, NYPD issued 195,579 summonses to those caught talking on their cell phones while driving last year. And despite the warning of the coming cell-phone crackdown, "We are confident we will end up issuing a lot of summonses anyway," NYPD spokesman Paul J. Brown told the New York Times.

There's been plenty of discussion about "distracted driving" and cell phones—even among staffers in the Consumer Reports Cars Blog. Not to mention, plenty of discussions about the legality and necessity of New York's (and other jurisdictions') traffic laws banning cell phones. There's even debate over the safety of hands-free talking while driving.

What do you think of cell phone driving bans, and crackdowns? Where are you on the issue of some laws exempting hands-free calling, despite the likes of the Ontario Medical Association weighing in to say that it, too, is dangerous?

—Paul Eng