Questions you'd ask... a driver on the phone?

[WD39]

SEE YA said:

Why? The answer is people just do not care anymore. Its sod you Jack.


Until it happens to them?
They are happy to send money on drink etc. However for car safety,they will not spend
£50 on handsfree kit.

Plus no threat from 5'0 A instant year ban may help?

Hands free has been proved to be just as hazardous as hand held.

With both, it's the remoteness of the conversation, the person on the other end has no idea what's happening on the road. They may be asking the driver all sorts of questions that will be distracting.

When can we have that meeting?

What was the decision on that offer yesterday?

Can you give me the bottom line on that delivery?

Etc. Etc. Etc.

All this while driving.

Crazy. The punishment must be a ban.

[swisstoni]

There are virtually no traffic police. These people will probably never be pulled during their entire driving career.

[Monkeylegend]

Prizam said:

I recently took a coach from Oxford to London. Don't ask, it was a works thing. I hate coaches.

8am peering out the window in slow / start / stop traffic on the M4 / A34 I decided to play a little game. Lets see how many people I can spot on there mobile phones.


The first thing i noticed was the sheer amount of cleavage and leg you get to see from a coach window. I can only imagine the sheer joy on coach and lorry drivers faces during those hot summers days!


The second trend was that women are by far the worst offenders. Especially in stop start traffic. For some reason as soon as they stop, are about to stop or even look like they might be slowing. The phone is out and head is down.

Another observation... Why do people think it is OK to hold the mobile phone in their hands, but have it on speaker phone? Still looking at it, occasionally tapping buttons. Often holding it up directly in their field of vision.

Finally, about 10 ish people were watching videos on the phone. What the juddering fk goes through these peoples minds!

All in all, I counted 93 in an hour and half journey. And 3 crashes ware some one had simply driven up the arse of another.

So your question would be?

[Brave Fart]

Thing is, using your 'phone/texting/social media stuff has become, for many, more important than any other activity. More important than talking to each other when at the pub, more important than actually watching the film at the cinema, more important than listening to your tutor explaining a key topic..........and certainly more important than concentrating fully on driving.
I tell you, it's an addiction, it will only get worse, and the current deterrents are effectively non existent.
Mike.

[VUB]

Use a mobile while taking your driving test and see what happens. You get to fail and no licence.

So if you use it when you've passed your test and get caught, why do you keep your licence?

The solution is quite simple to my mind, which is also quite simple. A police division dedicated to catching st drivers. All fines, and let's make them hefty, go to funding
this specific police division. Just how many does a copper on a fast bike have to catch in a day to pay his costs? My guess is he'll catch more than he needs to.

Or, a regular splurge of police activity, and the numpties lose their licence.

[miniman]

I think I'd like to know why they place so little value on quiet solitude.

[andrewparker]

I used to work with a lad who one day recommended an iPhone app that allowed you to catch up on TV soaps. He thought it was hilarious that on his commute home across the M62 he'd catch up on Coronation Street and Eastenders.

[Issi]

There was a neat little video on Liveleak of an unmarked Australian police biker, who would trundle around town and nab every person he saw on their phone.
Surely, our rozzers could pay for a little 125cc bike and a set of plain leathers?

[romeogolf]

My car displays text messages on the screen in the centre console. It's actually quicker and safer for me to glance at the actual phone, hit any key to light up the screen, and READ the message than it is to go through 4 menus (TEL > Messages > SMS > Open the message itself) and read it on the screen in the car.

But even then, I couldn't even imagine looking down to do that in anything other than entirely stationary traffic.

An equal pet peeve of mine is for the people who know you're coming to pick them up and then TEXT you to change plans, or agree them, or ask a question which is important at that moment but won't be by the time you arrive (eg other drivers asking 'where can I park'? but by the time you've got there and seen it/replied, they'll have found somewhere)

You. Knew. I. Was. Driving. How the fk am I going to read or reply?

[appro]

I used to play a similar game when jogging (as I hate it and it occupies my mind) around Manchester city centre. It's much worse in commuter traffic where I once saw 52 people using their phone (at least 1 in 4 cars). The worst part is many will move forward without looking up. It's quite scary.

It annoys me as much as people who don't indicate. I wonder if it's the same people?

[Nigel Worc's]

I've been using car phones, then mobile phones since the very late 80s.

In my case it is phonecall stuff, not the modern surfing or texting.

It is like anything else, the more you do it, the better you become at it.

I do abide by the law, so handsfree for me, it was all handsfree in the early days on the system I had, then we went handheld, now they are handheld phones used handsfree. In my opinion handheld or handsfree makes very little if any difference (if asked I'd actually say handheld is easier and safer as it is more natural to do).

The present phone laws are tosh (as in even the research shows it achieves very little if any difference in driving quality between illegal handheld and legal handsfree), which along with very little chance of being caught is why the law is largely ignored.

You can't uninvent them, you will struggle to remove their use whilst driving now (even motorcyclists are intergrating them for everyday use), pedestrians and cyclists too are as bad as anyone else, so I'd suggest we just get used to it.

I even have one customer than bans the use by employees, but almost insists their contractors and suppliers are always available, so work that one out.

[leglessAlex]

Nigel Worc's said:

You can't uninvent them, you will struggle to remove their use whilst driving now (even motorcyclists are integrating them for everyday use), pedestrians and cyclists too are as bad as anyone else, so I'd suggest we just get used to it.

No. Why should we 'just get used' to someone doing something that puts other people at risk for trivial and selfish reasons?

As for the pedestrians and cyclists, while they should be looking where they are going they also aren't in charge of over a ton of metal and so there's (usually) fewer consequences when they get it wrong.

I have no idea what could be done to make people take the law more seriously, but the idea of plain clothes officers on small motorbikes is a decent one, along with enforcing the £100 and three points penalty every time.

[Nigel Worc's]

leglessAlex said:

Nigel Worc's said:

You can't uninvent them, you will struggle to remove their use whilst driving now (even motorcyclists are integrating them for everyday use), pedestrians and cyclists too are as bad as anyone else, so I'd suggest we just get used to it.

No. Why should we 'just get used' to someone doing something that puts other people at risk for trivial and selfish reasons?

As for the pedestrians and cyclists, while they should be looking where they are going they also aren't in charge of over a ton of metal and so there's (usually) fewer consequences when they get it wrong.

I have no idea what could be done to make people take the law more seriously, but the idea of plain clothes officers on small motorbikes is a decent one, along with enforcing the £100 and three points penalty every time.

And you achieve what ?

It would appear the lawful use is as bad as the unlawful use.

[SEE YA]

WD39 said:

SEE YA said:

Why? The answer is people just do not care anymore. Its sod you Jack.


Until it happens to them?
They are happy to send money on drink etc. However for car safety,they will not spend
£50 on handsfree kit.

Plus no threat from 5'0 A instant year ban may help?

Hands free has been proved to be just as hazardous as hand held.

With both, it's the remoteness of the conversation, the person on the other end has no idea what's happening on the road. They may be asking the driver all sorts of questions that will be distracting.

When can we have that meeting?

What was the decision on that offer yesterday?

Can you give me the bottom line on that delivery?

Etc. Etc. Etc.

All this while driving.

Crazy. The punishment must be a ban.

The thing is a hands free kit is legal to use.

Your hands are still on the steering wheel, to drive and steer in case of danger.

People are the danger not phones. You know its wrong, but you still use your phone.

[leglessAlex]

Nigel Worc's said:

And you achieve what ?

It would appear the lawful use is as bad as the unlawful use.

For talking, that may be true.

For texting or looking at social media, that certainly isn't true, indeed there isn't really any way you could do that lawfully. I know this is anecdotal but the vast majority of people I see using their phones in cars they are doing the latter more than the former and it's that I want to see cracked down on.

[everyeggabird]

DillonL said:

A few months ago I was travelling up the M6 at night as a passenger. We were in lane 3 trying to get past a long line of slow vehicles, but there was a car in front of us doing about 70mph and swerving all over the lane. As we got closer, we noticed the interior light was on.

Eventually, the car pulled into lane 2 and we passed. As we drove past we noticed why she had been swerving and why the light was on. She was on FaceTime/Skype. Holding the phone up next to her sun visor with one hand and steering with the other.

It was then too late to take down her reg number as we couldn't see it from in front of her.

Just a couple of points sprung out at me. A long line of slow vehicles.......doing about 70mph.

ER the speed limit on the motorway is 70mph.

[mattlad]

Nigel Worc's said:

I even have one customer than bans the use by employees, but almost insists their contractors and suppliers are always available, so work that one out.

Vicarious liability?

[Nigel Worc's]

leglessAlex said:

Nigel Worc's said:

And you achieve what ?

It would appear the lawful use is as bad as the unlawful use.

For talking, that may be true.

For texting or looking at social media, that certainly isn't true, indeed there isn't really any way you could do that lawfully. I know this is anecdotal but the vast majority of people I see using their phones in cars they are doing the latter more than the former and it's that I want to see cracked down on.

As far as the law goes, this specific law, you can text, surf the net, whatever, as long as the device is in a cradle.

The law is bks, everyone knows this (well except for on here maybe), and this is why it is largely ignored, it is just bad law.

I don't actually support the law (I do abide by it though), you clearly do support the law (or at least you support what you think it means), it doesn't actually do justice to either of our opinions.

I can't see anything changing in the short term, either way, there aren't enough Police patrols left to enforce what the law does disallow, so like I suggested you may as well just get used to the behaviour and plan your own driving around what others are doing.

[505diff]

I had the pleasure yesterday of being on a daul carriageway in lane one at 35 miles an hour, in rush hour, with silly cow in lane two texting and weaving into my lane, while to my left an other woman on the phone in the slip road about to side swipe me as she was too busy to look up from her phone.

[leglessAlex]

Nigel Worc's said:

As far as the law goes, this specific law, you can text, surf the net, whatever, as long as the device is in a cradle.

The law is bks, everyone knows this (well except for on here maybe), and this is why it is largely ignored, it is just bad law.

I don't actually support the law (I do abide by it though), you clearly do support the law (or at least you support what you think it means), it doesn't actually do justice to either of our opinions.

I can't see anything changing in the short term, either way, there aren't enough Police patrols left to enforce what the law does disallow, so like I suggested you may as well just get used to the behaviour and plan your own driving around what others are doing.

I'll admit, I didn't know about that law, so yes I supported what I thought the law meant. It sounds utterly insane to me that that's allowed, I was under the impression that allowing hands free simply meant you could use the phone to make or recieve calls by using loudspeaker or a specific headset.

When you said to get used to it I took it to mean we should accept the law as is and not look for change, and that was the part I most disagreed with. Of course I plan my driving accoridngly, I have to, it's no good being self righteous if it ends up with having an accident.