RE: Mobile Phoning
Thursday 25th September 2003
Mobile Phoning
Everyone is still at it
The outlawing of mobile phone use from December doesn't seem to be having much of a deterrent on drivers currently.
A survey carried out by Continental Research reveals that 27% of drivers are still using their phones whilst driving.
It also revealed:
- 10% write text messages whilst driving
- 15% read text messages when at the wheel
- 16% answer the phone when driving
When the new law kicks in on 1st December fines of between £30 and £1000 will be applicable as well as three points.
Discussion
nearly got wiped out by a lane wanderer the other day, when i managed to get past him, looked across to see him head down typing a text message! 
Whilst you could argue on a long straight road this might be acceptable, driving through a town centre, through contraflows, lane changes and junctions (as he was) IS NOT!
I'd have slipped him the finger, but he wouldn't have seen it..!
Whilst you could argue on a long straight road this might be acceptable, driving through a town centre, through contraflows, lane changes and junctions (as he was) IS NOT!
I'd have slipped him the finger, but he wouldn't have seen it..!
[quote=Buffalo] looked across to see him head down typing a text message!
Whilst you could argue on a long straight road this might be acceptable, driving through a town centre, through contraflows, lane changes and junctions (as he was) IS NOT! quote]
Sorry Buff but I don't think you could argue acceptability on any road unless you are parked. The unexpected is no respecter of the type of road.
Whilst you could argue on a long straight road this might be acceptable, driving through a town centre, through contraflows, lane changes and junctions (as he was) IS NOT! quote]
Sorry Buff but I don't think you could argue acceptability on any road unless you are parked. The unexpected is no respecter of the type of road.
I have hands-free in my van, but not the TVR. Having said that I can't hear the phone in the TVR unless the engine is off, so for once the pipe is not a bad thing! 
I get a bit miffed with some of the (expletive deleted) people (typically in big, expensive cars - if they can afford a BMercLexAud, can't they raise 85 quid for a hands-free rig?
) especially on the motorway.
Thing is, what's next? No changing tapes? No ransacking your bait box for a corned beef sarnie and a bottle of Lilt?
Ian
I get a bit miffed with some of the (expletive deleted) people (typically in big, expensive cars - if they can afford a BMercLexAud, can't they raise 85 quid for a hands-free rig?
) especially on the motorway. Thing is, what's next? No changing tapes? No ransacking your bait box for a corned beef sarnie and a bottle of Lilt?
Ian
I also wondered if this meant making/receiving calls with a hands free kit as that's what I have in my car.
It's certainly better than the numpties you see (mostly BMW drivers that I see) with the moby glued to their ear.
Why spend so much on a car and not have a hands free kit or earpiece ?
It's easy to drive anyway with the above, so why not use them?
It's certainly better than the numpties you see (mostly BMW drivers that I see) with the moby glued to their ear.
Why spend so much on a car and not have a hands free kit or earpiece ?
It's easy to drive anyway with the above, so why not use them?
I've just fitted an iPaq based GPS system - well not really "fitted" as its bluetooth, but whatever - which has a 2 way comms facility. The missus can track my whereabouts on the PC at home, and send messages with up to 4 possible single word responses which come up along with the message as buttons. She can send a message "What do you want for tea?" along with buttons for Chinese, Thai, Fish&Chips, Me. I read the message and poke an oily digit onto the appropriate button, and the response comes up on the PC. Ain't technology wonderful.
Any ideas if (and how) this is likely to be covered? The technology uses my bluetooth phone and GPRS BTW (which in itself will be illegal unless fitted into an entirely pointless cradle). Is this akin to texting? The iPaq is mounted by the wheel in a cradle, and if the text message & buttons weren't displayed it would be displaying traffic and direction information.
Any ideas if (and how) this is likely to be covered? The technology uses my bluetooth phone and GPRS BTW (which in itself will be illegal unless fitted into an entirely pointless cradle). Is this akin to texting? The iPaq is mounted by the wheel in a cradle, and if the text message & buttons weren't displayed it would be displaying traffic and direction information.
I am a business development manager for a well established mobile phone SP & am situated on a very busy road with peripheral vision of everyone going by - daily I see a Cobra (Yellow) a Tuscan S (Bottle Blue..i'm not jealous ;o( & today a 350i, but more surprisingly the amount of people on mobiles is astonishing, they are a menace, be sensible & get a car kit, they are so cheap & in December you will have no choice & your company will be fined if you are caught!! I have just picked up a new company X -Type 3.0 Sport after relinquishing my Cerbera (R8UFO) 
( & Peugeot 406 ) & immediatly had my car kit fitted (at personal expense), it is so much safer than trying to juggle coffee, lipstick, The Times & your mobile! If you want advice, mail me! (Piston Ted, my advice is free)
( & Peugeot 406 ) & immediatly had my car kit fitted (at personal expense), it is so much safer than trying to juggle coffee, lipstick, The Times & your mobile! If you want advice, mail me! (Piston Ted, my advice is free)But why don't more manufacturers make provision for a mobile phone cradle, speaker and microphone? Plus radio auto-muting.
On all cars I've owned since 1991 I've had a full hands-free phone. Started with a Panasonic E-series analogue, then a Nokia 2110 and later a Motorola tri-band. I cannot imagine how distracting it must be to drive along with one hand holding a phone and the other juggling steering wheel and gear lever. But countless idiots do it - and will face prosecution in a couple of months.
It's so much safer and more convenient to have the phone ring, radio self-mute, phone auto-connect, have the conversation and then let the phone auto-disconnect and the radio unmute. But why hasn't this been included as an option on more new cars?? The manufacturers know full well that the days of handheld mobiles in cars are numbered but they appear to have done little about it.
On all cars I've owned since 1991 I've had a full hands-free phone. Started with a Panasonic E-series analogue, then a Nokia 2110 and later a Motorola tri-band. I cannot imagine how distracting it must be to drive along with one hand holding a phone and the other juggling steering wheel and gear lever. But countless idiots do it - and will face prosecution in a couple of months.
It's so much safer and more convenient to have the phone ring, radio self-mute, phone auto-connect, have the conversation and then let the phone auto-disconnect and the radio unmute. But why hasn't this been included as an option on more new cars?? The manufacturers know full well that the days of handheld mobiles in cars are numbered but they appear to have done little about it.
gnomesmith said:
looked across to see him head down typing a text message!
Whilst you could argue on a long straight road this might be acceptable, driving through a town centre, through contraflows, lane changes and junctions (as he was) IS NOT!
Sorry Buff but I don't think you could argue acceptability on any road unless you are parked. The unexpected is no respecter of the type of road.
Actually that is my personal view on it, i.e. that it isn't acceptable at all, but i thought i'd be a liberal for a moment and all *live and let live*!
How does that work then? There is one thing I would like to say on this subject.
I do @ 35k miles a year, between my job as a lorry owner/driver, and my various hobbies, all car related - road rallying around the country, spectating, MG Owners Club events, the odd bit of marshalling, european holidays, rallies and adventures etc. etc. I would just say that I don't do a huge motorway mileage, so Im not able to speak of daily life on the m'ways.
Like everyone, I can recall all sorts of instances of bad or even outrageous driving. I've been carved up and cut up as much as anyone. I'd even go so far as to say that, untill you've done a few miles in a truck, in motoring terms, you don't know your born. (I don't want to go down the road of good/bad truckers, and I certainly won't defend bad truckers, and I accept it's an over-statement, but the gist is there.)
My point: I don't think any of the aforementioned cases involved a mobile phone. If I've been cut by someone on a phone, it's happenend about once. Every other occasion I've seen or suffered of bad driving has been by someone not on a phone. Am I right or wrong?
I don't think you can do any test that proves/disproves reaction times. Think hard about it: How can you test the alertness of someone who is on an alertness test? He is already alert 'cos he's being tested.
I also think that people who stop to use the phone are a pain, 'cos they stop just anywhere.
I'm not condoning the use of phones, I'm not coming from any angle whatsoever, I'm simply passing on my observations. A previous post said that people on the phone are a menace, but I'd say how? He can't surely claim that he is constantly suffering at the hands of phone users, 'cos that would be my experience too, which it isn't.
I do @ 35k miles a year, between my job as a lorry owner/driver, and my various hobbies, all car related - road rallying around the country, spectating, MG Owners Club events, the odd bit of marshalling, european holidays, rallies and adventures etc. etc. I would just say that I don't do a huge motorway mileage, so Im not able to speak of daily life on the m'ways.
Like everyone, I can recall all sorts of instances of bad or even outrageous driving. I've been carved up and cut up as much as anyone. I'd even go so far as to say that, untill you've done a few miles in a truck, in motoring terms, you don't know your born. (I don't want to go down the road of good/bad truckers, and I certainly won't defend bad truckers, and I accept it's an over-statement, but the gist is there.)
My point: I don't think any of the aforementioned cases involved a mobile phone. If I've been cut by someone on a phone, it's happenend about once. Every other occasion I've seen or suffered of bad driving has been by someone not on a phone. Am I right or wrong?
I don't think you can do any test that proves/disproves reaction times. Think hard about it: How can you test the alertness of someone who is on an alertness test? He is already alert 'cos he's being tested.
I also think that people who stop to use the phone are a pain, 'cos they stop just anywhere.
I'm not condoning the use of phones, I'm not coming from any angle whatsoever, I'm simply passing on my observations. A previous post said that people on the phone are a menace, but I'd say how? He can't surely claim that he is constantly suffering at the hands of phone users, 'cos that would be my experience too, which it isn't.
i was sitting behind a driver this morning who was on his mobile (stuck to his ear like a feckin limpit!) and straying across the lanes so i turned my airhorns on and didnt switch them off until he put the phone down (dixieland can drive you mad after a couple of minutes 
)
hopefully this mobile phone law will make some twats take their heads out of their arses whilst driving and see what is actually going on around them.
) hopefully this mobile phone law will make some twats take their heads out of their arses whilst driving and see what is actually going on around them.
Totally unacceptable in my view. I will use it if I'm sitting in traffic and not moving, but when I'm driving I'll just leave it in my pocket. Another one I saw a couple of weeks ago was a bloke in a BMW 5-Series who nearly ran into me, some woman in an Audi and a big articulated truck because he was typing something into the sat-nav/onboard computer
Just goes to show we are all human, one of our BiB PHers got done for speeding recently, how many laws do you need? soon we won't be able to step out of our house without breaking a law. More laws bad, more education good, time to address the problems and stop spending time and money on the symptoms.
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