Mobile phones

[WhoseGeneration]

If not for fun, then the only reason to drive faster is to reduce journey time. Using a mobile phone whilst driving has a similar effect as it saves time stopping in order to make/take the call. I'll ask again, why is the first an acceptable risk but the second deserving of tar and feathers?

I would never use a mobile phone whilst driving.
I would like to be able to drive as fast as safely possible. In order to reduce journey time.
I'm not allowed to do so.

[Gareth]

I would like to be able to drive as fast as safely possible. In order to reduce journey time.
I'm not allowed to do so.

Why not use some of that spare mental capacity to phone someone?

[WhoseGeneration]

Why not use some of that spare mental capacity to phone someone?

Tell me what to say.

[userLeft1]

Fancy a being a 'community spotter'?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37968722

[dvenman]

I'm sure we all have stories of people using their phones while driving, or doing something else while driving, which impairs their driving.

Two recent examples of my own - a driver holding a phone to his ear in right hand, joining the motorway quite happily doing so. A driver on the M4 at 70mph, middle lane, oblivious to the fact he's doing 60 - because he had an A4 ringbound notebook open over the steering wheel and was writing in it. I next saw him going past me some minutes later having completed the task.

If I had had a passenger I'd have asked them to video the above using my phone, making sure they get the registration in the video and a clear view of the phone holding and then the driver's face, for onward transmission.

I've changed from having a phone using the hands-free on my GPS, to being in the glove box and Bluetooth disabled. That's what voicemail is for...

[GHST]

I see more people now than ever texting on a phone for long periods, I'm high up in a van and constantly shaking my head at what seems to be every other car with the driver holding there phone.
A work colleague who persistently texts while driving still does it even though his sister was hospitalised last year when a car on the motorway smashed Into her at a standstill due to being on the phone. Nothing learned.
Id like to see a six month ban and £1000 fine.

[akirk]

As an interesting question - and having watched a driver this morning...

mobile phone in a holder (so fixed) being used on a satnav app to change directions / settings etc.
- mobile phone use - therefore illegal etc.?
- satnav use - therefore legal? (a fixed screen is no different whether made by apple or tomtom - it could even be running the identical software)

which does it fall under?

Alasdair

[jont-]

As an interesting question - and having watched a driver this morning...

mobile phone in a holder (so fixed) being used on a satnav app to change directions / settings etc.
- mobile phone use - therefore illegal etc.?
- satnav use - therefore legal? (a fixed screen is no different whether made by apple or tomtom - it could even be running the identical software)

which does it fall under?

Alasdair

If they're not paying attention to the actual task of driving, DWDCA.

[akirk]

If they're not paying attention to the actual task of driving, DWDCA.

in this instance they were sitting in a traffic jam waiting for roadwork lights to go green...

but DWDCA is a catch all for anything - mobile phone use is a specified issue dealt with separately - so could / would it be seen as mobile phone use - i.e. has anyone actually defined mobile phone use?

Alasdair

[Matt1962]

Interesting discussion, but I do sometimes wonder if there are compensatory factors by which these electronic devices have significantly improved safety?
Anyone driving alone twenty years ago would have got to within half a mile or so of their destination and then had their driving concentration severely compromised by glancing at a map on the drivers seat, whilst looking for road signs, hotel names etc. etc.
I am often called by delivery drivers (hopefully hands free) asking to be 'guided in'. This is surely much safer than a succession of impromptu U turns etc?