The government is considering doubling the number of penalty points motorists receive when they are caught using a handheld mobile phone at the wheel, following a recommendation from the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police.
Under the proposal put forward by Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, drivers committing the offence would receive six penalty points, meaning that anyone caught on two occasions in a three-year period would lose their licence, reports The Guardian.
Secretary of State for Transport Patrick McLoughlin said he was taking the suggestion seriously since the "amounts of casualties there have been are absolutely appalling".
He continued: "The person using their phone doesn't realise the damage or the danger they can be in. It ends up ruining different people's lives – those who are driving as well as those who are injured.
"It is one that I want to look at. There could be some difficulties about it but I think we've got to get that message across to people about safety.
"We have been very lucky in this country in seeing, year on year, the number of road deaths and casualties actually falling. But one death is one too many and we need to look at those and see where we are going."
AA President Edmund King agreed that stricter penalties were needed, but added that greater enforcement of the law was also necessary.
"The current deterrent just isn't working,” he said. “Many drivers seem addicted to their phones and just can't resist looking at a text or tweet at the wheel," he said.
"We need a concerted effort to crack this addiction with harsher penalties linked to an information and enforcement campaign. Ultimately it will take more cops in cars to get motorists to hang up behind the wheel."
Professor Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation, said mobile phone use could be more dangerous than driving while under the influence of drink or drugs, and also called on police to step up enforcement.
He said: "Our own research shows how dangerous using a mobile at the wheel can be.
"Texting while driving impairs reactions more than being at the drink-drive limit or high on cannabis.
"However the large number of motorists still using phones at the wheel is less about the size of penalties and more about the chance of being caught.
"The Department for Transport's own figures show that on two previous occasions when this law was tightened and fines increased the number of people offending initially dropped but then rapidly rose again.
"The conclusion must be that drivers simply don't think they are going to be caught," he added.
Launching a campaign last November urging motorists not to use handheld devices such as smartphones at the wheel, the road safety charity, Brake, said that 575,000 drivers had received penalty points for illegal use of a mobile phone or being distracted in some other way.
60 thoughts on “Government to consider doubling penalty points for drivers caught on phone”
It’ll all be for nothing
It’ll all be for nothing without dedicated traffic police. And by dedicated I mean patrolling only the roads and not being sidelined by picking up drunks at chucking out time.
Also, how about lifetime driving bans for serious offences?
We dont have enough cops to
We dont have enough cops to go round, this govt has cut, cut and cut again so that we cant afford anymore cops. My force is having to save over £50m, could you imagine how many cops that could provide.
Automatic 6 month ban for using the phone is the only answer not doubling the points.
stumps wrote:We dont have
Everyone knows that harsher penalties won’t work without enforcement but at least someone is talking about it.
For the cuts you can blame the millionaire muppets in Downing Street and all the selfish b*stards that voted for them.
Simon E wrote:
For the cuts
I think you’ll find that the necessity for the cuts was due to the idiotic muppets prior to 2010 who wrecked the economy (just as they did the last time they had power in the 70’s). I blame the foolish wankers who voted for *them*.
Staggeringly Labour even joked about the situation in writing the infamous “there’s no money left” note.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2010/may/17/liam-byrne-note-successor
Joeinpoole wrote:
I think
Not only did they wreck the UK economy, they seem to have managed to do it in virtually every other country in the world at the same time even though those other countries had their own muppets in charge. I wonder if our muppets knew they had such global power…
Joeinpoole wrote:I think
Ha ha! Nothing to do with the international banking crisis that affected the USA and most of Western Europe? Not that I think Blair & co. were lily white either.
The press lapped up the ‘austerity’ bollocks (as did much of the public, they’re good like that) but if the Tories wanted to genuinely save us some money they didn’t have to target the less well off first while letting the super-rich and huge corporations smuggle vast amounts of money out of the country.
Back on topic, the reports I have read indicate that hands-free is almost as bad as hand-held. I’m sure I read that different parts of the brain were in use when compared to conversing with a passenger.
I think some people may be arguing in defence of their own behaviour rather than having a sound case to put forward; “I’ve done it and I am a capable and alert driver*, so…”
(* because everyone thinks they are)
Back on what stumps said:
Back on what stumps said: scientific studies have shown that using a handheld phone is worse that being well over the drink-drive limit. Even using a hands-free device is about the same as being at twice the limit. Ban the bastards.
But yes, enforcement is the issue. The police don’t have the resources. How is it done?
“Ultimately it will take more
“Ultimately it will take more cops in cars to get motorists to hang up behind the wheel.”
Try putting a few more on bikes (either kind), where they can look down on the driver. On average, I can catch three drivers fiddling with phones in their lap before I’ve made it to the end of the road!
I had a great incident yesterday. One driver slowly approaching a pedestrian crossing on green (crawling traffic). Light changed to red, pedestrians started crossing, and the car carried on and was about a foot away from driving over people when he suddenly looked up. Yep, texting away and oblivious to the world around him.
There has been a lot of
There has been a lot of research into the risks of using cellphones while driving. This is considered more risky than being just over the limit for alcohol, so the penalties should be at least comparable. Being over the limit for alcohol will get you 12 points and a 12 month ban automatically (unless you can plead hardship). The same should hold true for cellphone use. Sending texts or doing email is far more dangerous and there is also considerable research into this. Given the risks, I’d say an automatic 24 month ban and compulsory retest would be about appropriate.
Oh and I’d ban hands free kits too since research shows they make no difference whatsoever. The risks are from the limitations of the human brain, which cannot perform complex tasks like driving and carrying out in depth conversation at the same time, despite what some people seem to think about multi tasking. We are limited by evolution.
The problem is that people don’t take cellphone use while at the wheel seriously and don’t see it for the risk it is. Much tougher penalties would help, just as they did for drink driving 30 years ago. It’s because of the drink driving laws enforced 30 years ago that the roads are so much safer today.
Enforcement though is another matter and as Stumps says, there aren’t enough cops. I don’t know the answer to that. Perhaps if people begin to realise how cellphone use at the wheel is as much an example of anti social behaviour as drink driving, then attitudes will change and people will modify their own behaviour and even report offenders, perhaps not.
OldRidgeback wrote:
Oh and
Some research also shows that talking on hands free is very similar to talking to someone in the car, should we ban that too?
I think the police have enough to deal with enforcing phone use with hands, let’s get that right first?
I do agree that until the public perceive it as on a par with drink driving, people will carry on. There was a very effective campaign showing the consequences of drink driving, maybe they should do a similar one for mobiles?
sim1515 wrote:OldRidgeback
The research carried out by the TRL shows that the driver talking with other occupants in a car is not the same as when the driver is talking on the phone. There is similar research also saying the same. I’ve not heard anything saying otherwise and I do get a lot of this information at work.
Basically, when a driver is talking with someone sitting in the car, the driver will stop talking when something occurs in the driving scenario that requires additional brain processing power. This is not the case when the driver is talking on the phone and for various psychological reasons, which include visual clues and facial expressions that cannot be transmitted through a phone.
There is a lot of research saying hands free kits are no use. The TRL released a report saying so not so long ago and you can find that on the TRL website.
The problem with regard to phone use while driving is linked to the human brain’s limitations in regard to how much it can process at any one time, rather like an old computer being tasked with a number of complex functions simultaneously and resulting in that rather annoying hourglass appearing and turning round and round and round and round for an undefined period.
Yes, there is a risk of inattention for drivers, say when children are fighting in the backseat, but that’s another issue altogether and I somehow doubt the carrying of children in vehicles would be considered either logical or desirable. 🙂
OldRidgeback wrote:
The
I believe that there is contrasting research which suggests no difference between hands free and passengers, the University of Michigan I think. I think I’ve had this discussion before so I’m not going to get into it again, you can just read it here: http://road.cc/content/news/70508-police-campaign-wales-sees-1000-drivers-fined-using-phone-wheel
My real point is that using hands free is illegal at the moment yet lots of people still do it, it’s good that the government has recognised they need to do more to deter people but as others have said, enforcing it seems to be an issue. If enforcing that is an issue, how successful do you think it would be trying to enforce a ban on hands free? With the cuts that everyone is talking about, I think they should concentrate on what they can hope to achieve rather than introducing things which seem much harder to enforce.
I think harsher penalties could help if they are widely know and hopefully enforced but I think that changing the public perception to view it as on a par with drink driving would definitely help too.
sim1515 wrote:OldRidgeback
I believe that there is contrasting research which suggests no difference between hands free and passengers, the University of Michigan I think. I think I’ve had this discussion before so I’m not going to get into it again, you can just read it here: http://road.cc/content/news/70508-police-campaign-wales-sees-1000-drivers-fined-using-phone-wheel
My real point is that using hands free is illegal at the moment yet lots of people still do it, it’s good that the government has recognised they need to do more to deter people but as others have said, enforcing it seems to be an issue. If enforcing that is an issue, how successful do you think it would be trying to enforce a ban on hands free? With the cuts that everyone is talking about, I think they should concentrate on what they can hope to achieve rather than introducing things which seem much harder to enforce.
I think harsher penalties could help if they are widely know and hopefully enforced but I think that changing the public perception to view it as on a par with drink driving would definitely help too.— OldRidgeback
Well that does go against the TRL’s research but I agree it’s not worth falling out over.
In my own experience, when I’m driving and in a conversation, I’ll stop talking when I encounter a situation that requires me to think about it. That is pretty much what the TRL research says also.
Back in the 30s when car radios were first introduced, there was some debate as to whether these posed a threat to safety due to the risks from distraction.
OldRidgeback wrote:
Well that
In my experience, I too stop talking when I encounter a situation, but I would do the same if the person I was talking to is in the car or not. I know there is some evidence to show that passengers can stop the conversation too recognising the danger but it’s very subjective, a non driver (e.g. a child) may not know when to stop, or if they are in the back. I guess it’s this subjectiveness which has led people to question it, coupled with the fact that there are so many distractions in a car which are legal (such as 1930s radios!) so lines are very hard to draw. One has been drawn with mobiles, they are dangerous and now illegal, hopefully they’ll get people to stop using them!
Luca Paolini bang to rights
Luca Paolini bang to rights
I think something also needs
I think something also needs to be done about the car manufacturers, in collusion with Google / Apple building in ever tighter integration between the driver’s mobile and the on-board systems. From what I’ve seen (as a non-car owner, who fairly regularly hires cars) a lot of new cars have systems that will connect by bluetooth, not just for calls (which is bad enough – as people have posted above, the research suggests hands-free doesn’t make a great deal of difference) but also for reading and replying to texts, tweets, Facebook posts etc. It’s no good trying to stop people doing something that the car manufacturers are making increasingly easy and everyday, and by building the technology into the cars, sending the message that there’s no problem with doing.
The quotes in the article are
The quotes in the article are about right. I see lots of people using their phones and so looking away from the road, but I never expect them to be caught, or see anyone being pulled over for using a phone.
you could propose bringing
you could propose bringing back hanging, but no police and their really is no point. Drivers know they won’t be caught so don’t care. The only time you get caught is when you crash it seems. And then the courts and CPS don’t care.
Quote:
Everyone knows that
Really? I suspect that if drivers were faced with a ban, even a relatively short one (say 30 days), then even with the minimal enforcement that we have today, many wouldn’t take the risk.
I can’t see why we need to give drivers a second chance on this one. It’s not like speeding where it’s possible that you might have missed a sign, or accidentally let your speed creep up. Using a phone whilst driving is a conscious and deliberate act.
Even with double penalties, most drivers will be able to “afford” (both in terms of fines and points) getting caught at least once, so will continue to take the risk.
Despite all these
Despite all these ‘crackdowns’, it doesn’t deter anyone as often see people holding phones; I guess they reckon the chances of being caught are prettly slim. If you can’t enforce something effectively, then it’s ‘bad’ law. I’ve got a Bluetooth headset in may car but I haven’t used it for ages as I hated using my phone (hands free) when driving as it was, well, distracting!
It should be, as Old
It should be, as Old Ridgeback said, automatic 24 month ban if caught using a mobile. 24 month ban & vehicle(s) crushed for a second offence. If shown to be in a collision and using a mobile, automatic 24 month jail sentence.
Of course, it (the penalties in the article, not the ones I’ve said) won’t happen because it’s a political party that likes to be seen to be all about law and other and are anything but.
There is also no will to do anything because although everyone knows it’s bad, it’s not considered an antisocial activity like drink driving, which itself, was socially acceptable until a sustained campaign turned that around.
Pointless!
It’s a drop in
Pointless!
It’s a drop in the ocean the number of people who get caught and get points and fine now, going by the number of people I see every single day doing it.
I’ve tried challenging a few drivers here and there and only ever get excuses or an earful. I reported one to a police officer who was really helpful and did all the paperwork etc. but it seem to have died a death and the driver seems to have got away with it, as I must have been making it up ~X(
Agree with the enforcement
Agree with the enforcement issue but maybe just the threat will stop a few people.
Its still just passes the message on the government is scared of the public. Why not a ban? If it’s a crime then why not something more than a slap?
I’ve said this before and
I’ve said this before and I’ve no doubt I’ll say it again…: the law as it stands is a pretty good protection for all road users. The problem is, and, as stumps suggests, likely to remain in the future, a lack of enforcement by the police and CPS.
Make every case go through
Make every case go through court.
Impound the phone as evidence until the case.
That’d give you a pretty good reduction.
Great to see it being
Great to see it being discussed. However, many of the other comments are valid – if there is little chance of getting caught it may not make any difference.
It also seems at odds with the judgements handed down in cases – a cyclist killed by a lorry, the lorry driver using his phone at the time, but no charges brought against the driver!
The risk of a ban might make people think twice… perhaps.
We also need a massive
We also need a massive public-awareness campaign, just as they did with drink-driving for decades.
All I see nowadays are advertisements for cars that make messaging and the like *more* convenient.
I refer my honourable friends to the particularly vomit-inducing advert for the Ford Fiesta;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygVsACC-ngE&list=PL_AQadacLqzliLWn1hHDuQlYde2D1z-Mo
Quote: the law as it stands
Really? As it stands you have to get caught using your phone 4 times in a 3 year period before you’d receive anything other than points and a small fine. Even with adequate enforcement, I’d say the law is far too lenient.
As I said above, the threat of a ban on the first offence might help focus people’s minds, even in the absence of good enforcement.
pdw wrote:Quote: the law as
The fine went up recently to £100
Would be interesting to see if this has made a difference -I guess not, so would agree with a further raising of the severity of punishment in principle
I do quite like the idea of
I do quite like the idea of automatic mini-bans. Get your first 3 points, get banned for a week. 6 points, banned for a month. 12 points is treated as it is today (or will be after the penalties have been reviewed).
I think there should be a cost to committing a traffic offence that’s serious enough to earn points, and a fine isn’t enough for many people. I think even a short ban might be quite effective at reminding people that driving is a privilege and something that needs to be taken seriously.
Recently saw this article in
Recently saw this article in the Boston Globe about mobile use and driving.
Basically, there’s no hope unless as said above, we get much harsher penalties and a huge increase in traffic law enforcement.
Hmm, I would contest that a
Hmm, I would contest that a hands free makes no difference, as I see the biggest challenge of mobile phone use as taking your eyes off the road (to write a text etc), or a hand off a wheel.
Yes, having a conversation with someone that is not in the car with you, could lead to them talking at time when you need to concentrate, and yes, you may not concentrate enough in those situations because of that… but that’s small fry compared to taking your eyes off the road and hand off the steering wheel for prolonged periods.
I guess this comes down to the fact that some people will be at the raggity edge of their competencies just getting a car from A to B every day, whilst for others driving is something they could almost do in their sleep.
For the second group, having a conversation on a phone and being able to prioritise focus on the road is simple… for the former it is clearly a step too far.
As I see it, too few people see the problem with using mobile phones driving as that they might kill someone… or even if its not them, people using mobile phones whilst driving kill people… They are not focusing on the why’s, instead looking at the punishment for getting caught, and then naturally, on their chances of being caught.
So instead of thinking about safety, they are thing about probability…
What I am saying in a long winded way is that unless effectively policed, the punishment can be whatever, it won’t make a difference.
The answer is, like drink driving, to make mobile phone use in the car so socially unacceptable that only the die hards will continue to do it.
Jimmy Ray Will wrote:I guess
I suspect that it’s also that former group which is more likely to be on the phone, iPad, eating a bowl of cereal…
It needs to be an immediate
It needs to be an immediate ban for 12 months minimum when caught using a phone in the hand whilst driving + immediate siezure of the vehicle and phone as they do currently for no insurance (which proves it is possible).
Where the offender is driving & using phone whilst working in a company vehicle (truck/var/car), then the employer also needs to be stung with a fine of several thousand pounds.
It does need more enforcement – allow PCSOs and plod on bikes and foot to stop and nail people.
Also a campaign is needed to make driving with a phone in hand as socially unaccepable as driving with a can of lager in hand.
i totally agree with you.
i totally agree with you. Good sense. I would gladly accept it if i did it, i’m sure many would.
Disagree… no one in the
Disagree… no one in the land will want to see someones livelihood potentially taken away, businesses crippled for the sake of using a mobile phone. Look at the current death by dangerous driving laws… it is rarely used as juries are too reluctant to convict… why? Because they can all see that it could be them someday.
Honestly, £30 fine is more than enough if people get caught enough. I am sure those clever cameras that are everywhere around us could be developed to identify when people are talking on phones… use something like that to catch the blighters and you’ll have the problem sorted pronto.
As it stands, if you were the one person caught out in a 100, and you ended up with a ban and a several thousand pound fine, lost job etc… would you feel that justice had been done, or that you were hard done by?
Jimmy Ray Will
So someone’s livelihood is worth more than someone else’s life?
OldRidgeback wrote:So
To be honest, if you look at the number of cases where the “exceptional circumstances” card has been played, I’m afraid the answer to that is a resounding YES.
Jimmy Ray Will
I’ve got to counter-diagree with you. If somebody drives for work and has to be contactable all the time (a self-employed builder is the perfect example) then it’s not out of the realms of reasonable expectation that they would heve a hands-free car kit installed. I would consider this as essential as a set of safety boots to someone in this line of work but van drivers seem to be one of the biggest culprits of handheld mobile use in my experience.
I do agree with you point about enforecement. Catching a very small percentage of offenders but dishing out massive punishments certainly is not just.
Matt eaton wrote:Jimmy Ray
I’ve got to counter-diagree with you. If somebody drives for work and has to be contactable all the time (a self-employed builder is the perfect example) then it’s not out of the realms of reasonable expectation that they would heve a hands-free car kit installed. I would consider this as essential as a set of safety boots to someone in this line of work but van drivers seem to be one of the biggest culprits of handheld mobile use in my experience.
I do agree with you point about enforecement. Catching a very small percentage of offenders but dishing out massive punishments certainly is not just.— Jimmy Ray Will
How on earth did people manage in the days before mobile phones then? Employers shouldn’t put staff in a position where they may have an accident due to mobile phone use. As far as I know my employer forbids the use of a mobile phone when driving.
Jimmy Ray Will
Personally I’d be perfectly happy to say people’s livelihoods taken away if they break the law. If your car, van, HGV, main battle tank is that important to your job, don’t break the law. It’s not exactly hard.
Jimmy Ray Will
Yes – juries & the judiciary can all see that it could be them someday. This is why it needs to be made as unacceptable as drink driving.
£30 is NOTHING these days.
If you were one person caught out in 100… You still broke the law knowingly, and you still put others lives in danger. Tough! The only thing I’d add to this is to ensure that more than 1% are caught!!!
Word of mouth is incredibly powerful. So imagine a friend of yours gets caught using a mobile phone whilst driving, gets banned etc. It might make you think twice about doing it.
CCTV cameras….could they
CCTV cameras….could they assist in catching people?
You could ask the public to photo people but the irony would be the bulk would be taken whilst driving….actually sounds like a well planned government policy.
hard hitting tv adverts – how did we manage to get everyone -apart from dean gafney and a few other tits – to wear seatbelts?
Severe, VERY severe penalties
What is the definitions of
What is the definitions of using a mobile phone?
For instance could you be prosecuted under this proposed change for using a media app to change tracks played through your car stereo? Why is this different to changing tracks or stations on the stereo itself?
Or if you used the sat nav app, why would this be different from using a dedicated gps device. All of these require you to take your eyes off the main focus – staying on the road and not killing anyone.
In both cases using the mobile could actually be safer than using the device as you can position where you want, not in the middle of the car below windscreen level.
The law should be about careless driving, regardless of the cause
Simmo72 wrote:What is the
I think that the law specifically says that you cannot use a handheld mobile phone whilst driving. If your phone is in a cradle you would be able to do the things you desribe legally. As you point out it’s no different to using an integrated sound system or sat-nav. As long as you are not holding the phone it’s OK.
Worryingly I think that this also means that sending email/tweets/facebook updates is acceptable as long as your phone is cradled (and you don’t crash the car etc.)
Simmo72 wrote:What is the
I agree with you the law should etc, but disagree with you Re sat navs as far as I am concerned sat nav screens should go blank as soon as the vehicle moves and voice commands/prompts used, if you wish to change destination pull over and park (there was a very tragic (and avoidable) fatality on the Twyford by-pass due to someone fiddling with the sat-nav instead of looking where they were going)
but as others have said enforcement will be needed otherwise it’s meaningless.
It wasn’t my opinion or view,
It wasn’t my opinion or view, I was just stating the scenario. I’m in total agreement with you, sat navs are distracting, as are all the built in media touch screen toys in modern cars, far too much there to take your eye of the road whilst you attempt to stop your air conditioning and automated voice calls that have somehow switched to spanish.
Simmo72 wrote:It wasn’t my
All the technology is a bit of a double-edged sword. It can be distacting but following Sat-Nav has got to be better than fumbling with a map on the passenger seat and turning the air-con up a notch has got to be better than trying to take off a coat or jumper whilst driving.
The thing that still gets me is smoking at the wheel. Holding onto a burning piece of plant material while piloting a car seems mad to me. The actual act of lighting up seems particuarally distracting.
It wasn’t my opinion or view,
It wasn’t my opinion or view, I was just stating the scenario. I’m in total agreement with you, sat navs are distracting, as are all the built in media touch screen toys in modern cars, far too much there to take your eye of the road whilst you attempt to stop your air conditioning and automated voice calls that have somehow switched to spanish.
Simmo72 wrote:What is the
Exactly. Well put.
I don’t think it’s a case of
I don’t think it’s a case of ‘managing’ without the phone but it’s become an expectation that people are contactable. It’s particuarally relevant in my example of the self-employed builder where missing a call could resulting in them losing out on business/work.
In other lines of work it’s often an unwritten expectation for staff to be contactable on the phone whilst travelling. I fear that many people also attend to emails etc. whilst driving and that this is becoming more widely accecpted/expected. In high-presure jobs where time is valuable it’s easy to see why people use technolgy to be productive whilst driving. It’s no justification but I can understand the motivation.
Matt eaton wrote:I don’t
As with cars themselves, no sooner is something invented than it rapidly becomes compulsory. Furthermore, any rule-bending that can be gotten away with will also become compulsory because if you don’t do it those you compete with will.
Invention is the mother of necessity.
Matt eaton wrote:I don’t
Having been trying to corral various self-employed tradespeople I can assure you most of ’em hereabouts ain’t hangin’ on the telephone waiting for your call.
Can’t they just turn their phone off when driving and tell their boss they are doing so? Boss has a duty of care, and expecting folk to deal with calls and email whilst driving is failing in it.
“Having been trying to corral
“Having been trying to corral various self-employed tradespeople I can assure you most of ’em hereabouts ain’t hangin’ on the telephone waiting for your call.”
In that case I’m being way too sympathetic to the multiple van drivers I see talking on handheld phones every day.
“Can’t they just turn their phone off when driving and tell their boss they are doing so? Boss has a duty of care, and expecting folk to deal with calls and email whilst driving is failing in it.”
Of course people CAN turn their phones off and tell their boss/colleages etc. that they are unavailable but people’s behaviours are driven by the culture in which they work/live. As I said before any expectation is an unspoken one and many people will be tempted to break the rules if it means that they will get ahead in the workplace. This is no justification but it does explain behaviours that we all witness every day. Unless enforcement is stepped up it’s not going to change.
workhard wrote:Can’t they
I don’t think the expectation is to break the current laws, and most employers who require people to drive stick people on company training of some form (usually just a computer based thing).
The reality is people think they can multitask in the time in the car, and otherwise see it was ‘wasted time’, saving time when they get back to the office or other location.
The expectation of an employer might be to do your work as the business needs, and on time etc. It’s the induvidual employee who makes the choice to break the law.
Quote:Under the proposal put
Which is a bit of a joke, when I think we would all wager that some drivers out there commit the offence more than twice in a DAY.
Really easy for government to
Really easy for government to makes these announcements, much harder to enforce new laws and even harder to change driver’s attitudes.
If you ride regularly in large cities you will see every day numerous instances of vehicle users whether private, public, goods vehicles and even emergency services driving in heavy traffic using hand held cell phones.
It’s not hard to spot this on a bike because you sit higher relative to many motor vehicles, can easily see a handheld device in a driver’s hand, and its often the asshole that has just missed you or another road user with inches to spare.
Cannot expect police to do much because they either don’t have ‘resources’ or when they get tasked to watch junctions (I.e. London the last few weeks) they’d rather chat to each other than do any real work and nick people on phones, jumping lights, stopping in ASL….
I disagree… £30 is annoying
I disagree… £30 is annoying even if it isn’t going to break many peoples bank balance… more to the point, 3 points on the licence costs a fair bit more than £30.
The reality is, if you want to stop it, make sure more people get caught… or as you say, just make it completely socially unacceptable.
People still dope, even though they have witnessed what happened to Armstrong in the end… ‘it won’t happen to me’ applies to why people think they won’t get caught, just as much as they think they won’t cause an accident on their mobile.
Funnily enough, I don’t use handsfree as I don’t want to use the phone in the car… I have taken the odd call however, late at night on a motorway when I was posing a danger to no one but myself. I dunno, didn’t seem that dangerous to me, although I’d be loathed to do so in an urban area, on busy roads or in bad conditions…
I really don’t think that
I really don’t think that fines and enforcement are the most practical way to deal with this, better to use technology. It’s realistic with current technology for the car to be able to disable the use of the phone from the driver’s seat, but better still driverless cars aren’t too far away, then everyone can safely tweet away as they sit in traffic in their can.
drfabulous0 wrote:I really
I’m not so sure that we have the technology available to block the use of mobile devices in such a small and specific area as the driver’s seat of a car. Even if this were possible it wouldn’t stop people from dealing with email etc. whilst driving as any email that they draft would simply be sent as soon as they got out of the car or even when they put the phone on the passenger seat.
True driverless technology also has a long way to go. I can imagine cars with this technology apearing on our roads before long however I think it will be more like an auto-pilot function added to ordinary cars. This is certainly no bad thing but from an enforcement point-of-view how would it be possible to tell if the car was driving itself? Until we have cars that literally have no conventional driver controls the law won’t be able to change and the person sitting behind the steering wheel will always be considered the driver.
I agree that a technological solution would be the ideal but I don’t think that signal blockers or driverless cars are going to provide this.