Using Mobile Phones While Driving - New Laws

[Cyclone 10]

Eating a flapjack, changing the radio channel, scratching your ear, they're all premeditated. They don't happen without your conscious choice to do them.

You've chosen to miss my point though, which was that the activities listed by Calahonda are less distracting that a mobile conversation, at least when tested in simulators.

I can't quite get my head around why a conversation by phone is any more/less distracting than a conversation with a passenger, but the rest are definitely trivial and unlikely to affect driving capability.

As to your holier than thou claim, perhaps you really do pull over to take a mouthful of coffee, it must make for a very slow journey and cold coffee having to stop at every services though. Perhaps you also pull over to scratch your ear or pick your nose, we'll never know. I generally treat such claims with a great deal of scepticism.

[PRESLEY 1,228]

Eating a flapjack, changing the radio channel, scratching your ear, they're all premeditated. They don't happen without your conscious choice to do them.

You've chosen to miss my point though, which was that the activities listed by Calahonda are less distracting that a mobile conversation, at least when tested in simulators.

I can't quite get my head around why a conversation by phone is any more/less distracting than a conversation with a passenger, but the rest are definitely trivial and unlikely to affect driving capability.

As to your holier than thou claim, perhaps you really do pull over to take a mouthful of coffee, it must make for a very slow journey and cold coffee having to stop at every services though. Perhaps you also pull over to scratch your ear or pick your nose, we'll never know. I generally treat such claims with a great deal of scepticism.

I cant believe your picking an argument for arguments sake. You Arragant -------

[DT Ralge 10]

Eating a flapjack, changing the radio channel, scratching your ear, they're all premeditated. They don't happen without your conscious choice to do them.

You've chosen to miss my point though, which was that the activities listed by Calahonda are less distracting that a mobile conversation, at least when tested in simulators.

I can't quite get my head around why a conversation by phone is any more/less distracting than a conversation with a passenger, but the rest are definitely trivial and unlikely to affect driving capability.

As to your holier than thou claim, perhaps you really do pull over to take a mouthful of coffee, it must make for a very slow journey and cold coffee having to stop at every services though. Perhaps you also pull over to scratch your ear or pick your nose, we'll never know. I generally treat such claims with a great deal of scepticism.

 

Both conversations (with passenger and person on end of phone) can be massively distracting. On balance, though, I can see how the passenger may back off from the worst of distracting statements/questions when the driver is dealing with a complex road situation. The driver may also suggest “hold on while I deal with this” and may be less likely to do that whilst on the phone.

The passenger is sharing the driving environment with the driver and may note what the driver has not seen, as an extra pair of eyes.

[The Joker 10]

The ones which bother me are those who check their phones while at the lights.

 

The lights change and they're still looking down at their phones.

 

When some lights are only green for 5 or 6 seconds its really bad form to hold others up.

 

you visited Sheffield recently, alch ?

 

Have you driven on the ring road, with its numerous traffic lights after traffic lights after traffic lights ?

 

Or driven on the hundreds of single-lane roads cross-crossing the city that were originally designed to carry horse & cart, now choking under the weight of dozens of HGVs and buses?

 

If you’re gonna spend 50% of your commute stuck in a traffic jam, you might as well be productive and check your work email. Or even post on this ‘ere forum

[Cyclone 10]

Both conversations (with passenger and person on end of phone) can be massively distracting. On balance, though, I can see how the passenger may back off from the worst of distracting statements/questions when the driver is dealing with a complex road situation. The driver may also suggest “hold on while I deal with this” and may be less likely to do that whilst on the phone.

The passenger is sharing the driving environment with the driver and may note what the driver has not seen, as an extra pair of eyes.

 

Yeah, there's a lot of maybes there. Maybe the passenger isn't a driver themselves and can't recognise a difficult traffic scenario, maybe they're simply not paying attention, perhaps they're blind or partially sighted.

I can't really see why a driver would be less likely to say "hang on, concentrating" on the phone, rather than to a passenger, but perhaps...

 

---------- Post added 11-03-2018 at 21:42 ----------

 

I cant believe your picking an argument for arguments sake. You Arragant -------

 

I don't think I was. Perhaps I read your 'good post' as sarcastic when it wasn't meant to be.

[rudds1 102]

Once you've got in your car either switch your phone off or put it somewhere you won't be tempted to use it

[PRESLEY 1,228]

Yeah, there's a lot of maybes there. Maybe the passenger isn't a driver themselves and can't recognise a difficult traffic scenario, maybe they're simply not paying attention, perhaps they're blind or partially sighted.

I can't really see why a driver would be less likely to say "hang on, concentrating" on the phone, rather than to a passenger, but perhaps...

 

---------- Post added 11-03-2018 at 21:42 ----------

 

 

I don't think I was. Perhaps I read your 'good post' as sarcastic when it wasn't meant to be.

 

I said good post because you pointed out some key distractions which contribute to unsafe driving.

[DT Ralge 10]

Yeah, there's a lot of maybes there. Maybe the passenger isn't a driver themselves and can't recognise a difficult traffic scenario, maybe they're simply not paying attention, perhaps they're blind or partially sighted.

I can't really see why a driver would be less likely to say "hang on, concentrating" on the phone, rather than to a passenger, but perhaps...

 

---------- Post added 11-03-2018 at 21:42 ----------

 

 

I don't think I was. Perhaps I read your 'good post' as sarcastic when it wasn't meant to be.

 

I also meant to mention that the aggregate level of risk a driver exposes himself/herself to with passenger conversations is potentially dwarfed by the additional distractions made possible by being able to talk to anyone in the world on the phone (when I had a proper job, I once witnessed my CEO on a Belgian motorway discussing the relativity of traffic issues and weekend plans with our Australian Gen. Manager.) The explosion in the use of mobiles in and out of the car has undoubtedly ramped up the level of on-road risk for each and every one of us.

Edited March 11, 2018 by DT Ralge

[Cyclone 10]

I also meant to mention that the aggregate level of risk a driver exposes himself/herself to with passenger conversations is potentially dwarfed by the additional distractions made possible by being able to talk to anyone in the world on the phone (when I had a proper job, I once witnessed my CEO on a Belgian motorway discussing the relativity of traffic issues and weekend plans with our Australian Gen. Manager.) The explosion in the use of mobiles in and out of the car has undoubtedly ramped up the level of on-road risk for each and every one of us.

 

Maybe I'm just unpopular, I don't get that many phone calls, nor make that many.

[RootsBooster 24]

Maybe I'm just unpopular, I don't get that many phone calls, nor make that many.

 

I'm extremely unpopular but I still get lots of phone calls throughout the day!

[Olive 10]

The thing is though, that eating, smoking or drinking don't use anywhere near the same amount of mental attention as a conversation. They're almost entirely automatic.

They DO involve using a hand, but so does scratching your ear, or changing the radio channel.

And of course talking to a passenger is very like talking on hands free.

The only difference being that some (not all) passengers are drivers and will shut up, or even draw your attention to problems ahead, unlike someone on a phone.

 

A lot depends on the amount of faffing required to do any of these things. If you have to scrabble about in a packet for your biscuit or whatever, then it's more distracting than accepting a sweet off your passenger who's already unwrapped it for you. This is a case that's stuck in my mind:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/1490329.stm

[Waldo 96]

So, using a phone while driving, I think is a £200 fine and 6 points, but what actually constitutes using a mobile phone?

 

For example, if someone has a mobile phone mounted on their dashboard, and is using it as a satnav or music player (just like they may use a built in touchscreen device), is that an offence?