no police to enforce. it'll only be a problem when they're involved in an accident.

On my bike, I see people trying to be subtle about using their phones all the time. I am pretty sure that no one pays attention to the law because, as Del says, it will only be retroactively enforced.

I use a built in hands free, if it's not working for whatever reason then no call. Loads still talk on the phone round our way.

I see it every single day, at every single junction. Most are pretty blatant about it as well due to the unlikeliness of being caught.
If I sent in footage from my helmet cam to the police they would be receiving dozens of cases per week just from me.

Every morning on my ride to work I see dozens of people on the phone whilst driving. That and speeding must be the most common every day law breaking occurrences.

That and running reds a few seconds after they have changed.

That and running reds a few seconds after they have changed.

Yep, that seems to have got a lot worse recently. I've even been flashed by a car to warn me to get out the way as he was running the red light (I was crossing on green!).

Gets my goat too.

Usually it's;
Builders Vans
Flash 4 x 4s (I mean you must have to actively turn off the hands-free?)

The number of people who text at 50mph in the narrow lanes of the M60 road works is shocking.

You can spot them so easily. Heads down and swerving about.

If the Police just spent one day nicking the lot of them...

It's rare that I go on the roads and don't see multiple people using a mobile, not many actually on the phone these days, but looking down while texting/tweeting or whatever. I'm actually surprised there aren't more accidents caused by these idiots.

Let's face it, the law isn't enforced at all, too much like hard work compared to catching speeding motorists.

Surely it would make a handsome profit if it were policed more..

Can you take or make call using hands free?

Texting/holding phone when driving? That's just dangerous/stupid/selfish.

The new generation of cars like Audi with interactive screens in the cockpit - Great when stationary but super dangerous when driving for other road users, especially when a lot of drivers are crap anyway.

How often do you actually see police on the roads nowadays though. Rarely IME. Until there's more police on the roads to police this stuff it'll just carry on.

Shit driving, using phones, RLJ'ing, general angryness of driving.....

I'm of the opinion that if using a mobile whilst driving is as bad/worse than being over the drink drive limit, then the penalties for doing so should be the same/more severe.

IMO, that's the only thing that will change people's behaviour.

get it all the time round here, even at work in the car parks despite there being huge signs right in front of every ones eyes

[img] [/img]

1 in 10? Conservative estimate I reckon.

Does anyone pay any attention to the law of not using your mobile whilst driving

After that it, i was looking out for people driving along and it must be 1/10 using their phones whilst driving.

That seems to somewhat dilute the thrust of your headline question! 90% of the people you saw were complying with the law.

I assume that those of you in England who don't like this spoke to their PCC candidates about the priority of this (and perhaps other road policing) and voted accordingly?

FWIW, the stats show roughly 125,000 people a year are caught and issued a FPN in England and Wales. About 8,000 go to court. An article in the Daily Wail last year ( http://www.****/news/article-2968776/More-500-000-motorists-driving-using-mobile-phones-numbers-increasing.html) suggest 500k doing it. So, on a simplistic approach that implies if you are a regular abuser of the rules you will get caught once every 4 years?

running reds a few seconds after they have changed

People push it to see what they can get away with and so they push more and more until the 'normal' standard of driving is actually quite alarming if you drive into the area from elsewhere

Using the phone while driving is almost mandatory. Driving is such a fricken distraction when you're busy on the phone 🙄

Definite lack of will to do something about mobile use when driving. The police could set up at any major junction and reel in a string of offenders if they really wanted to send a message.

I had a friend (probably known to a few people here) killed by a driver using a phone. It feels a bit like where drink driving was 30 or 40 years ago, where too many people think it's not really dangerous and it's OK if they don't get caught. I'd like hands free phones to be stopped as well, because the evidence seems to show they are just as dangerous.

in my previous flat it took me about 2m:30sec to walk to sainsburys, i used to count the mobile using drivers as i walked there and back. the record was 9.
i would like to add that half that journey was along a side road with only 1-2 cars passing.

it’s normal behaviour, if the police wanted to reduce accidents and maximise their takings just enforce the law.

cloudnine - Member
Surely it would make a handsome profit if it were policed more..

1. The police put in the effort to catch and process the offender. The police don't get the revenue from fines (which I think is probably a good thing).

2. The net cost of catching and processing the offenders, pursuing and collecting fines, enforcing fines that don't get paid, dealing with prosecution costs for the minority who use their right to test the case in court etc, probably doesn't result in a net gain on the £100 fine.

3. The benefit is not from the fine, the benefit is from avoiding serious road accidents which have a huge economic and social cost, but should actually result in a net saving to police forces involved (the amount of officer time spend investigating a fatal, or potentially fatal accident and pursuing the resulting prosecution is huge).

It's so normal now to use the phone whilst driving, that it's starting to make me wonder why we're actually talking about it.

Whats the point?

Nobody really cares, the Police are useless, local PCO's can't do anything about it, even the local vigilante speeding hiviz reg plate note takers can't do anything about it. We don't do anything about it either, I mean why would you? Whats the point of shouting/explaining/pointing out to someone in a car that they're on the phone whilst driving? All you get in return is a single finger solute or a mouthful of abuse.

No point bothering now, just be aware that it happens and ride/drive accordingly.

The best one I've seen recently wasn't someone using a mobile phone for calling/texting but someone driving the car in front of me with a phone in one of those windscreen mounts watching a film on their mobile - it was quite a big screen on the phone so I could see it quite clearly, was definitely a film and not a satnav.

My ghast was well & truly flabbered!

Can you take or make call using hands free?

Of course.

You can also send and receive texts hands-free too, which makes me wonder why all these people are tapping away at their phones.

Is it just that that setting up the hands-free (Bluetooth pairing etc) and using voice activation is still a bit too fiddly for your average punter?

I've never met anyone who says it's fine to text whilst driving, yet see so many people doing it.

I have a short walk to work at "rush hour" past a busy roundabout. I usually spot about ten people pretending not to text each journey. I give them a stern shake of the head of course.

Maybe they switch bluetooth off to save battery on the phone?
It's madness - I did a "What's Driving Us?" course and nearly every single person was there (not me, I accidentally dun a red light 😳 ) due to being caught on the phone. They're all in denial too - (except one woman) saying they were just moving it, switching it off, etc...
I think it all comes down to those same statistics - most people are idiots.

If I sent in footage from my helmet cam to the police they would be [s]receiving [/s] ignoring dozens of cases per week just from me.

Flash 4 x 4s (I mean you must have to actively turn off the hands-free?)

As I filtered past I saw the driver was texting. Told her to put the phone down. "IT'S ON BLUETOOTH" she screeched. But it's in your fing hand, I can see you typing a fing text message.

I actually replied politely, but she just kept screaming "IT'S ON BLUETOOTH" at me.

😕

Is it just that that setting up the hands-free (Bluetooth pairing etc) and using voice activation is still a bit too fiddly for your average punter?

Van skidded to a halt and mounted the pavement behind me last week. He was on the phone and not noticed I'd stopped (car had pulled out of side road).

As soon as he set off, he leaned down to retrieve his phone from the footwell (whilst driving) to continue the conversation.

WTF!

Tuppence incoming..

Friday, driving along A9 around Dunblane and I look in my side mirror to see it totally filled by a white Q7 and I mean totally filled, if my window had been open I'd have been able to reach out and touch it as it passes me by; I can see the driver holding his mobile in left hand quite clearly. He then cruises on down the road regularly crossing the white lines as he wobbles about not paying attention. It just boils my piss.

Traffic policing is not like regular policing where they can rely most often on a forensic footprint to apprehend the crims. There just are no where near enough traffic cops out and about and the Average speed cameras do **** all to catch arseholes like the ones above. GRRR!

I had a friend (probably known to a few people here) killed by a driver using a phone. It feels a bit like where drink driving was 30 or 40 years ago, where too many people think it's not really dangerous and it's OK if they don't get caught. I'd like hands free phones to be stopped as well, because the evidence seems to show they are just as dangerous.

+1

Wonder if we'll get public service TV advertisement and a token 1 week a year crackdown. I suppose the difficulty is that a drunk driver is still drunk when you pull him over for a random stop on Christmas Eve. Getting someone on the phone requires a bit more evidence gathering.

With the budget cuts I'm surprised no ones figured out a way of monetizing it. If haulage firms were paid for successful prosecutions (like Crimestoppers rewards) then they could just put CCTV pointing down/back from the drivers mirror into the middle lane of the motorway and rake in the cash! Ditto helmet cam footage. Make it like you've been framed "we pay [s]£250[/s][i] £10[/i] for every phone using twunt you send in!"

[quote=Leku ]Flash 4 x 4s (I mean you must have to actively turn off the hands-free?)

I've also wondered that - are people really so stupid that they can't get that working? It's surely easier than something like setting up FB which people seem to manage, is it just that they're not bothered?

Voice activated bluetooth in my car - though I acknowledge the issue of using handsfree whilst driving and only make very limited use of it. No way would I get involved in a complicated discussion whilst driving, and I still do what I've always done and just go silent as soon as driving needs more of my concentration.

[quote=The Pinkster ]The best one I've seen recently wasn't someone using a mobile phone for calling/texting but someone driving the car in front of me with a phone in one of those windscreen mounts watching a film on their mobile - it was quite a big screen on the phone so I could see it quite clearly, was definitely a film and not a satnav.
My ghast was well & truly flabbered!

I've seen similar:
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/weve-done-satnav-in-sightline-on-windscreens-before

Maybe they switch bluetooth off to save battery on the phone?

Maybe.

Though they'd probably use a lot less battery using voice-activation via Bluetooth than they would turning on the screen for the five minutes it takes to tap out a text message on a bumpy road whilst keeping half an eye on the traffic ahead.

Also, if I'm in the car then I usually take the opportunity to top-up the phone using an in-car charger.

So I still think it is an issue of people not being capable of using the technology they have available (for whatever reason).

See plenty of it in the North East. If I'm in the car and traffic is heavy I normally give a quick stealth blast of the horn.. Some stop texting/twitting/etc. but most do not GAF.

[quote=bails ]Plenty of brand new cars don't have any bluetooth stuff in them.

Including flash 4x4s which seem to be the vehicle of choice of a significant proportion of offenders? My 8yo bottom of the range Mondeo has it. I also have an add-on dongle to play tunes as the car only does phone calls on bluetooth which cost me a grand total of £3, and would do handsfree calls if I enabled that.

[i] too many people think it's not really dangerous and it's OK if they don't get caught[/i]

Thing is, for these morons - why should DRIVING be any different to any other situation where PEOPLE JUST CAN'T PUT THEIR PHONES AWAY!!??
Cinema, gigs,[i] everywhere[/i] there is an irritating twonk staring at their glowing screen.

I guess there is also an issue with the younger generation coming through who, unlike us middle-aged fogies, have never known a life where they are not reachable 24/7.

And of course, the older generation who think it's all a young generation problem and that "experienced drivers" are fine to bend the rules a bit.

Including flash 4x4s which seem to be the vehicle of choice of a significant proportion of offenders? My 8yo bottom of the range Mondeo has it

TBH, I'd say the offending is pretty indiscriminate. School run mums in 4x4s, van drivers, salesmen in 3 serieses, pizza delivery drivers in battered micras. Everyone's at it.

In any case, it's not about capability. Everyone with a driving licence has proven that they're capable of paying attention, sticking to the speed limit, signalling correctly, etc etc. They don't do it because they choose not to. Why bother setting up and connecting to bluetooth to dictate a text message that might not come out correctly when I can just type it? I'm not going to get caught. Even if I kill someone and admit to using the phone right before killing him, I'll [url= http://beyondthekerb.org.uk/2015/03/23/somethings-seriously-wrong-here/ ]get away with it[/url].

aracer - I still do what I've always done and just go silent as soon as driving needs [b]more of my concentration.[/b]

I saw one yesterday. She saw me looking and then clearly Tw*ttered: "Bloody cyclists, they shud (sic) make them use the paths bcuz there (sic) discusting (sic) #IPAYROADTAX

I may be joking. (Goes to check The Daily Murdoch)

My ten year old 'top of the range' Focus doesn't either.

Odd. My nine-year-old absolutely not top-of-the-range Focus has Bluetooth and voice-activation.

But as aracer points out, a Bluetooth dongle can be bought for very little money these days so yeah, it's really about whether people take the law/danger seriously.

DezB, exactly! Folk just seem to wander around gazing at their phones. What is going on that people cannot be apart from them?

As for the 4x4ers yup, usually the main offenders! They always seem the most aggressive for some reason too......

There are so few Police on routine patrol now that drivers know they can get away with anything. Last Sunday evening residents of Blackburn were treated to a couple of hours of racing on the ring road by mostly Asians in souped-up Audis, BMWs and Mercs; the noise was deafening. Not a single Police traffic car showed up.

The few Police traffic officers on duty are so stretched that the best they can do is to rely on ANPR to stop dodgy drivers on the M6 and issue tickets. Lancashire Police then tweet every "success"in the hope of creating an impression that they are very active.

[quote=globalti ]Lancashire Police then tweet every "success"in the hope of creating an impression that they are very active.

Whilst driving back to the station?

On the subject of traffic light jumping - anyone else old enough to remember the "don't be an amber gambler" adverts from before the sequences were changed?

Here's a suggestion: reset the sequences back to how they were then i.e. both directions at a cross roads go amber/red amber at same time! All the jumpers would crash into each other.

Once they've been thinned out we can set the lights back to the new safer sequences....

I used to commute to work by motorbike, and along the M25 so would regularly see directly into the cockpit - I would lose count of texters and callers and lane swervers - I've seen it all, drivers eating cereal from a bowl with spoon in hand, people reading the newspaper behind the wheel, I must've seen a thousand girls applying make up. Staggers me.

Driverless cars can't come soon enough

I spotted a school bus driver on his last year, he went right through the school crossing patrol as they were trying to stop traffic ignoring them completely. I did something unusual for me as I was furious and tweeted the company, an hour later they asked for details. An hour after that I got a private message to say that he had been sacked. 😯

GrahamS - Member
My ten year old 'top of the range' Focus doesn't either.
Odd. My nine-year-old absolutely not top-of-the-range Focus has Bluetooth and voice-activation.

It doesn't matter whether a car is top of the range or not, what matters is if the person who originally bought it spec'd it or not.
My 2008 Smax Titanium doesn't have bluetooth as the original owner didn't upgrade.
I have a bluetooth dongle for playing music through, but not phone calls. I can still make calls hands free on the phone though. Although I still don't like doing that....

In the van earlier and waiting for oncoming traffic behind a parked car, the last driver that passed was a swarthy looking gentleman on his phone, driving an older BMW X5.

He was even too busy to say thank you.

Now I don't wish to stereotype, but...

What are these Bluetooth dongles of which you fellows speak? I have a car which is Bluetooth enabled for phone but won't play tunes - which I'd prefer.

I used to commute to work by motorbike, and along the M25...

Used to do the M25 regularly between the A41 and M1. Obvious bad driving aside, there were a few common culprits. A gent in a Mini S-Works springs to mind - utter, utter twunt. If he's still alive I'd be surprised, I just hope he took no-one else with him.

anyone else old enough to remember the "don't be an amber gambler" adverts from before the sequences were changed?

Yep. These days people are amazed/annoyed if you stop for amber (i.e. obey the law) - but some of those same folk will no doubt moan about lawless cyclists jumping lights 😕

It doesn't matter whether a car is top of the range or not, what matters is if the person who originally bought it spec'd it or not.

Yep - I was just surprised.

What are these Bluetooth dongles of which you fellows speak? I have a car which is Bluetooth enabled for phone but won't play tunes - which I'd prefer.

Mines just a bluetooth audio receiver that plugs into the aux socket.

Like these - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Wireless-Bluetooth-Receiver-for-Audio-Hi-Fi-and-In-Car-Uses-3-5mm-AUX-input-jack-/390992121481?hash=item5b08f24e89:g:UdcAAOSw6kxXIQp9

Yep - I was just surprised.

I was bloody pee'd off when I realised mine didn't have it!! Spose if I want fancy stuff I need to buy a new car and spec it myself!!

Since the Police decided the only thing that mattered is not exceeding an arbitrary number on a small metal sign it's been a complete free-for-all on our roads.

I think it should be legal to "Pit" other motorists you see on the phone....... 😆 I'd buy a cheap transit, fit a massive set of bumpers and spend many a happy afternoon putting the phone mongs into the barriers 😉

[quote=deadlydarcy ]What are these Bluetooth dongles of which you fellows speak? I have a car which is Bluetooth enabled for phone but won't play tunes - which I'd prefer.

Here's the one I have:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/391419890718?_trksid=p2057872.m2749.l2649&ssPageName=STRK%3AMEBIDX%3AIT

As I mentioned before that will also do calls if you want, but I've set my phone just to use it for tunes so it still uses the car system for calls - works fine connecting to both and stopping the music when a call comes in.

I'm fairly sure the bluetooth phone is part of the standard spec on a Mondeo - mine certainly doesn't have any other add-on features.

It doesn't matter whether a car is top of the range or not, what matters is if the person who originally bought it spec'd it or not.

Since the Police decided the only thing that mattered is not exceeding an arbitrary number

I don't think the Police decided that at all - budgets did - speed limits are just one of the few traffic laws that can be easily enforced with very limited manpower.

Whether I am cycling or driving, I keep an eye out for offenders, much to Mrs W's amusement / frustration. In the car you can usually spot them a mile off as they are swerving around their lane or doing 40 mph in a 70 limit.
I reckon, from my experience, about 10% of drivers are using.

They usually get a 'honk' from me and as I drive a white T5, they usually jump out of their skin. I don't suppose it does any good. Their right to share some kittens on FB is much much more important than the life of another human being.

A note to the 'hands free' users. A sales man I know had a head on accident with a van which was coming around a corner on the wrong side of the road. The van driver sadly died in the accident. The salesman was using his phone on the hands free. Legal to do so, yes?
As the phone conversation was proved to be 20 minutes long, the salesman did 3 years at Her Majesty's for manslaughter.

I don't understand why when they brought the new law in they didnt make it mandatory that all new cars are fitted with handsfree. Would add a couple of £ to the cost of the car and within a short number of years no one would ever have an excuse.

What annoys me most is professional drivers using them. Should be an instant ban if that is your job.

In sicily we had a man veer towards us as he was looking at his ipad that he had on his steering wheel.

Plenty texting while driving but I always wonder why people text if it is that urgent.

Would add a couple of £ to the cost of the car and within a short number of years no one would ever have an excuse.

within a short number of years no one would ever have an excuse.

There's no excuse now.

well actually there is one acceptable excuse - making a call to the emergency services').

Nope still no excuse.

well actually there is one acceptable excuse - making a call to the emergency services').
Nope still no excuse.

I do see a lot of totally clueless morons on the phone, and I've collided (lightly with no injury luckily) with one pedestrian who was glued to his as he stepped out in front of me as well as had many near misses (I try to anticipate these things or I would've had a number of accidents! The guy I didn't manage to miss was hiding behind street furniture before he stepped out)

I do personally use the handsfree from time to time, which I don't consider more dangerous than talking to a passenger, in that I'll ignore them if something demands my attention on the road.

Seriously? You can think of NO circumstances under which a call to the emergency services may be necessary but stopping may be impossible/more dangerous than calling the emergency services?

I can't think of when it would be impossible to stop no.

Seriously? You can think of NO circumstances under which a call to the emergency services may be necessary but stopping may be impossible/more dangerous than calling the emergency services?
I can't think of when it would be impossible to stop no.

I didn't say impossible, I said where stopping would be more dangerous, but how about your accelerator jams and brakes fail? What if your car was wedged in front of an HGV?

Generalisations always have some exceptions.

Clutching at straws there a bit, you really didn't mean that did you now.

Hang on....

Just let me....

Get round this...

roundab-YEAH YOU **** OFF AS WELL YOU ****!-out - ****ER!

No.

Have you ever tried texting & taking the gherkins out of a big mac at the same time? Its well dangerous innit!

Handsfree has been shown to be just as distracting, so don't even use that these days. Can't wait for driverless cars myself, but in the meantime how's about mandatory in car cameras, at least that way any guilty party involved in a crash wouldn't be able to escape the evidence

Really winds me up seeing people on their mobiles whilst driving. The main culprits tend to be mothers with their children in the car texting away. Expensive car drivers, usually Range Rovers, that must have bluetooth connection as standard talking on their phones.
Not sure what the answer to the problem is with so few police to enforce the law maybe an instant ban with the use of CCTV to bring prosecutions for those caught would act as a deterrent to make others think twice.

drac - Nope still no excuse.

I can't think of when it would be impossible to stop no.

e.g. you are on a fast dual carriageway (or motorway with no hard shoulder) and come across a vehicle that has crashed off the road and is smoking heavily but has no obvious occupants. Would you stop on the carraigeway (where your vehicle is a hazard, and in some cases will be breaking other laws, or would you drive for 4 miles to the next exit to find a safe place to pull off and call the emergency services?

or, you have somehow upset the driver of another vehicle who is aggressively following you, flashing his lights, sounding his horn and gesticulating whilst his passenger is waving a baseball bat at you?

or, you pass under a footbridge where "yoofs" are firing at cars with an airgun, and chucking debris on the carriageway, on a high speed road with no place to stop?

or, you witness someone hacksawing bikes off a car at a remote trail centre and load them in a transit van, where you have no mobile signal and follow them from a distance until you get signal, but continue to follow them so you can provide the best location information to the police.

or, you are staying in a remote holiday home with no mobile signal, and no landline. You have a fire. You repeatedly dial 999 as you drive away to try and get a signal, with the intention of stopping as soon as you get a signal and it is safe to do so?

The law accepts that there are [i]some[/i] situations where a [i]genuine call to the emergency services[/i] should permit the use of a handheld phone whilst driving. I think you can be sure that none of the people you see just driving around are making those calls. I actually mentioned it because I thought some STW smart arse would point out that in law, there was one excuse!

You have quite an imagination.

We've spoken about this a lot recently of course.

In terms of modifying behaviour, since I've started driving a van, I've stopped cycling on a particular road near me. Being high-up in the van means that I can see just how many drivers are fiddling with phones, and I'm not risking this particular road any more.

One other thing, separate to phone users and RLJers, are yellow hatched box sitters. Where did they learn to drive? The box should be kept clear at all times.

Agree that there's just no enforcement these days.

I'm fairly sure the bluetooth phone is part of the standard spec on a Mondeo - mine certainly doesn't have any other add-on features.

The audio bit at least depends on age on the Mondy. I had a 58-plate (new shape but pre-facelift) Mondeo with all the Converse+ bells and whistles including voice-activated Bluetooth phone connectivity. What it didn't have was BT audio support; they added A2DP audio on a later revision (2009 maybe?), it's a physically different module.

poly - Member
e.g.

Quite the sort of examples I was thinking of, but as Drac insisted on only ever calling people when it was IMPOSSIBLE to stop, I gave a couple of examples (which have happened to people). Of course these and the events poly listed are unlikely, but any sensible person would use judgement rather than absolutes.

Back to the main point of this thread though, it's a pity a lot of people have incredibly poor judgement.

went to the bother of reporting someone who was facebook messaging as she drove alongside me (I was on the bike) after she started drifting towards me, I shouted but she seemed oblivious so braked and pulled back out of her way. I gave time, place, make, model, reg and description of driver.

Haven't heard a thing back 🙄

But yeah see [b][i]loads[/i][/b] of people doing it, one of the reasons I avoid the road wherever possible

[quote=Drac ]You have quite an imagination.

No imagination required - I called the police after being side swiped on the motorway. Yes I could have stopped on the hard shoulder, but stopping on the hard shoulder isn't generally considered to be the safest thing to do.

I like to stop/ride alongside the driver's window and wait to see how long it takes them to notice me staring at them like a psycho.