What can we do about drivers on phones….

I’m late to the party here but are @Cougar and @Cougar2 the same person???

Yes. See the ‘issues’ sticky.  You might need to go back a page or two.

And driverless cars in US cities.

No they don’t.  It’s like three cities and they have automated cars, not autonomous ones.  They still require a driver.

Regardless, most of us don’t live in the US.  Many American cities were manufactured with cars in mind.  It’s one thing navigating a grid system, another entirely hacking around a British city or a scabby single track road with passing places that we can’t yet trust satnavs not to send us down.  My car has an automatic parallel park feature, in the 2-3 years I’ve had it I think it’s worked once.

Proper funding for traffic cops and then issue them all with a tiny hammer. Caught using your phone, hammer time! for your phone and a fine and points for you.

I don’t agree with ‘switch off’ tech. I use my phone for voice navigation and playing music through Tidal. It sits in the glovebox or in the drinks holder thingy and I’m never tempted to use it. I ignore most calls and messages when I’m at home, let alone whilst driving.

I see it quite a bit, mainly around town and quite a lot seem to be young women around their early 20s, or tradies in their vans, it’s not just phones either, electronic devices are as bad, i think every delivery driver you see is veering about as they check their drop off list and directions rather than the road.

It’s just one of many issues on cars, i see a fair few that aren’t MoT’d or Taxed, and i’d hazard a guess there’s a lot without licenses, fake plates, etc as well, factor in a lot of old folk who shouldn’t be near a car anymoe and it’s not an easy drive these days!

Caught using your phone, hammer time! for your phone and a fine and points for you.

This is policy in France I believe, for satnavs with speed camera warnings.  They make you drive over it.  Might be different now in the days of phones for navigation, I don’t know.

I don’t agree with ‘switch off’ tech. I use my phone for voice navigation and playing music through Tidal. It sits in the glovebox or in the drinks holder thingy and I’m never tempted to use it. I ignore most calls and messages when I’m at home, let alone whilst driving.

I don’t disagree, I have Android Auto for mapping, Spotify, audiobooks, podcasts.  It’ll read out text messages and ask me if I want to (verbally) send a reply.  None of this requires me to touch the handset, it’s little different from changing radio channels.  But I’ll wager that almost everyone will justify their usage to themselves whatever that usage happens to be.  It’s a bit like speeding – the speed I’m going is correct, anyone faster is a menace and anyone slower is under the feet and going to cause an accident.

For all the cries of “that’s not how it works”
Again. that’s not how it works.. ”

It doesn’t work and isn’t working so rather than pissing on other people’s chips because their ideas are different to current UK road traffic sentencing guidelines then maybe the current points and fines do need addressing.

The crux of it is though not enough police tasked with actively seeking out those on the phone , overload cps system to process any increase in potential prosecution and courts without capacity to hear lots of trials regarding phone use.

Maybe a different system with the option of taking points , or on the spot ( say within 3 days) fine of a week’s wage, increase to a month wage on repeat offence would be a self financing deterrent.

And please let’s not start with , but that’s not how it works. Simply because it doesn’t work. Phone use is at an all time high , and is only going to get worse as the millennials who have lived umbically attached to a phone get decent jobs and drive more

After several very close calls with drivers I bought some cameras from Chillitech a couple of months ago. I use them on my commute and have submited reports via Operation Snap of three drivers who drove very dangerously around me. Results are two warning letters sent and one Notice of Intended Prosecution.

I have not reported any phone drivers yet but see lots of them and am considering doing so. I would need to change my front camera from bar to helmet mount though. It would be like shooting fish in a barrel

And please let’s not start with , but that’s not how it works. Simply because it doesn’t work.

If 6 points and a several hundred quid fine isn’t deterring people then increasing that penalty isn’t going to make the blindest bit of difference.  Crushing the phone as Funky suggested might I guess.

I bet if you asked drivers what the penalty was, most wouldn’t know.  Advertising that more widely could be a promising start, rather than crying to bring back the birch.

I’m late to the party here but are @Cougar and @Cougar2 the same person???

Got banned so came back with a cunning new username to fox the mods

[winky face emoji]

Can smoking and vaping be stopped too please, and people talking, and middle lane drivers, and those that stick just below the speed limit

The thing I don’t get is why these people have phones to their ears. I drive a Dacia…I can make calls between talking to it…..it’s a **** Dacia…..I bought it because it was the cheapest car I could buy, surely there cars do this. I mean my 20 year-old Skoda it replaced didn’t but most cars are much newer.

Scrolling through tikity toks in stationary traffic is obviously tougher to get rid of.

No they don’t.  It’s like three cities and they have automated cars, not autonomous ones.  They still require a driver.

Not that I want to be picky, but I literally sat in the back of a Waymo in Phoenix last week and was driven from one place to another without anyone else in the car. Just because it’s US-only, it doesn’t mean that your statement that “we’ll never have driverless cars” isn’t wrong.

If 6 points and a several hundred quid fine isn’t deterring people then increasing that penalty isn’t going to make the blindest bit of difference.

As has already been said the problem’s not really the sanctions, if people are flouting the law with impunity and getting away with it very few sanctions are going to work. The key to the problem is enforcement.

6 points & a several hundred quid fine would soon stop most people if it were applied each time they used their phones whilst driving.

All of the cars I have had this century have had hands free phone options, my latest car a  Kia proceed wont move without me putting the seat belt on which is bloody annoying if i need to move it 2 m on the drive . It wouldnt be much of a step to apply similar tech to phones? .Internal cameras and phone detected = no start

It’s just one of many issues on cars, i see a fair few that aren’t MoT’d or Taxed,

im interested in how you know this since tax discs were abolished and there has never been a requirement to display an mot

Thing is, the laws on mobile use while driving were first passed in 2003

Front seat belts were a required fitting in cars 55 years ago (those of a certain age will remember “Clunk-Click”). Mandatory wearing of those front seat belts didn’t happen until around 40 years ago (rear seat belts weren’t a required fitting until a few years later)

The take-up of front seat belt wearing was comparatively widespread and rapid (90%), rear seat belts less so

Soon after the law came into effect in 1983, 90% of car drivers and front-seat passengers were observed to be wearing seat belts. These high rates of seat belt wearing in front-seats of cars have been sustained since that time.
When seatbelt wearing became compulsory for all rear-seat occupants in 1991, there was an immediate increase from 10% to 40% in observed seat belt wearing rates. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/thirty-years-of-seatbelt-safety

Is it generational, or do people perceive rear seat belt use and ignoring mobile phones as less necessary?

im interested in how you know this since tax discs were abolished and there has never been a requirement to display an mot

Lots of time on their hands? https://www.gov.uk/get-vehicle-information-from-dvla 🙂

For all the cries of “that’s not how it works”
Again. that’s not how it works.. ”

It doesn’t work and isn’t working so rather than pissing on other people’s chips because their ideas are different to current UK road traffic sentencing guidelines then maybe the current points and fines do need addressing.

but I think you are missing the point as the media do with every offence which they are upset about – murders still happen even with life sentences, and even in countries with the death penalty, yet you even go on to highlight the real issues:

The crux of it is though not enough police tasked with actively seeking out those on the phone , overload cps system to process any increase in potential prosecution and courts without capacity to hear lots of trials regarding phone use.

Because you are absolutely right – forget sentencing, that’s not the main issue – risk of getting caught is the problem.

Phone use is at an all time high , and is only going to get worse as the millennials who have lived umbically attached to a phone get decent jobs and drive more

hey boomer, you know millennials are almost all in their 30s or 40s now.  In theory gen Z and gen Alpha have learned to drive in an era where IF CAUGHT they have to retake their test so should have had a massive incentive to break the habit when driving…. But it come back to the risk of getting caught.

there is a fine balance between being “self financing” and being a “sales target” but until a politicians family member or come b-list celebrity is mown down by a phone driver don’t expect anyone to see it as a priority.

We managed a cultural change around drink driving. Could the same be done for phone use while driving? I remember a lot of hard hitting adverts making drinking and driving antisocial.

The phone problem is wider than a car thing, lots of people of all ages are so atached to their phones that safety is secondary to their phone habit. This is why I think that a technological way of preventing drivers from using phones is the only way to prevent them offending.

Maybe the phone should report the driver if they access any other app when driving other than music and navigation?

Just a couple of weeks ago I was travelling in my mates truck and the young lady in front was obviously texting whilst driving. She failed to spot the brake lights of the concrete wagon slowing to allow another driver out of a junction and ploughed straight into the back of the lorry. We stopped to inform the lorry driver what we had witnessed and the other driver was adamant that we were lying. I sincerely hope that the police can check her phone records to prove her misuse of her phone.

I sincerely hope that the police can check her phone records to prove her misuse of her phone.

Disclaimer: I don’t know how much time/effort/resources the police put into things like this or if it depends on the severity of the crash (ie a dented bumper vs a fatality).

But imagine if car crashes were treated with the same rigour that literally any other mode of transport gets. Even a near miss in aviation or rail gets a board of investigation, a report, suggestions on safety improvements.

Cars, it seems to be mostly a case of just letting the insurance deal with it all and a driver using the phone (or driving with a slightly – but not obviously – defective vehicle) may never be proved one way or the other.

Just because it’s US-only, it doesn’t mean that your statement that “we’ll never have driverless cars” isn’t wrong.

Then I’ve totally been lied to by the Internet. Apologies.

Phoenix is the Grid System, is it not? That’s a whole different proposition from driving round a UK city centre, or a single track country lane with passing places.

In theory gen Z and gen Alpha have learned to drive

Gen Alpha won’t have for a few years yet.

Maybe the phone should report the driver if they access any other app when driving other than music and navigation?

How do you differentiate between driver and passenger?

and those that stick just below the speed limit

It is a limit not an absolute. People shouldn’t always be traveling dead on 30, 40 or whatever. Has it been raining, is it overly bright etc. People seeing limits as the speed you must travel or as a target is part of the issue. I’ll also happily sit at 50mph on a dual carriageway as it will save me money.

im interested in how you know this since tax discs were abolished and there has never been a requirement to display an mot

As someone else stated, take the number of suspicious cars, check on DVLA site, it tells you if taxed or MoT’d, it’s not that rare unfortunately, we had a van around here reported numerous times for dangerous loads and no MoT/Tax, nothing ever happened, well until it went down an A road and the rear axle separated from the vehicle and it overturned, the police managed to send someone out for that.

How do you differentiate between driver and passenger?

Some phones are able to unlock themselves with facial recognition, why not have facial recognition on a driver camera -which detects whether certain functions on the phone owned by the driver is being used and disables call/ texting functions. Most modern cars have been pairing phone to car in background for over a decade so its not too far fetched.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/cwy97jjg21no

People seeing limits as the speed you must travel or as a target is part of the issue.

Not this again.

You should drive at or near the speed limit unless you have reason not to.  Wet roads for example, as you say.  Hesitancy is a major fail on your test if you don’t.

Some phones are able to unlock themselves with facial recognition, why not have facial recognition on a driver camera -which detects whether certain functions on the phone owned by the driver is being used and disables call/ texting functions.

What if the passenger is using the driver’s phone?

What if the passenger is using the driver’s phone?

Facial recognition for the passenger also – it can’t be that hard… Volvo have had some sort of face/behaviour nodding off avoidance technology available for a decade, I don’t how it works but am pretty sure it doesn’t wait until you start snoring. Car detects driver phone usage = phone is blocked, no emotion.

Make the phone the car key. So it has to be inserted in to a slot to make the car move.

As someone else stated, take the number of suspicious cars, check on DVLA site,

Do people act have so little to do that they can be bothered to memorise a number plate to check later. Perhaps they are using their phone to take a photo of the vehicle 🙂

I mean, it can’t be that hard… but would need phone manufacturers to work with car companies. That shouldn’t be too bad, there’s only two main phone brands – and car companies, well rather than providing completely unnecessary performance and needless leather lined luxury tat could divert some of the billions spent in development to implement a feature which would benefit everyone… as we should all surely aim to be killed by an inattentive driver a little less.

The logic pathway could go something like 1. a. phone detects its in a car through gps, motion and is disabled or b. car detects phone present and pings it to disable features – unless: 2. phone is paired with car and limited features available through wheel controls and infotainment, calls and texts etc. blocked: 3. Phone works only in car if stationary and engine off.

You should drive at or near the speed limit unless you have reason not to. Wet roads for example

Does this include single lanes with national limits? Explains a lot I suppose