Post by Max on Oct 13, 2020 14:23:42 GMT
They are a holder which sometimes saves one hand for driving but that is all….driving safely still involves two.
Think about drunk drivers for a second. They are usually spotted because they are swaying left/right in their lane, they randomly speed up and slow down, they don’t react correctly to traffic lights and are generally slow responding to what else is going on around them……the effect of using mobiles is almost exactly the same!
As a biker I get a good view (and a good laugh), regularly seeing drivers grabbing the thing, turning it left and right, tilting the angle up and down and even swivelling it from portrait to landscape. I have lost count of the times I’ve seen the thing fall off the dash or come unstuck from the windscreen after they’ve hit a pothole or taken a speed bump a bit quick. I can see the funny side of it as they try to steer while looking down, rummaging around their feet but I am always mindful of the serious consequences if they cause an accident. I sat watching someone updating their Facebook the other day, today a lady was clearly trying to place an order on the JustEat app and a couple of weeks ago I overtook someone watching the previous evenings EastEnders on the BBCiplayer.
Don’t get me wrong, while I am fully aware it is illegal to hold a phone whilst driving I don’t really see the other thing as all that much different. Their hands are all over it to set the satnav, or to make a facetime call or Googling something while driving.
The hands free kit hasn’t stopped drivers from getting distracted and it doesn’t help make them concentrate more on the road. Their fingers are still all over it all the time.
From a motorcyclists point of view I always ride expecting everyone to be trying to kill me anyway, so with that in mind I am always watching, riding defensively and fully prepared. My first years on a bike were in the mid-80s and I honestly think riding on roads and especially filtering in traffic and safe overtakes is far easier nowadays. Back then it was so much trickier finding gaps in traffic to slot into, whereas now they are there almost every other car. I know half the drivers will be on their phones in one way or another; they leave gaps all the time because they are looking at screen instead of realising the car in front has set off or that the lights turned green 5 seconds ago.
The UK has a problem of epidemic scale with most drivers doing it, the law is seemingly unable to prosecute enough of them to make them think twice. If there was a high chance of being caught it would make the difference but because only a tiny few are ever punished it sadly means the habit sticks and continues.
Think about drunk drivers for a second. They are usually spotted because they are swaying left/right in their lane, they randomly speed up and slow down, they don’t react correctly to traffic lights and are generally slow responding to what else is going on around them……the effect of using mobiles is almost exactly the same!
As a biker I get a good view (and a good laugh), regularly seeing drivers grabbing the thing, turning it left and right, tilting the angle up and down and even swivelling it from portrait to landscape. I have lost count of the times I’ve seen the thing fall off the dash or come unstuck from the windscreen after they’ve hit a pothole or taken a speed bump a bit quick. I can see the funny side of it as they try to steer while looking down, rummaging around their feet but I am always mindful of the serious consequences if they cause an accident. I sat watching someone updating their Facebook the other day, today a lady was clearly trying to place an order on the JustEat app and a couple of weeks ago I overtook someone watching the previous evenings EastEnders on the BBCiplayer.
Don’t get me wrong, while I am fully aware it is illegal to hold a phone whilst driving I don’t really see the other thing as all that much different. Their hands are all over it to set the satnav, or to make a facetime call or Googling something while driving.
The hands free kit hasn’t stopped drivers from getting distracted and it doesn’t help make them concentrate more on the road. Their fingers are still all over it all the time.
From a motorcyclists point of view I always ride expecting everyone to be trying to kill me anyway, so with that in mind I am always watching, riding defensively and fully prepared. My first years on a bike were in the mid-80s and I honestly think riding on roads and especially filtering in traffic and safe overtakes is far easier nowadays. Back then it was so much trickier finding gaps in traffic to slot into, whereas now they are there almost every other car. I know half the drivers will be on their phones in one way or another; they leave gaps all the time because they are looking at screen instead of realising the car in front has set off or that the lights turned green 5 seconds ago.
The UK has a problem of epidemic scale with most drivers doing it, the law is seemingly unable to prosecute enough of them to make them think twice. If there was a high chance of being caught it would make the difference but because only a tiny few are ever punished it sadly means the habit sticks and continues.