Legality of using phone while cycling

General cycling advice ( NOT technical ! )
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RickH
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Re: Legality of using phone while cycling

Post by RickH »

Mick F wrote:
st599_uk wrote:You don't get points on a licence in Germany, you get assigned points to the Person. So UK drivers/riders will get Flensburg System Points, but not UK licence points.

Anyone with too many points is ineligible to hold a licence.
That makes sense.
"Points to the Person".

As it happens, it came up in conversation (after I'd been at the mulled wine) that in Germany you can also get points for drink cycling. My daughter thought it slightly unfair that you could lose your licence by cycling but couldn't if you didn't have one. & you'd always be allowed to cycle whether you had a licence or not.
Former member of the Cult of the Polystyrene Head Carbuncle.
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Mick F
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Re: Legality of using phone while cycling

Post by Mick F »

RickH wrote: ........ slightly unfair that you could lose your licence by cycling but couldn't if you didn't have one. & you'd always be allowed to cycle whether you had a licence or not.
Exactly.

Cycling offence = loss of driving licence = unable to drive = still legal to cycle. :lol: :lol:

Take the argument further ...............
Cycling offence again = unable to cycle = still legal to walk.
Walking offence = then what?
Mick F. Cornwall
nirakaro
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Re: Legality of using phone while cycling

Post by nirakaro »

Reading further, it seems that you can be fined/get points on you account even if you're just listening to music while cycling!
https://flensburgerfiles.wordpress.com/ ... n-germany/
simonhill
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Re: Legality of using phone while cycling

Post by simonhill »

Quite a lot of Australian States have points, fines and bans on your driving licence for drinking whilst on a variety of modes of transport - cycling, riding a horse, lawnmower, etc. Don't know if it also applies to using a phone.

Personally, I consider my phone too valuable to use whilst cycling. Too easy to drop.
Postboxer
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Re: Legality of using phone while cycling

Post by Postboxer »

Maybe the argument is along the lines of if they trust you enough to allow you to drive a car on the roads, you have to continually demonstrate that you deserve that trust, by not doing dangerous/reckless things. Whenever/however you display tendencies to take risks, be dangerous etc, you deserve punishment/points on your driving licence whether or not you're taking the risks whilst driving or whilst cycling. This way they can monitor you more closely and ban you from driving if you continue to be a danger.
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The utility cyclist
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Re: Legality of using phone while cycling

Post by The utility cyclist »

What were/are the incident numbers for people on bikes whilst using a mobile phone? I saw one guy on his way to work rolling a doob whilst on his phone, seemed to navigate the pavement and crossing of a side road without any problem whatsoever and not shift his hands to the bars once, very skilful if you ask me :lol:
I never get the sense that these thing are fact based, yes, even Germany, given theri ignorance of other facts that show up their stance to certain aspects of cycling/riding a bike.
The listening to music one is especially annoying, this is a big thing in NL, yet motorists and pedestrians can have music but people on bikes can't, discrimination in action on the back of sod all actual evidence of it being a real problem or even actually the not hearing being the issue in the first instance, this is presumed from reading of various incidents.
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Mick F
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Re: Legality of using phone while cycling

Post by Mick F »

simonhill wrote:Personally, I consider my phone too valuable to use whilst cycling. Too easy to drop.
Me too! :shock:
Mick F. Cornwall
nirakaro
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Re: Legality of using phone while cycling

Post by nirakaro »

The utility cyclist wrote: I saw one guy on his way to work rolling a doob

'Doob' was a new word to me, so I googled it. Urban dictionary told me it's a term for 'an attractive member of the female gender'. Rolling one on a bike? That would be worth seeing!
Mike Sales
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Re: Legality of using phone while cycling

Post by Mike Sales »

nirakaro wrote:
The utility cyclist wrote: I saw one guy on his way to work rolling a doob

'Doob' was a new word to me, so I googled it. Urban dictionary told me it's a term for 'an attractive member of the female gender'. Rolling one on a bike? That would be worth seeing!


Presumably a contraction of "doobie", meaning a cannabis reefer, milud.

So pass that doobie to me now brother
I want to take a hit off the bong
We'll take a stroll with a nice glass bowl
Sucking on a spliff thats two feet long
It's the same the whole world over
It's the poor what gets the blame
It's the rich what gets the pleasure
Isn't it a blooming shame?
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Cunobelin
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Re: Legality of using phone while cycling

Post by Cunobelin »

Mick F wrote:
RickH wrote: ........ slightly unfair that you could lose your licence by cycling but couldn't if you didn't have one. & you'd always be allowed to cycle whether you had a licence or not.
Exactly.

Cycling offence = loss of driving licence = unable to drive = still legal to cycle. :lol: :lol:

Take the argument further ...............
Cycling offence again = unable to cycle = still legal to walk.
Walking offence = then what?


Slightly OT... but I will get there

In Southsea, there was a Royal Marine Barracks, and in the town of Southsea, a hostelry called the Wheelbarrow.

Legend has if a Marines Officer was "in his cups" and could not stagger back to barracks, the pub provided wheelbarrows for his colleagues to take him back... hence the name


Which brings us back on topic... providing you have friends, the answer to a walking ban is:

[youtube]2sRofkc8U6I[/youtube]
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[XAP]Bob
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Re: Legality of using phone while cycling

Post by [XAP]Bob »

I used to attend conference calls whilst cycling home from the office...

The degree of danger caused is/was/should be part of the reasoning behind legislation...
A shortcut has to be a challenge, otherwise it would just be the way. No situation is so dire that panic cannot make it worse.
There are two kinds of people in this world: those can extrapolate from incomplete data.
st599_uk
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Re: Legality of using phone while cycling

Post by st599_uk »

I once got pulled over in Germany for cycling very carefully back from a bier garden. He didn't care about the drinking as "it was only beer", nor the young lady who was side saddle on the top tube, nor the fact I was on the correct side of the road (with all the cars on the wrong side). He did me because the spoke reflectors were the wrong colour.
A novice learning...
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mjr
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Re: Legality of using phone while cycling

Post by mjr »

nirakaro wrote:A German friend tells me that in Germany you can lose your driving licence for using your phone while driving. Obviously this is a Good Thing. But apparently you can also lose your driving licence for using your phone while cycling – which is inconvenient if you want to use it for navigation. Is this a Good Thing – sauce for the goose/gander? Or is it a Bad Thing, because we cyclists are all inherently virtuous, and anyway much less likely than motorists to kill someone through momentary inattention?

How about neither? It's a bad thing but because it's an unnecessary punitive tit for tat punishment of cyclists by the majority of non-cycling motorists. They should Penalise reckless behaviour instead of things that occasionally might lead to reckless behaviour.
MJR, mostly pedalling 3-speed roadsters. KL+West Norfolk BUG incl social easy rides http://www.klwnbug.co.uk
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gazza_d
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Re: Legality of using phone while cycling

Post by gazza_d »

It is legal to use a phone whilst cycling in UK.
I rarely do as I'm worried about dropping it, and would probably sound like a cross between a steam loco and a sex pest
Oldjohnw
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Re: Legality of using phone while cycling

Post by Oldjohnw »

I always thought that the reason not to use a phone whilst driving a car ie your concentration is elsewhere applied when cycling. So I would never use my phone. Having it attached to your handlebars as a satnav would be the same as in a car and ok.

But what do I know?
John
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