Problems solved: 74 % use phones while driving

[Cyril Haearn]

The Ostsee-Zeitung just reported that 74% of drivers use their phones while driving.

The figure in Britain must be similar.

This is no problem, it is an oppurtunity

The police should take the same attitide as rat-catchers. If they find a house full of rodents, they do not give up and try to be friendly. No, they get more poison and catch the lot.

The police could do the same, not with poison but with penalty points and driving bans. If they took up their work and tried to catch as many as possible, there would soon be much less traffic. More space for cycling, less noise, pollution, resources saved, money saved, unnecessary transports (e.g. bottled water) would have to be stopped because so many lorry drivers would be banned. Win-win-win for us all.

How can we (law-abiding cyclists, law-abiding drivers) get the police on our side?

[beardy]

Not much chance of Magistrates handing out points and bans on a large scale as that would be "damaging to the economy". Far better for the coffers if they just milk them with lots of fines, possibly by fixed ticket so Magistrates are not bothered by it.

Back in the real world, they have said the "war on motorists" is over, so nothing is going to happen as we all know.

[jezer]

And apparently a large number know that speaking on a mobile is illegal, but think texting, taking pics, and using social media is not. It will take years to sink in, like drink driving did in the past

[Vladimir]

I just posted something that should have probably been a post on here on another thread.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=88821&p=805410#p805410

for your reference this is what I said:

this might be a consequence of my fantastic view of how the world should be, coupled with the fact that my wife, sister-in-law, mother-in-law and father-in-law have impeccable driving skill as well as etiquette (no phones, no excessive talking/distracting, etc, etc), BUT:

I think the penalties for even minor offences are far too lax. Using a phone while driving - on the spot fine of £30 (excuse me if this figure is slightly wrong). Big <expletive removed, by mod> whoop! What's £30, especially these days? Increase the on-the-spot fine to £500+ and send out a contingent of cops (equip them with GoPros for evidence purposes) to enforce it and watch it all disappear within a matter of weeks... (again, I realise this is just me rambling and exaggerating - i.e. it will never happen, but a man can dream, right?)

[Stradageek]

Two tales relevant to the string:

Saw a farmer driving towards me on a narrow lane using his mobile phone, I gesticulated that he shouldn't be on his phone and got an <abusive response> for my trouble, not the first time this has happened

Yet a colleague at work told me of a mother at his son's primary school who died after driving into a tree with a phone and half completed text in her hand!

Why do these tales never make the news, does concern for the victim's family override the need to make others realise that this is a lethal habit?

[Vladimir]

died after driving into a tree with a phone and half completed text in her hand!

There are thousands of these stories... hence my "crazy" suggestion of increasing the fine and enforcing it very strongly. Let's face it, if the fine was £500, even one a day would pay the salary for the cop administering it... with one fine per day, I don't think there will be any "quota filling/chasing" going on. call me crazy...

[reohn2]

Not much chance of Magistrates handing out points and bans on a large scale as that would be "damaging to the economy". Far better for the coffers if they just milk them with lots of fines, possibly by fixed ticket so Magistrates are not bothered by it.

Which could be £100 first offence,£200 second,£300 third and so on rigorously imposed until the message(sorry)sinks in.

Back in the real world, they have said the "war on motorists" is over, so nothing is going to happen as we all know.

Sorry(again)the real world gets in the way of enforcing the law,agreed.

How tired I am of the lack of traffic law enforcement in this country...........

[[XAP]Bob]

Not much chance of Magistrates handing out points and bans on a large scale as that would be "damaging to the economy". Far better for the coffers if they just milk them with lots of fines, possibly by fixed ticket so Magistrates are not bothered by it.

Which could be £100 first offence,£200 second,£300 third and so on rigorously imposed until the message(sorry)sinks in.

Back in the real world, they have said the "war on motorists" is over, so nothing is going to happen as we all know.

Sorry(again)the real world gets in the way of enforcing the law,agreed.

How tired I am of the lack of traffic law enforcement in this country...........

100, 200, 400, 800...

[SA_SA_SA]

And apparently a large number know that speaking on a mobile is illegal, but think texting, taking pics, and using social media is not. ....

But all could be described as "driving without due care and attention":
if they don't understand the concept of "driving without due care and attention" they should have their licence revoked.

[Cyril Haearn]

Two tales relevant to the string:

Saw a farmer driving towards me on a narrow lane using his mobile phone, I gesticulated that he shouldn't be on his phone and got an <abusive response> for my trouble, not the first time this has happened

Yet a colleague at work told me of a mother at his son's primary school who died after driving into a tree with a phone and half completed text in her hand!

Why do these tales never make the news, does concern for the victim's family override the need to make others realise that this is a lethal habit?

They do make the news but as A Warhol said: "everyone should be famous for 15 minutes" [only]
The stories are soon forgotten except by the victims/bereaved whose lives are over/ruined for ever

[Mr Evil]

100, 200, 400, 800...

At that rate, they would only need to catch one driver 33 times to pay off the entire national debt.

[gaz]

Stats for self-confessed mobile use: https://www.rac.co.uk/press-centre#/pre ... it-2159789

Stats for "arrests": https://www.rac.co.uk/press-centre#/pre ... es-2310834

[Cyril Haearn]

100, 200, 400, 800...

At that rate, they would only need to catch one driver 33 times to pay off the entire national debt.

1600 3200 6400 12800.....
+1, this is warming my brain up, a minute ago I was practising the 27-times table to calculate gears

[Mr Evil]

100, 200, 400, 800...

At that rate, they would only need to catch one driver 33 times to pay off the entire national debt.

1600 3200 6400 12800.....
+1, this is warming my brain up, a minute ago I was practising the 27-times table to calculate gears

You can use algebra to do it quicker than counting all the way up:

The national debt is about £1.5T. Doubling a number x times is the same as multiplying it by 2^x, so you need to work out 100 x 2^x = 1.5e12. Rearranging that to find x gives x = log2 (1.5e12 / 100). Not many calculators can calculate log base 2, but you can do it with log in any other base like x = log (1.5e12 / 100) / log (2).

This works out to be x = 33.8, which rounds up to 34. However you don't need the fine to be the size of the whole debt at once because you've already collected fines that sum to only one less than the next fine, so you actually only need 33 fines.

[The utility cyclist]

The broken windows approach reaps dividends in the long run, here's an example of a 'minor' infraction,
the cop gives it the beans to pull over the errant driver. If people think they are very likely to be caught and penalised they are less likely to do it. However simply removing humans from the equation in terms of the harm they can present or removing the thing that causes the distraction as per mobile phones/sat nav/infotainment systems (& the ridiculous massive screens in EVs!! ) is by far the most effective.
[youtube]5BdGWPrfy20[/youtube]