Safe Speed Forums

While I agree with everything you have posted there , Mole, this last bit is especially true. I find trying to have a conversation on a hands free, with crappy sound qaulity, far more distracting than listening to my phone normally. To be honest, if I am on a clear rural road, I will ,sometimes, switch the phone to loudspeaker to have a conversation, rather than try and listen to the tinny hands free , althogh I do try and keep all received calls short and wouldn't dial out whilst driving..

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

Well, I've just been out for a 10 minute walk to the local shops.

So, on my local high street:

One skip lorry driver looking down at his iPhone in his right hand as he used it whilst driving along. When I challenged him he said it was a sat nav, and asked me if it was ok to use a satnav whilst driving, he might've been using it as a sat nav, but it was clearly an iphone. The sad thing was he had a mate with him, and if he was using it as a sat nav his mate could have operated it whilst he concentrated on driving his skip lorry.

One driver of a very large council lorry, his right hand holding his phone to his left ear, presumably so he could make gear changes with his left hand and get it back to the wheel afterwards to correct his course. He put it down as soon as I challenged him, he looked a little shocked though. This was a very large lorry.

A girl driving a car, phone in right hand against right ear; she ignored me when I challenged her. As she drove away, she was still on the phone, and also changing gear, so no hands on the wheel then (it wasn't an automatic).

I think it was good and brave of you to confront them weepej

I confess I'm not sure I would have had the same temerity; you don't know who you're dealing with and you may not be so lucky next time.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

Don't tell me all of you haven't noticed (as I have) the increasing incidence of big trucks coming towards you on s/c A roads drifting over the white line towards you at a frightening rate only to be jerked back into line at the last minute by the driver who has a mobile stuck in his ear.

I disagree with most on here. I never do anything while driving except the driving. I use only steering wheel mounted controls for the radio etc. I don't smoke, drink, use the phone or anything else while the car is moving. I also hardly talk to passengers.

We, on here, invest a lot of capital in promoting improved driver training to increase safety. If you were doing the teaching, would you tell a learner that it was OK to do all this stuff while driving? I think you are advocating what is convenient to you rather than what is likely to be safest.

I also think that other road users apart from drivers should concentrate on what they are doing. For example, pedestrians and cyclists shouldn't have iPods in their ears. They should be listening to what is going on.

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Malcolm W.
The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not represent the views of Safespeed.

So whilst walking you could :

A) see a driver in a truck higher than you with a iphone in his right hand, that he was looking DOWN at..really? and then managed to stop him?...really?
)b) Managed to stop and challenge a driver of a council lorry (were they even working on a saturday?)...really?

(c) Managed to stop and challenge a girl driver...really?

I sometimes worry about your facts weepej?

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

Ah yes, graball, you caught me out, I made this all up.

Did you? Hmmm... Interesting...

Okay, let’s cut to the chase; there's no way of knowing!

But I have to say I find it surprising you did not come here on this occasion to say that you tried to jump in the road or stand at the side waving your arms at drivers where you felt someone was speeding which, in your book, is surely more of an issue...

On your alleged walk I'm sure you must have had at least one speeder out to kill someone, or maybe you live in a small town called 'No-one Speeds' near Bullshit Boulevard.

Could it be you are starting to recognise there are factors more dangerous than simply exceeding a dumb posted speed limit?

Interesting It's a good job I'm sitting down

IF you did what you say, I maintain it's laudable and I take my hat off to you. But what's your excuse for not making an effort against the speeders you would inevitabley have encountered which you feel so passionately about?

The truth is you wouldn't have even noticed if someone was driving 5 or 10 mph over if they were doing it somewhere safely.

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The views expressed in this post are personal opinions and do not necessarily represent the views of Safe Speed.
You will be branded a threat to society by going over a speed limit where it is safe to do so, and suffer the consequences of your actions in a way criminals do not, more so than someone who is a real threat to our society.

No Big Tone, I didn't make it up.

I've always recognised there are other ways to be an idiot on the road other than speeding Big Tone, I think it's the denizens of this place that assert it's my only concern as regards road safety.

Yes, it's all to do with the "spirit of the law" and the "letter" of it. Clearly, the intention is to get drivers to refrain from causing danger by driving whilst distracted in some way. That's fine and laudible, and I'd never want to do that myself. HOWEVER, they came upon their first problem when they realised that anyone who uses a 2-way radio in the car would also fall foul of the new law. We now have this rather laughable situation where you can't use a mobile but you can use a CB. (Obviously the latter NOT being dangerous)! The next problem they come across is that (like speeding) using a mobile isn't always dangerous. In fact, (also like speeding), using a mobile whilst driving covers pretty much the whole spectrum of causing danger - right from none at all, through "some" and right up to "lots". Now they haven't actually tackled the "distraction" problem, (they've just partially tackled the "not having both hands on the wheel" problem - well, unless one of them is holding a microphone rather than a mobile phone, that is)! The result is that we have an imperfect law. It's not completely useless - accidents of this type have, I think, gone down, but it's (like speed limits) rather a blunt instrument. It's the same mentaility that sets different speed limits for identical vans - one of which has been converted into a camper van.

Of course, we did already have perfectly good laws about not paying attention, but these require some skill and judgement to enforce. (oh, and they cost money too)!

Cor, if I was driving behind you I bet I'd know you were being distracted by a phone call, and then fiddling around with your mobile, I see it all the time, a little sharp swerve here, a drift across the line there, and if this sort of thing happens at the wrong time...

Don't you think you've already got enough to do when driving a car without messing around like that?

Actually pressing the loudspeaker button is quite simple..... however, if that would cause you to swerve around as you suggest , you need more driving practice, weepej.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

At the risk of stating the obvious, Weepej, perhaps you only NOTICE the ones that do the "liitle sharp swerve here and the drift across the dotted line there..."?

And maybe they drive like that all the time and don't even have a mobile phone....

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

To be fair there is a clear 'distraction swerve', 'steering jerk' that can sometimes happen, when people are paying less attention to the road ahead, as opposed to the more gentle swerve or steering flick from the tired driver.
You can 'see' when people are otherwise distracted, but the majority of the time it is 'not too great' and for often only momentary. Not that I approve of this, but what is observed in the 'real world', tells us much about people beliefs, psychology and legal respect.
We can use this as a warning to tell us they are a 'hazard' and take all appropriate action/s ...
We could judge them but that is really not a positive action on any level.
Far better to assess their next likely move and be fully prepared and then be pleased with accurate assessment and be prepared to see how we misinterpreted their actions if we were wrong.
Learning from others is more helpful than being critical - surely ?

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Safe Speed for Intelligent Road Safety through proper research, experience & guidance.

Some people prefer to be critical - for those people, it is a positive action, otherwise they wouldn't do it so often. Some prefer it so greatly, that they hasten to judge [either situations or other people], completely ignoring whatever they need to ignore so that their 'conclusion' fits their filtered criteria.

Laws - as well as many people, it would seem - assume that 'supertaskers' are accidental anomalies. 'Simpletaskers' can't or won't believe that such a skill can be acquired by training.

They have learned to ignore that which supertaskers have learned to consider. Thus, whenever the 'simpletasker' and the 'supertasker' disagree (regardless of whether the simpletasker is actually correct or not) the 'simpletasker' has come to an immutable conclusion, because the 'other mutable factors' that the 'supertasker' habitually tracks are always irrelevant.

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The Rules for ALL ROAD USERS:
1) No one gets hurt
2) Nothing gets hit, except to protect others; see Rule#1
3) The Laws of Physics are invincible and immutable - so-called 'laws' of men are not
4) You are always immediately and ultimately responsible for your safety first, then proximately responsible for everyone's
Do not let other road users' mistakes become yours, nor yours become others
5) The rest, including laws of the land, is thoughtful observation, prescience, etiquette, decorum, and cooperation

It's a bit like the William Tell thing of him (supposedly) shooting arrows off his son's head. THe elf and softy brigade would lock him up now purely because no one else had the ability to copy him.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.

And I can drive quite safely after four pints of beer. Are you suggesting that there should be a law to prevent that just because my wife hasn't the ability to do so?

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown

I'm not interested in learning how to drive drunk, per se.
However, if we could learn what allows you to drive safely after four pints of beer, and teach others to apply it while sober, that'd be real progress.

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The Rules for ALL ROAD USERS:
1) No one gets hurt
2) Nothing gets hit, except to protect others; see Rule#1
3) The Laws of Physics are invincible and immutable - so-called 'laws' of men are not
4) You are always immediately and ultimately responsible for your safety first, then proximately responsible for everyone's
Do not let other road users' mistakes become yours, nor yours become others
5) The rest, including laws of the land, is thoughtful observation, prescience, etiquette, decorum, and cooperation

And if we could learn what allows the people on this thread to drive safely whilst talking on a telephone and teach others to apply it whilst not doing so, that'd be real progress.

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When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race. H.G. Wells
When I see a youth in a motor car I do d.c.brown