Safe Speed Forums

Hello everyone,

I am hoping this request is OK with the forum moderators.

I am a postgraduate student at The University of Leeds studying Psychological Approaches to Health. I am currently conducting a research project and I am looking for people to fill in a questionnaire. The only requirements are that you are over 18, a driver, and own a mobile phone. The research is looking at people’s use of mobile phones while driving. It is not necessary that you have used a mobile phone while at the wheel, but if you have your participation would be particularly appreciated. The questionnaire is anonymous and estimated to take around 15-25 minutes to complete. If you are able to spare some time to complete the questionnaire it would be very much appreciated.

The questionnaire is at http://www.an1.co.uk/limesurvey/index.p ... 11&lang=en along with further details.

Many thanks for your time.

Regards,

Alan.

...while driving.
So then, this research is about where morality and legality blur.

_________________
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

I went about 5 pages through the survey and your survey is flawed. I use a handsfree kit to keep contact with my disabled wife. It constantly takls about approval and peer aproval, and using since the ban and giving up and how hard it would be to do so. It assumes that it is immoral to use a phone whilst driving and seeks to measure disaproval levels.

I am using it within the law, I am not intending to give up. It is a lifeline and tool that gives freedom .

I believe your questionaire is about illegal use of handsheld mobiles but is full of incorrect assumptions.
The sad thing is you are mis-using valuable research money. And people will use your poor research to bully me out of using this tool that allows my wife to stay safe and have help on hand.It allow her to change the pick up point in town If her MS wears her out or traffic

It might help if you put some studies into a drivers mobile with better voice dialing, better bluetooth conection and radios with buetooth built in like the sony mex bt2500

I would like to see voice anouncement of the caller and voice rejection

I am on my third handfree kit and would like some work to be done to know which ones are best.
the first sony erricson one ws great but the phone died and the new sony phone wouldnt stay connected,
I bought a motorola bluetooth kit and it was useless
I have an HTC phone now and the wired kit works but is quiet
I am looking to buy the sony mexbt2500 soon but I neeed to know it works well.

_________________
Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

Anton, 1st of all, I don't think he is a product analyst.
2nd, I wouldn't have a problem with you holding the phone in your hand to keep track of your wife, as long as you maintained enough wits about you to know when to use it, and when not to. Just like you probably do now anyway with a handsfree.
Your ability to deal with your wife's condition on the phone while driving proves beyond a reasonable doubt - at least to me - that you have conditioned yourself not to be easily distracted by the conversation itself, and that you deftly maintain your focus on several targets. You rose to it because you felt you had to.

Before the 'handsfree' requirement, if you were using your mobile phone without a 'handsfree', were you being immoral then? I think not, but some people have the ability to rewrite their memories at the will of the party ...

Some Amerikan states have not yet illegalized the use of a mobile phone while driving. So all one would have to do to 're-moralize' themselves is to cross a state line? I just went crosseyed.

I thoroughly disapprove of a so-called 'common sense' that shifts with the prevailing winds, or the mood of the people behind closed doors who wish to treat us like we are idiots, and then wonder why the standards of 'common sense' and society are on the decline, and why we all increasingly feel like we are surrounded by a lack of sense.

The assumption that illegality always equals immorality is patently asinine, unless you are either a sheep, or a shepherd. So guess this research is really for?

It might help if more studies were done on what could be done to make mobile phone use while driving safer. Anybody - I hope - could guess that a radio that requires you use the knob to zero in on the signal is much more dangerous than one with presets. I know that cellphone use is more complicated, but brutally simplifying the issue just makes for simpler and simpler people.

_________________
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

I've not looked at the survey as yet so I could be talking out of turn here, but it would be interesting to compare the crash rates of mobile phone users with CB radio users. I would have thought that a CB conversation would be much harder than a mobile phone conversation to conduct and would demand more attention to do so.

This survey has nothing to do with that.

1st of all, today, CB radio users by and large are either formally trained, or have sufficient experience, that they are accustomed to CB use.
CB users are more accustomed to CB reception difficulties. The same cannot reliably said - yet - of cellphone users.

2nd, and more importantly, since the person on the other end explicitly understands that you are driving, they are less likely to press the conversation to the point where they will distract you. CB users, by and large, are either inherently accustomed, or trained, to maximize the feature of discrete turns speaking and listening.

3rd, the majority of cellphone users have little or no protocol regarding its use for the safety of the driver - keeping the conversation simple, and discrete, not to mention that CB radio users either tend to stick to a limited number of topics that are road oriented, or are using the CB radio and the vehicle to complement each other and the driver's job.

I wonder how much it would help if, upon calling, the person calling the driver had some sort of overt indication that the recipient of the caller was in fact driving?

_________________
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

Then again ...
Cellphones differ from CB radios in that the latter was usually either a requirement of the driver's job, or a nearly indispensable enhancement of that driver's job. Nevermind that most CB radio users had much more driving experience going in.

There was never any rush to decree from on high that CB use while driving is always inherently dangerous.
Cellphone drivers, for whatever reason, are being denied the chance as a subset population to develop any protocols.

Even so, both the driver and the person talking to the driver need the same level of appreciation of the driver's main task that a passenger is inherently aware of.

_________________
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 long time since I've seen a CB so maybe they've changed, but last time I saw one, you had a knob to select one of several dozen channels, various other knobs and a fist mike. The caller had to select a hailing channel (19?) and call out for whoever the wanted to speak to, then wait for a response from amongst all the other voices on the hailing channel. If one was received, they then had to select a working channel (more knob twiddling and eye distraction) and then see if it was already in use by other callers. If so, back to the hailing channel and select another working channel and so on. Surely that's got to be more distracting that using a mobile - even a hand held mobile! Even once communication was established, there was still the mike that had to be held all the time and the button on the side pressed and released depending on whether the user was speaking or listening.

I've just had a go at the survey but gave up when I got to the "morality" questions. These are difficult questions that really can't be answered with a set of tick boxes! Very often, the answer I want to give is "sometimes it is and sometimes it isn't - it depends on the circumstances". Unfortunately, there isn't a box for that one!

I'm afraid I'm with Anton on this one. I'd like to help but there didn't appear to be any way to accurately communicate my feelins on the subject - it was far too "black-and-white". Maybe it's a symptom of the times? Speeding, the authorities would have us believe, is NEVER safe. Is it SO hard to countenance the notion that it's a complex issue and depends on a huge number of circumstances?! Mobile phones, in my view, are no different!

Like today's in-car radio tuners, channels are now tuned in easily by the push of a button; no more knob tweaking.

For those whose occupation only requires one communication channel, it would effectively be the same as a Push2Talk-operated cellular device, like Sprint-Nextel.

Some radio's Push2Talk buttons will now hold themselves until you touch it again to release, like the 'CapsLock' on your old typewriter.On the 'refrain from using' questions, I answered right down the middle.
'Avoiding' the use would be neither/nor good or bad, harmful or beneficial, pleasant or unpleasant, enjoyable or unenjoyable ... but slightly wise, given the discouraging climate.

How do you think one who drives for a living, and considers both his radio AND his cellphone incredibly useful tools for minimizing time, miles, and fuel wasted, would answer the rest of the questions? That's pretty much how I answered them.

As much as the survey is designed to make it difficult to distinguish shades of grey, the other option is silence, and that just won't do.

_________________
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

Looks like the Cb has evolved somewhat since last I saw one! That said, didn't they have several dozen channels? If so, when you say "push of a button", is that (usually) multiple pushes of one button whilst looking at the channel display, or is that one push of one of a great many buttons, one for each channel, or something else? I still can't get my head round how it can be a simple, quick and non-distracting operation to choose from one of several dozen channels.

Fair comment on the survey though. The only thing is, I'd hate your results to be interpreted as "respondant 26 had no strong feelings either way" rather than" respondent 26 felt that it was sometimes safe and justifiable and sometimes not". Having seen the way Camera Partnership Questionnaires over here are loaded and twisted and manipulated to allow "certain claims" to be made, while I'm not suggesting that there is an malice whatsoever in the original poster's plan, I could see it doing a lot of damage if it didn't give a true picture of what people really felt.

I have to say once I got on to the "morality" questions I abandoned the survey.

I don't as a general rule use a mobile phone either hand-held or handsfree while driving, but I see no moral or safety problem with using a hand-held in stationary or slow-moving traffic, which is currently illegal.

_________________
"Show me someone who says that they have never exceeded a speed limit, and I'll show you a liar, or a menace." (Austin Williams - Director, Transport Research Group)

Any views expressed in this post are personal opinions and may not represent the views of Safe Speed

Can't say about CB -last time I had anything to do with it it was illegal -but had more knobs than you're average car radio . Mobile radio ( asi n taxi style ) -had a lot of experience of -and in times of problems -just drop mike .Now having had to drive for many years with wife and up to four little members of my family (proper little B's) --I find that I can drive / and do other things like phone etc at the same time (the old lizard brain takesover after some years )----however , the car radio to me is danger no 1 - I don't play with it unless I know I'm totally safe .

_________________
lets bring sanity back to speed limits.
Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on

Do U.K. taxicabs have manual or automatic transmissions? Being accustomed to and surrounded by automatic transmissions myself, it regularly slips my mind how much more involved using a manual transmission is, especially in metropolitan traffic.

If I had to shift it myself, I suppose I might make / take even less calls, most of them would be even shorter, etc.

Still, I think the gist of my point remains.

Is this the appropriate time to make / take this call? ... and ... Hurry up and end the call already.

As for the survey, if the only people who take the survey are the sheeple, because we are avoiding answering questions we 'don't like', they will get exactly the answers they were hoping for, only faster, thus effectively dumbing us all down.

If enough of us take the survey and answer as best we can, what is the worst that could happen? Seriously, I'm asking what's the worst that could happen?

_________________
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

UK taxis are mainly manual shift. However it is not hard. After a bout six months driving the use of geard moves from the concous brain to a subconcous sub routine. I could drive around town and not remember a single gear shift.

_________________
Speed limit sign radio interview. TV Snap Unhappy
“It has never been the rule in this country – I hope it never will be - that suspected criminal offences must automatically be the subject of prosecution” He added that there should be a prosecution: “wherever it appears that the offence or the circumstances of its commission is or are of such a character that a prosecution in respect thereof is required in the public interest”
This approach has been endorsed by Attorney General ever since 1951. CPS Code

I'm told that most London cabs are now automatic and I believe the same might be true in Edinburgh. There are also significant numbers of auto cabs in other big cities like Manchester as congestion gets ever worse. Across the whole ation though (and taking Private Hire vehicles into account), I agree that most are manual vehicles - on account of the beter economy.

Rush, I see where you're coming from but the survey (as written) doesn't give me the chance to say what I actually feel. The best I could do would be to follow your earlier suggestion and go right down the middle for most of those questions. unfortunately, I think that will be interpreted as me having no strong feelings either way (i.e. thinking it neither beign particularly dangerous nor particularly immoral, nor particularly safe, nor particularly wise.- which most certainly is not the case! What I actually feel is that there are some circumstances where it clearly isn't in the least bit dangerous / immoral and there are others where it most certainly is.

Page 7
1) Using a mobile phone while driving would make me feel guilty. Strongly disagree.
2) Using a mobile phone while driving is morally justifiable. Neither agree nor disagree - not "no answer"
3) It is ok to use a mobile while driving because lots of other people do. Strongly disagree.
4) Using a mobile phone while driving does not cause harm. Neither agree nor disagree.
5) Using a mobile while driving can be described as just a way of “keeping in contact with people”. Strongly disagree.

Page 8
6) Sometimes pedestrians do not deserve to be treated humanely. Strongly disagree.
7) Using a phone while driving is likely to cause an accident. Strongly disagree.
8) Using a mobile is not too bad when you think some people heavily intoxicated with alcohol drive. Strongly disagree.
9) I am within my rights to use my phone while driving if I choose to. Strongly agree.
10) If someone disagrees with a person using a mobile they deserve to be treat humanely. Agree.

Page 9
11) Using a mobile phone while driving is acceptable because another person is participating in the conversation. Strongly disagree.
12) Answering a mobile phone while driving is just “being courteous” to the person calling. Strongly disagree.
13) Using a mobile phone while driving is wrong. Disagree.
14) The likelihood of an accident being caused due to using a mobile phone is very low. Disagree.
15) If someone brakes hard in front of you while driving, they deserve to be treat like animals. Disagree.

Page 10
16) Sometimes the need to be in contact with someone is so important, it is morally acceptable to use a mobile phone while driving. Neither agree nor disagree. See Question 2.
17) Police should use their resources to catch people who have committed more serious crimes than using a mobile while driving. Agree.
18) Answering a phone while driving is acceptable as someone is calling you. Neither agree nor disagree.
19) If people do not want to be run over, they should be more careful when they cross the road. Strongly agree.
19A) If drivers do not want to run over pedestrians, they should be more careful when they cross the road. Strongly agree.
20) Sometimes, other drivers do not deserve to be treat humanely. Disagree.

Page 11
21) It is ok to use a mobile while driving because lots of other people do. Strongly disagree.
22) Children should be taught how to cross the road properly if their parents do not want them to be run over. Strongly agree.
23) Using a mobile phone at the wheel is not a “big deal”. Neither agree nor disagree.
11) Using a mobile phone while driving is acceptable because another person is participating in the conversation. Strongly disagree.
25) If someone is pressured into using [or not using] a mobile phone while driving, they should not be blamed for it. Strongly disagree.

Page 12
26) One person using a mobile phone cannot be blamed for it when so many others use theirs. Strongly disagree.
27) Using a mobile phone while driving is not too serious, when compared with other illegal things some people do. Disagree.
28) If people are drunk and walking in the middle of the road, it is their own fault if they get run over. Neither agree nor disagree.
29) If people are living under stressful conditions, they cannot be blamed for using a mobile phone while driving. Strongly disagree.
30) Using a mobile phone while driving is just “conversing with someone”. Strongly disagree.

Page 13
31) Compared with careless dangerous driving, using a mobile phone while driving is not so serious. Strongly agree.
32) People cannot be blamed for using a mobile while driving if their friends pressured them to. Strongly disagree.
33) If there is a car accident where someone was using a mobile phone, the person using the phone is very likely to be to blame for causing it. Neither agree nor disagree.

anewman, how would you judge these responses?
I invite you all to judge these responses, of course, but as we are well aware, 'no answer' very strongly often answers a different question than the one posed.

I am now wearing my flame-retardant suit; though I know from whom to expect inflammatory comments, my feathers will not be ruffled. What about yours?

_________________
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

There are 40 UK channels and 40 EU channels. I don't know how dual-band rigs separate them but I suspect it's rare to switch between the two after an initial call.
You wouldn't need to look at the display much to change channel. You know you're on (say) channel 19, you know you want to be on (say) channel 24. You press the channel up button 5 times then have a quick look to see if you got it right. Or you count from 19 to 24 incrementing on each button press.
A 40 position knob isn't really any harder, may be easier in fact. A knob which doesn't "click" for each channel would be difficult but I don't know if they exist for CB.

A legal CB radio has very few useful controls. I've got one with 5 knobs and 4 switches, but it's only really volume and channel select which are used. High/low power switch can be useful too. I suspect the rest were put on to up the feature count!

_________________
Andrew.

Cracking idea asking the OP to comment! I'd be extremely interested to see his (her?) response!!

Anyway, here's where I have a bit of a problem but hopefully, I can illustrate as follows: (if I don't cock up the nested quotes)!



I would feel very guilty if I was having a conversation that demanded a lot of concentration, whilst driving in conditions that also demanded a lot of concentration -say a tricky technical question from someone at work whilst driving in a pedestrian-rich environment in an unfamiliar town in fog. (or maybe on a busy, wet motorway with lots of spray).

I wouldn't feel the slightest bit guilty if I was on a deserted country road with no other traffic, good visibility and I was just telling Mrs. Mole that I'd be home in 20 minutes.



Much as above. Taking a call to say "Mole Jr. has just been run over, get your butt down to the hospital PRONTO" (OK, bit of an extreme example, but exaggerating to make a point!) whilst on aforementioned deserted country road - yes, I think morally justifiable.

and conversely, I'm sure there are plenty of times when it is NOT.



We agree here 100% I'd put exactly the same as you. That's a crap justification for ANYTHING - never mind using a mobile whilst driving!



This is a good example. I'd be extremely interested to hear how the OP responds to this, but the way I interpret it, you're saying that you are agnostic on the issue, you have no opinion as to whether it does or doesn't. I think we'd both agree that sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't?



Now I would have put completely the opposite answer - "Strongly agree". Surely, that's ABSOLUTELY what a mobile phone is for - I can't think of what else I'd use it for, in fact! Obviously, that doesn't make it right or wrong though!


...and so on and so forth. The other answers would follow a similar line. I think we're looking at this from "opposite ends of the telescope" and I'm perfectly happy to believe that I'm just weird if everyone agrees with you!!

Using a cellphone while driving - in and of itself - would never make me feel guilty. Taking undue attention away from driving would always make me feel guilty, and is very seldom if ever justifiable, regardless of how it was done. Since there is no direct or constant correlation ...
If I can't tell when it would be reasonably safe to use a cellphone, and I can't use it properly - simply, directly, succinctly, and briefly [usually 30 - 45 seconds, never more than two minutes], my driving skills need buttressing.

_________________
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