Cyclists using mobiles - WTF?

[Rip Van]

Phoning while cycling ought to be banned.

+1

 

[Mr Pig]

Of course it's "cool". It always was and always will be.

Yes it is, very cool, it just is.

 

[hackbike 666]

.........while smoking a cigarette.


Therefore the speed at which a cyclist will be traveling when using a phone is very limited

I get cars doing this and I get a car faffing about driving slowly behind me and I get nervous thinking something isn't right.

Then when I can actually get the offending car to pass me I find he/she is on his/her phone either texting or making a call.

There seems to be an unhealthy obsession with mobile phones in this country.

Give it twenty years and everyone will be bored with these "toys".

 

[Arch]

the point is, even at 10mph, road users still need to concentrate on the road - and with at least one hand on the control

I suppose a fixie rider with good hip control could probably swerve and brake without a hand on the bars. I think the more important thing is the first point - concentrating on the road. Unless you can text without looking, you will be glancing at the screen. And even if you can text without taking your eyes off the road ahead, you're not thinking entirely about the road ahead. On a quiet rural road that might not matter, but in an urban situation, anything can happen, quickly. Isn't the point about mobiles while driving not that drivers have one hand off the wheel, but that they are mentally half in another place, having the conversation.

There are plenty of things that aren't illegal, but are daft*. They don't necessarily need to be banned in law, but common sense suggests you don't do them in certain situations. The trouble is, the rarity of common sense...

*A recumbent dealer was telling me yesterday that a lot of the rules on bikes (like having two separate brakes) don't technically apply to recumbent trikes, because the low seat height makes them classable as childrens toys. But it's still sensible to have those brakes...

 

[hackbike 666]

Watch them cycle/drive/motorcycle in Thailand...anything seems to go.

 

[thomas]

Give it twenty years and everyone will be bored with these "toys".

No people won't. Give it 20 years and they'll be intergrated into everything we do. No more credit card, oyster cards...laptops will be on the back burner for a lot of things as mobile phones take over.

A modern mobile phone is more powerful, in computing power, than Apollo 11....heck, even an old digital watch is

 

[hackbike 666]

I bet they will.There will be other things to be obsessed with.

Actually it isn't as bad as when mobiles first came out.I think it's dropping off a bit.

Though the things that the new phoes can do is really good.

In the 1980's I used to play a Sinclair Spectrum and now I find my Nintendo DS Lite can emulate that machine.Mindboggling.

Obviously there must be a phone that can do this as well.

 

[thomas]

I bet they will.There will be other things to be obsessed with.

Actually it isn't as bad as when mobiles first came out.I think it's dropping off a bit.

Nah. Do some research into it. Mobile phones will be so much more than a way to make phone calls and send texts. They're going that way, but in 20 years it'll be so much more. They might not be quite like they are today, but they will exist in some form and they will be extensively used.

 

[hackbike 666]

Well I wont bother arguing but just to say when I was very young I used to dream about being able to use a mini television which ran on batteries to watch tom and jerry in bed.They were nowhere near being invented then.I remember my parents giving me a bit of ticker tape that came out of a computer.That was advanced then.Oh and the bat and ball games were very new.

Exciting to see this but im not so obsessed with this mobile phone stuff.
In fact im a bit tired of it.

 

[Mr Pig]

There are plenty of things that aren't illegal, but are daft.

Indeed. More to the point, if you were to be involved in a crash which hurt someone and it transpired that you were texting whilst riding I think you'd find that it was used against you in court whether it is specifically illegal or not. They have terms like 'without due care and attention' for precisely this reason, to catch people doing something so stupid a rational person wouldn't think to ban it!

 

[hackbike 666]

Yeah and you'd get a 3 minute suspended sentence over here.

 

[Mr Pig]

Kill someone with a bicycle in this country you're probably going to jail.

 

[thomas]

Well I wont bother arguing but just to say when I was very young I used to dream about being able to use a mini television which ran on batteries to watch tom and jerry in bed.

A modern mobile phone would be able to play tom and jerry while you're in bed

For the majority of my generation mobile phones are very important. Some people would probably go without meals to be able to pay for their phone. Sad innit

 

[addictfreak]

Stop and think for a minute, how often does that happen? On average 7 people are killed by drivers everyday and thousands more are injured. In an average year 2 people will be killed by cyclist, usually where the cyclist is travelling at high speed.

Yes there is a very small risk with cyclists using phones, but it is vanishingly small. Cycle requires effort, to cycle fast requires a lot of effort. Therefore the speed at which a cyclist will be traveling when using a phone is very limited, it is only really possible at speeds of below about 10mph. At that speed, most people are capable of swerving out of the way if someone steps in front of them.

Driving on the other hand requires very little effort, and the level of effort doesn't increase significantly with increasing speed. Secondly the driver is heavily protected and so is less aware of the risk to them selves and other, the consequences of which are stated above. Driving is actually a relativity dangerous activity, but is rarely regarded as being so. Cycling is actually a relativity safe activity, but is rarely regarded as being so.

There is a very distorted perception of the risk in modern society we need to get this into perspective. We need to confront the way in which we look at road safety...

Sorry I didnt realise thats its ok to kill someone as long as it doesnt happen very often!

 

[Bay Runner]

I use my walkman phone all the time when commuting, listening to the radio and music etc.

I have on occasions made or taken a phone call but only on a clear cycle path (3/4s of my commute is cycle path).
Using the phone with the head phones on means I only have to hold the phone in front of my face with one hand.
If I get a call on the road its time to stop!