Excuse for driving with a mobile phone

[magnatom]

I was on a training run at the time but I thought this comment would best fit in commuting...

Getting close to home I have to stop at some traffic lights. A car pulls up next to me. I turn around and I see a woman and a younger girl (late teens) sitting in the front of the car. The driver woman who looked late 30's early 40's, holding a phone in her hand shoulder height talking into her phone.

I can't help myself , so when they look over I make a phone gesture, indicating they shouldn't be driving and using it. She winds the window down...

Mag: You do realise that it is dangerous to drive and use a mobile phone

Driver: No, it's not.

Mag: Resaerch has shown that you will have the reaction times of a drunk driver..

Driver: Look. I am making an important call... I am arranging my mothers 50th birthday party...

Mag: Don't you think you could do that later?

Driver: ...anyway you shouldn't be on the road!

Mag: Why? (knowing full well what sort of comment is coming!)

Driver: Cyclists are the biggest danger on the roads and hold all of the cars up...

Mag: Oh and how many people get killed by cyclists compared to cars (hit them with logic!)

Driver: (doing what any person would do when defeated by logic)..oh shut up ya pr!ck...

At this point the lights change and she floors it to the next set of lights still holding the phone.

Now, if only I had been on the ball, I could have had a much more entertaining conversation. I'm pretty sure the girl in the car was her daughter. So Grandma, mother and daughter, all under 50. Hmm. So what reply should I have made following the drivers 50th birthday part comment?


P.S. No camera, as I don't wear it on training runs

 

[Steve Austin]

Do you ever just enjoy your riding. You seem to find a problem every time you ride by the tone of your posts...

 

[magnatom]

Do you ever just enjoy your riding. You seem to find a problem every time you ride by the tone of your posts...

How often have I posted with a problem recently? And how often have I ridden recently! I think you find I have a very high signal to noise ratio. What happens is that you only ever reply to my threads when I've had a 'problem' (I didn't have a problem here at all, in fact I found it quite amusing).

Why don't you pop over to the rides section and coment on some of my posts there, if you really are interested in cycling and not just magnatom bashing...

 

[beanzontoast]

At this point the lights change and she floors it to the next set of lights still holding the phone.

So, after your intervention she continued to use the phone, but drove off in a manner even more likely to result in an accident? What if there'd been another cyclist at those lights?

I don't see that you achieved anything positive here.

 

[magnatom]

Oh I should add, I didn't really enjoy this ride. It had nothing to do with drivers, and everything to do with wind, rain, cold and a lost water bottle!

 

[magnatom]

So, after your intervention she continued to use the phone, but drove off in a manner even more likely to result in an accident? What if there's been another cyclist at those lights?

I don't see that you achieved anything positive here.

Ah, it's going to turn into one of those threads. I'll get my coat.

 

[Steve Austin]

Very touchy aren't you. maybe you need to get a reign on that temper of yours

 

[magnatom]

Very touchy aren't you. maybe you need to get a reign on that temper of yours

Yes I was absolutely raging when I read your post. Just look at my aggressive use of smileys...

 

[beanzontoast]

Not at all. As a year-round commuter who sees a fair number of phone-using motorists, I find your posts and the interventionist approach you take interesting. Do you feel you achieved anything here though?

Had a police officer spoken to her about it, I'm sure the result would have been completely different.

 

[magnatom]

Not at all. As a year-round commuter who sees a fair number of phone-using motorists, I find your posts and the interventionist approach you take interesting. Do you feel you achieved anything here though?

Had a police officer spoken to her about it, I'm sure the result would have been completely different.

In fact I have had positive results on a number of occasions, intervening. Probably not on this occasion, although I do think she had stopped the phone conversation, but just still had the phone in her hand!

I should also add that this was on a straight road, where there are very few pedestrians and so the greatest risks are to the driver and occupant, and when I said she floored it, it was a little bit of a dramatic exaggeration. Suffice it to say, that she pulled away quicker than me, but that doesn't say much considering I was just returning from a hilly 50 mile training run!

 

[thomas]

Do you ever just enjoy your riding. You seem to find a problem every time you ride by the tone of your posts...

A little unfair I think.

So, after your intervention she continued to use the phone, but drove off in a manner even more likely to result in an accident? What if there'd been another cyclist at those lights?

I don't see that you achieved anything positive here.

Possibly nothing negative either. She may well have floored it anyway.

I don't really know how your comments came across, but I think stuff like this:

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqCnBt3XZxE


is a little bit sad.

 

[jig-sore]

Ah, it's going to turn into one of those threads. I'll get my coat.

hello magnatom, just got to say... i found a lot of your videos on you tube just by chance, before i joined this forum, and whilst i agree with what you are trying to do and the vast majority of your clips are 100% valid, i did find one or two where i thought you were being a bit picky.

(unfortunately for you it's these few clips that most people remember and therefore jump on the band wagon and shoot you down, i've seen it in many of the you tube comments.)

i always thought that in these type of situations it is better to avoid confrontations and let the clips speak for themselves. it seems you have to be whiter than white yourself if your going to comment on others and no one likes to be told when their wrong, even when they are.

maybe in the mobile phone situation less would have been more, a simple gesture of disapproval maybe ???

 

[ufkacbln]

I don't really know how your comments came across, but I think stuff like this:

View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RqCnBt3XZxE


is a little bit sad.

But very effective!

He certainly stopped using the phone when he realised he was being filmed.

 

[thomas]

But very effective!

He certainly stopped using the phone when he realised he was being filmed.

For 2 minutes maybe....during which time he was probably just thinking about "that tosser", not paying attention to the road.

I doubt it will stop him from using his phone again, while driving,

 

[downfader]

FFS is this going to end up the same as all the other threads where you lot argue over minute rubbish or ifs and donts?

So he had a word with the driver. So what? Plenty of people have "had a word" with me, you dont see me moaning about how all drivers should act timid and shut up.

If you lot are too gutless to speak up (either direct, to the police or the council) then imo you have contributed to the bad behaviour and all the problems we endure.