Get off the phone.

[ComedyPilot]

I was out for a lovely ride through Huggate to Pocklington this morning. As I rode through Huggate an ambulance was parked on the offside of the road blocking that side, and leaving the near-side (the one I was riding on) as the clear path past. A landrover comes up to the obstruction as I am riding through.

2 things:

1, he tries to force his way through. Not happening cos I am in primary and not moving for him.



The 2nd thing, and the real reason for me not yielding, he was happily (well, until I stopped him) chatting away oblivious on his mobile phone.



So there I was stood astride my bike in the middle of the road saying, "Get off the phone"

He put it down at the third request, then had to reverse up as a car was now behind me, and I couldn't go backwards (and in my frame of mind I was in no mood to back up)

Prat.

 

[downfader]

During the summer they seriously risk having a hand reach in and knock the thing from their grasp. Shame its so cold this time of year. B)

 

[ufkacbln]

During the summer they seriously risk having a hand reach in and knock the thing from their grasp. Shame its so cold this time of year.

At the Tour of Britain a couple of years ago, there was a 4x4 driver on the phone driving along the embankment...

Cue several hundred people shouting in unison "Off the phone you prat"

 

[Bollo]

+

It's just endemic, isn't it? I think it will take a sustained campaign and similar penalties to drink driving to make any difference now.

 

[yorkshiregoth]

I think sufficient penalties already exist. They aren't enforced though.

 

[downfader]

I think sufficient penalties already exist. They aren't enforced though.

Which is why we need to perhaps get more Specials? Something I've been thinking of for a while now - perhaps the way to decently deal with this is the old "hobby copper"?

What do you guys reckon? If more people volunteered perhaps a difference could be made? Could it be considered like National Service?

Sorry, rambling a bit here..

 

[BentMikey]

Good for you CP!! *Applause*!!!

 

[goo_mason]

Definitely endemic. Drivers in liveried work vehicles used to be a little more careful with mobile use because they were identifiable and it'd be easy to report them. Now they don't care and will be happily steaming along, blethering away on the phone without a care in the world. Royal Mail truck drivers, van drivers - you name it. I reported one driving the fully-liveried Grant Management Ltd estate agent Beetle a few months back, as the company makes a massive deal about its corporate social responsibility on its website. He was tearing along a narrow street without even looking where he was going. They didn't even bother to reply, which says it all about attitudes to mobile use whilst driving. It's almost becoming acceptable.

Also phoned one of those "How's My Driving" numbers after a knob came flying through a red light, chattering away on his mobile, and nearly creamed my daughter and I on the pedestrian crossing. Left my details and they didn't bother getting in touch either.

 

[BentMikey]

Goo, if you can be bothered, chase up your contacts and don't let them get away with ignoring you. Googling up a director's name and work address is a good target for letters, and I would add in a bit about your previous message being ignored.

 

[downfader]

Definitely endemic. Drivers in liveried work vehicles used to be a little more careful with mobile use because they were identifiable and it'd be easy to report them. Now they don't care and will be happily steaming along, blethering away on the phone without a care in the world. Royal Mail truck drivers, van drivers - you name it. I reported one driving the fully-liveried Grant Management Ltd estate agent Beetle a few months back, as the company makes a massive deal about its corporate social responsibility on its website. He was tearing along a narrow street without even looking where he was going. They didn't even bother to reply, which says it all about attitudes to mobile use whilst driving. It's almost becoming acceptable.

Also phoned one of those "How's My Driving" numbers after a knob came flying through a red light, chattering away on his mobile, and nearly creamed my daughter and I on the pedestrian crossing. Left my details and they didn't bother getting in touch either.

I would like to see more corporate manslaughter charges levied towards the big companies if their drivers have been and killed any peds or whoever.

 

[Arch]

I saw a chap today texting as he moved off in his car - on a petrol station forecourt! So that's two different reasons not to be using your phone, at once....

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Using a phone whilst driving has just been banned here in Ontario but they aren't going to start prosecuting people until the New Year. So meanwhile people carry on using them...

 

[jiggerypokery]

Agree wholeheartedly that driving whilst using a mobile is just plain wrong but Arch, you're sooo wrong about the petrol station thing. It is theoretically possible to set off a petrol fire with a phone. The amount of energy needed for a spark to ignite petrol vapour is 0.2 mJ, which is roughly one five-millionth of the energy stored in a fully-charged phone battery. The difficulty is that the phone is not designed to make sparks.

The lithium battery could explode while charging if its internal regulator circuit was very faulty. But you don't normally simultaneously charge and talk on your mobile phone while refuelling your car. The internal electronics of the phone could fail and make a spark - but the spark would be too small.

And why worry about the phone battery when you have batteries in your iPod, CD player, mini-torch, and yes, don't forget the big 15 kg car battery that powers the electrics of your car?

Well, what about the electric field put out by your phone? Yes, the electric field has been measured at 2-5 volts/meter, and has been known to interfere with heart monitors and infant incubators in hospitals, and various electronic equipment in planes. But the electric field from a mobile phone has never been known to set off a fire in a petrol station. And consider that in the UK , some 200 Shell petrol stations have mobile phone towers in the tall petrol price indicators, which stand right there on the forecourt, a few metres from the petrol pumps. The towers put out a lot more grunt than your small mobile phone.

Most of the time, static electricity is the culprit. We've all seen or felt a spark from clothing. If you are wearing synthetic clothes in the dryness of winter, and are sliding in and out of the car, across the synthetic material of the car seat, then you can build up a big static charge. Then, if the earthing wire on the petrol hose is broken, when you touch the metal nozzle of the petrol hose to the metal neck of the petrol tank, you can discharge a visible spark. Even more dangerous, from the static electricity point-of-view, is filling up a small fuel can.

The phone companies post warnings about using phones in petrol stations for two reasons. First, mobile phones are not designed with “Intrinsic Safety” to make them able to operate safely in truly hazardous inflammable vapour situations, and second, fear of legal liability, despite all the evidence showing that mobile phones don't cause fires in petrol stations.

So overall, the mobile phone myth is just endless chatter generating a whole lot of static.

Why do I know this - 14 years designing mobile devices

 

[garrilla]

There was a woman today sat at the lights texting furiously. I watched for a while and then she changed into 1st gear although the lights had not yet changed. I then then decided to get her attention but she was not 'open for business'. Then I noticed in the back a child of about 10 years old so I beckoned to him to wind the window down, which he did and I said "tell your mum to get off her phone an pay attention when she's driving".

She heard this and wound her window down. "I am paying attention" she insisted and clearly understanding that I was referring to use of the mobile added "and I'm not driving, I'm not using it while driving."

The lights then changed and I parted with "why did you change gear then?" She was rumbled and she knew it.

 

[hackbike 666]

It's taken more seriously in my job and rightly so.Shame it isn't on the roads.

http://www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0152835520081002

Then again this has changed things somewhat.