Is it ok to read a book whilst driving if you are stopped at the lights and in slow moving traffic?

[Cyclopathic]

I didn't actually see her reading whilst the car was moving but she was definitely dipping into it when stopped in the tailback from the lights? As she was stopped right next to me (I was a pedestrian) I mouthed through the window to her
"Are you serious?...Reading a book. Are you serious"
To which she replied
"Traffic lights...Red" and rolled her eyes as if I was the most stupid person in the world.
( I am not. I know at least two other people who are more stupid than me but did not have the mime skills to explain this to her, so let it drop.)
I shrugged at her, shook my head in an attempt to show weary disapproval and walked away.
Was I right to have said anything? Her eye rolling was very effective and has me wondering if it is me who is the arse in this situation.

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

I would have done the same as you. I don't understand why people think they can multitask while driving!

 

[Cyclopathic]

I would have done the same as you. I don't understand why people think they can multitask while driving!

Thanks. I thought I'd gone mad for a minute there. I would add that I wasn't aggressive at all, just a little incredulous and bemused. I've never seen anyone do that before. Apart from anything else it can't be a very satisfying way to read a book. All that stopping and starting is going to detract from the experience, not to mention trying to find your place every time. She'd have been better off watching something on her ipod.

 

[Nortones2]

Ah, the female mythology about multi-tasking Pity she hasn't factored in the need for observation.

 

[Boris Bajic]

As a very young man, I was sitting in a turn-right filter at a red light, looking at my hardback A-Z, which was balanced on the steering wheel.

I heard the traffic around me rev up and snick their cars into gear, so I did likewise and moved off with them... BLAM!!

Straight into the back of a beautifully preserved MkI Escort whose pensioner driver was waiting patiently for the right-filter light to go green. I dinged his beautiful rear offside quarter-bumper and pushed it back into the bodywork. Damage to my van was limited.

Bizarrely (but very graciously) he declined my offer of insurance details and said it would be easy to put right.

He learned the hard way that I oughtn't to have been reading an atlas while driving. I got off relatively lightly...

She was wrong, but I wouldn't bother to mention it to her if she was stationary - this despite my own dodgy record.. or perhaps because of it.

 

[Sandra6]

She must've been a speed reader and could clear a chapter in the time it took for the lights to change.
What was she reading?

 

[MisterStan]

She must've been a speed reader and could clear a chapter in the time it took for the lights to change.
What was she reading?

Probably fifty shades of grey....

 

[glasgowcyclist]

I've seen drivers doing all sorts of stupid things behind the wheel, from flossing teeth to reading a paper but last week I saw something that left me astonished: a woman driving while eating a bowl of meusli!
Big white china bowl, swilling with milk as she spooned it into her gob while steeering with her knees. The penalty for that should be seizure of the car for destruction, with the driver being compelled to activate the crusher herself.

As for the OP, I wouldn't have bothered saying anything unless I had seen her driving while still reading.


GC

 

[mrbadexample]

I'm sure her response would have been somewhat different if you'd taken out a camera for a quick evidential photo.

 

[sabian92]

The fact drivers now think they can do stuff and let driving take a back seat to their other activity shows people are getting stupider.

That being said in the US once I saw a guy eating a bowl of cereal while driving his 3 ton pickup truck down the interstate at 75mph. No hands on the wheel, steering with his knees. Could not believe my eyes.

 

[JtB]

I guess if the handbrake is on and the engine if off then its ok, otherwise definitely no.

 

[fimm]

There's a Magnatom video with a woman reading a book at the wheel in stationary or slow moving traffic (I can't remember) - IIRC that isn't the main action of the video, just a little afterthought...

 

[Gary E]

I'm pretty sure the law about using a mobile while driving also applies when you're pulled up at light (I guess it's because you're still in charge of a vehicle on the road).
Can't see any reason why this would be different.
I stand to be corrected though.

 

[Nigel-YZ1]

Driving has become a secondary concern these days. Saw a white van being driven by wrist contact last night. Even the one fist at 12 o'clock is becoming too much.

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

A couple of nights ago I saw a woman driving (admittedly in slow-moving, traffic jam style traffic) whilst eating forkfuls of something out of a tupperware container, with two kids in the back. I would have knocked on the window and had a go, but I wasn't walking past, I was in the pub looking out of the window. I think it's something about cycling that makes you notice people doing something stupid in a car. For example, you can always spot the texters from the way they look down at their knees every so often.