Fines for illegal mobile phone use at wheel set to double to £200?

So £100 stops approximately no-one driving and texting. So by my calculations, this measure will stop an additional ... gets out calculator ... presses a few buttons ... er ... no-one.

What is the advice these days on stepping in to prevent a crime in progress?
I'll make a guess. It it's a mugging, hailed a hero. If it's the aforementioned dozy cow tweeting at the wheel of her 4x4, arrest for assault.
I wish I was brave enough to try. I could make a citizens arrest of 30% of the drivers at the Fenchurch St/Gracechurch St lights. They don't like it at the moment when I shout at them. Btw, this is as a pedestrian dressed in a suit.

+1 for proper enforcement - everyone knows mobile use is illegal and dangerous but plenty carry on using them anyway... there's an arrogant belief they won't get caught - sadly reinforced by minimal Police on the roads...

At least this gets it out in the media and helps to raise it in the national conversation - making it socially unacceptable will go a long way to reducing it

Coming back from a nice ride in Regent's Park late this morning, my missus and I stopped in the first ASL box coming back towards Camden's parkway road, as traffic lights changed to red.

Hear an engine noise, I look over my shoulder to see a women driving a large black 4 x 4 straight at us, holding a mobile phone in front of her face, she had not noticed the traffic lights (or us!).

I shouted very loudly, she seemed to jump and jammed on the brakes before she drove into us. Another cyclist next to us was shocked at her behaviour and started giving her a good dressing down, the driver looked embarassed, perhaps that she had been caught using her phone?

Regarding announcements of fines, it makes absolutely no difference in the rear world, because the Police are no where to be seen, and motorists realized this some time ago?

You could announce you will take their driving licence away, put them in prison, crush their car, it won't change behavior unless its actively enforced and with further cut backs to Policing, its looking less likely a motorist will get caught red-handed, unless they run someone over.

We've had all kinds of announcements that are not actively enforced, the 20 mph blanket speed limit we've had in London Borough of Camden has been widely ignored since its introduction 2+ years ago, and the local Police commander admitted in an interview with Camden New Journal newspaper that he did not have the resources to enforce it

a few months back West Mercia had some spot checks on the A46 near Evesham, the change in driver behaviour whilst the police were there was enormous, everytime a camera van is parked on the Sedgeberrow bypass the drivers behave in a very different way.

Money and fines really aren't the answer, just make drivers believe they will get caught.

I agree with Professor Stephen Glaister. It isn't the amount of money that drivers could be fined that's the problem, it's the fact that they don't believe they'll be caught - and they're right.

When I walk around town, I regularly see drivers messing around with their phones. The police could walk around and catch them - but they don't.

Do it the Swiss way where fines are linked to the ability to pay. A few £10k or £100k fines in the headlines. A few bankruptcies, evictions etc.

...oh who are we kidding people? Nothing's going to change. They've sacked 17,000 cops. Everyone knows the chances of being caught doing anything wrong are lower now than ever. And like the article alludes to, it'll take legislation half a decade to catch up with the fact you can do more now on your watch than you could on a handset 3 years ago.

Hate to voice this, but the only way real change is going to happen is when a politician and possibly family are ploughed into and killed by a texting driver. On bikes, on foot - doesn't matter. It will have to be someone seriously high-up, close to Cameron, with lots of small children and women involved, maybe with HD footage to blur out the nasty bits. Maybe a minor royal will do.

Then, maybe, just maybe, the DfT will feel it can get meaningful legislation passed without No.10 backing down in the face of red-tops defending the hard-working tax-paying motorist.

Yes yes it's terrible to wish death on someone as-yet unidentified as a means to an end, but frankly I see no alternative. What we have right now is a dozen or more dead each year, every year, and god knows how many maimed, specifically because of mobiles. The legislative and enforcement tools are there, there's just currently no political will to wield them.

Arrest the car and crush the driver.

I believe an e-petition with 100,000 signatures has to be discussed in parliament. Halfords alone sold 1.3 million bikes last year. There are enough cyclists to go way past the required figure.
How about a campaign to introduce a twelve month ban?

2012, distracted drivers were responsible for 88 deaths on Britain’s roads

Yeah, and the rest, this should read 88 drivers admitted to being distracted.

£200 fine? Pointless, especially for the rich. Automatic driving ban 3 months for the first offence, jail or suspended sentence for the 2nd + car(s) confiscated permanently.

"Studies suggest it is more dangerous than driving while under the influence of drink or drugs."
So why are we not looking at a twelve month ban?

i also think they should be banned from driving for a year. It's horrendously dangerous driving whilst on the phone and should be discouraged with zero tolerance.

It's the thing i worry about most when cycling - a texter or a caller driving into me, irrespective of 'taking the road'. Peripheral vision you can see out there is sometimes non-existent. It's only a matter of time before it affects cyclists so the harder the punishment the better i think, in this case.