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news
Driver using mobile (CC licensed image by lukys1:Flickr)Up to 9m drivers using mobile phones at wheel, according to RAC
Up to nine million drivers could still be habitually using their phones at the wheel, despite tougher penalties, according to the RAC.
In a survey of more than 1,700 people 26% who knew about increased penalties, which were introduced in March, admitted they still use their phone while driving. Extrapolated to the general population this, the RAC warns, could mean 9m people are still driving and using a handheld phone, knowing the risks.
Of the 89% aware of changes - the equivalent of 5.7m drivers - 16% said they no longer phone and drive since the law change, while a further 11% (3.9m) say they curbed their illegal behaviour ‘a little’. Driving while using a mobile phone is thought to be more dangerous than drink driving in impairing driving ability, but with cuts to roads policing, there are simply fewer officers to catch offenders, reducing the risk of being caught.
Drivers ignore tougher mobile phone penalties as police across Great Britain launch crackdowns
Pete Williams, RAC road safety spokesman, said: “Despite the law change and some high profile police enforcement campaigns we are in a situation where overall roads policing officer numbers are down on 2016 by a massive 30% since 2007.
“It is clear we have a hard core of persistent offenders who believe they can get away with it by continuing to flout the law every day and we fear this may get worse with fewer dedicated roads policing officers.”
A whopping 16% of drivers admitted to taking photos or video at the wheel. The survey, which was part of the RAC's Report on Motoring 2017 shows use of mobile phones increases in stationary traffic.
Jason Wakeford, Brake’s director of campaigns, said: “The illegal use of handheld mobile phones when driving is a growing menace and a major threat to road safety.
“Research shows that using a phone at the wheel affects reaction times as much as drink driving, increasing the chances of a crash.
“As a society, we have become addicted to our mobiles. Drivers should always put phones on silent and out of reach in the glove compartment.
“The mobile phone industry must also play its part, including technology as standard which helps keep drivers' attention on the road, saving lives and preventing serious injuries.”
Number of drivers fined for using mobile phone plummets
New tougher penalties, introduced in June, mean offenders could now face six penalty points and a £200 fine, rising to £1,000 with a court appearance (£2,500 for lorry or bus drivers) and a driving ban. This represented a doubling of previous penalties.
According to the RAC one in five motorists admit to checking social media in traffic.
As the new penalties were introduced, Cycling UK warned that without the deterrent of enforcement drivers will continue to drive while using mobile phones. In a blog, Duncan Dollimore said: “Penalties and enforcement are therefore two sides of the same coin, exactly the point many witnesses have made to the APPCG (All Party Parliamentary Cycling Group) with reference to traffic officer numbers, targeted enforcement such as West Midlands’ Police Close Pass Operation, and the use of driving disqualification as a penalty.”
Laura Laker is a freelance journalist with more than a decade’s experience covering cycling, walking and wheeling (and other means of transport). Beginning her career with road.cc, Laura has also written for national and specialist titles of all stripes. One part of the popular Streets Ahead podcast, she sometimes appears as a talking head on TV and radio, and in real life at conferences and festivals. She is also the author of Potholes and Pavements: a Bumpy Ride on Britain’s National Cycle Network.
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33 comments
Using phones at the wheel is dangerous. Woud be a lot more dangerous from the back seat or on the parcel shlf.
I am fed up of the Police saying no staff. When there is an accident or big event they all appear so they can stand around and do very little. Tons of them are out on the streets on Saturday night. They have money for boys toys and anti terroism groups. Yet our roads kill thousands of people every year but those lives are not worth saving.
its time they followed the example of other countries and introduced dedicated traffic police. They don't need to be trained to the high pursuit driving standards, they can sit in vans and cars with cameras catching offenders.
bad driving won't stop until the police stop sending people on courses and start putting points on their license. You slow a dangerous driver down by them having 11 points, not a safety course.
One thing I can tell you from a surveying background, if 26% of people admit doing something they know is an offence, then about 50% actually are...
I reported a driver texting on the mway. We had footage of him repeatedly looking down at the phone beneath the dash - for about 15 miles.
Because the phone wasn't visible in the shot - the police couldnt do anything.
is this news? Ive seen someone drving phone in hand, driving with their knee, burger in other hand, with a dvd player balanced on the dash, but until its an automatic ban, with a possibilty of being caught, folk will continue to do this.
would have left a longer reply but im driving
Stiffer penaltys mean nothing if Law is not enforced
13.5 million drivers break the law (the actual law, not just the Highway Code) by speeding each day every day. Now we have 9 million who also use their phone.
But cyclists blah blah blah.
As well as the fine, confiscate and crush the phone...I would say driving ban, but that'd be a worse punishment than most killer drivers get so that'll never happen.
no one to enforce any of this anyway cos 'austerity '
Everyone who uses the UK roads knows this is a problem.
On Saturday, I was driving behind someone who kept veering into the middle of the road, then veered into the grass verge on the left. At lights, they changed to green, but he didn't move, because he was reading something on a screen.
Also this weekend, I saw quite a few people with devices - looked like mobile phones rather than satnavs - stuck on the inside of the windscreen, some top right, one bottom centre. Is this a good idea?
The ENFORCEMENT ISSUE
Having regular Police Officers who get paid lots of money deal with minor crime like driving while using a mobile is bonkers. We need a second-strand group of people who enforce minor laws, including road traffic offences, and who can do it more coste effectively than regular police.
Re-brand CPSOs as 'Local Police' and let them do minor driving offences.
Pass it to local authorities like parking offences.
.
How many people on bikes have killed or seriously injured others compared to those in car or even pedestrians who kill/injure cyclists because they have their nose in a phone and step out blindly?
The bigger focus most definitely should be on pedestrians wanting to cross the roads, it should be unlwful to do so with a phone in your hand to your ear or looking at the screen. it'll deffo save lives. Sick of the responsibility being taken away from pedestrians completely no matter what they do!
Where is the media hysteria? One cyclist on an illegal bike has a collision with a pedestrian who walked out into the road and she is unfortunately, and incredibly unlikely dies and it's 24/7 news. Millions of motorists put other people's lives at risk every day and not a peep.
I wonder if this will make it into the review of road safety? Sorry, of course not; it's drivers.
In fairness to the Daily Mail (I didn't enjoy typing that!), they have focused on this in recent times, and campaigned for something to be done about it.
Particularly foreign drivers, obviously, but not entirely.
Yes, the daily mail drivers need to pay full attention whilst driving and not be distracted, otherwise they will miss the opportunity to tut, beep and bellow at a lot of cyclists....they didn't fight in normandy to have roads given up to us nazi cyclists.
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Yes, the daily mail drivers need to pay full attention whilst driving and not be distracted, otherwise they will miss the opportunity to tut, beep and bellow at a lot of cyclists....they didn't fight in normandy to have roads given up to us nazi cyclists.
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I wonder if we should get armbands to confirm their opinions?
Yes, the daily mail drivers need to pay full attention whilst driving and not be distracted, otherwise they will miss the opportunity to tut, beep and bellow at a lot of cyclists....they didn't fight in normandy to have roads given up to us nazi cyclists.
[/quote]
I wonder if we should get armbands to confirm their opinions?
[/quote]
So that's why the Rapha jerseys are designed like that...
“It is clear we have a hard core of persistent offenders who believe they can get away with it by continuing to flout the law every day and we fear this may get worse with fewer dedicated roads policing officers.”
They don't believe they can get away with it, they do get away with it. You have to be unlucky to get caught unless the roads are full of unmarked police cars.
The sooner we have compulsory dash/rear cams and an enforcement approach that is fit for purpose and not slashed below operating effectivness by governments this isn't going to go away. We can hold tech companies to task to produce smarter intelligence but you can't code your way getting an arsehole to stop being an arsehole unless we jump 20 years to fully autominous vehciles on the roads, but then cyclists will be banned as we will be the dangerous ones.
It's not a problem entirely confined to four wheels, I've seen idiots on bikes with phones in one hand or even no hands on the bars.
Yep, mainly seeing that with Kids on the way to school, add in all those pedestrians stepping out into the road without looking, these phones are turning us into dumb drones.
And they all could cause potentially life changing collisions ? Answer possibly but probably they would be the one to suffer the consequences - the idea that there should be some sort of equivalence of road rules simply reflects the perception that drivers are badly done by and that to balance the war on the motorist the parties that are already vulnerable and marginalised need to make their contribution to solving a problem not of their making
equal road rules here in Vic down under $476 around £300 fine for using a mobile on a bicycle
http://thenewdaily.com.au/news/state/vic/2017/06/27/cyclists-fined-texti...
I've seen guys making a roll-up while cycling.
It surely depends _where_ though? Dedicated bike path, deserted residential road, or dual-carriageway - all very different. Also very different from driving in terms of who suffers the consequences.
But riding a bicycle while using a mobile phone in the UK is not a criminal offence, unlike driving a vehicle and using a phone.
Given that that is a) not illegal and b) relatively unlike to kill or injure anyone else, I have to ask: So what?
So you're driving along, perfectly safely and start to pass a cyclist one their phone, cyclist loses control and goes under your wheels.
So what?
a) it's fucking stupid and should be illegal. It's not illegal for me to juggle knives but I'll not bother.
b)so things should only be illegal if they've the potential to kill or injure other people. Sign me up for heroin from Boots.
Didn't we recently see what happens when people arse around on phones taking selfies. They're dead and the kids have no mother.
But they do remain quite different moral issues. All sorts of things can be dangerous for the person doing them, but we don't ban all of them. Everyone is aware that it's a tricky moral question - how far to override personal autonomy in order to protect people from themselves? It's totally different kind of 'thing' from actions that endanger others.
Not least because it has a strong self-limiting element. Those who do it, often don't get to make a habit of it.
For example - they have yet to ban fixed-odds betting machines on the high-street. I'd ban those before worrying about cyclists taking their hands off the handelbars.
Maybe make it easier.
Anyone moving either by motorised vehicle, push bike, horse or foot on the public highway or a public footpath should be banned from operating a handheld mobile phone.
Then any dumb walker who gets knocked down by a van driver, HGV driver or cyclist due to them not being able to brake in time if the dumb walker hemselves aren't severely injured gets prosecuted.
This is an interesting parallel with a recent case.
The moral panic around a few notorious cases, and opiates and cocaine being associated with outgroups (forrins), led to kneejerking and alcohol being legal and other drugs being illegal. Sod any evidence.
Back on topic, I just can't get my head around legislating for people doing Stupid Shit on bikes without tackling the causes of Massive Death from drivers. That distinction is pretty clear, isn't it?
[/quote]
Back on topic, I just can't get my head around legislating for people doing Stupid Shit on bikes without tackling the causes of Massive Death from drivers. That distinction is pretty clear, isn't it?
[/quote]
Not if you drive a car, or a government minister.
Given that dying is pretty much the ultimately penalty, why do you think a 50 quid fine (if you get caught) is going to deter anyone?
You cannot and should not legislate everything. The chance that cyclists or pedestrians are going to kill someone rather then being killed themselves is VERY RARE.
Pedestrians should be free to cross wherever and however they want with the understanding that if they don't look and get killed it's their own fault. If they kill someone else while doing it it's also their fault. Ditto with cyclists using phones, headphones, whatever you want. There's ample law covering all this apportioning of blame. The problem is in enforcement and more especially attitude/civility. The "two sides" mentality coupled with the baked-in low-level criminality and incivilty of a significant proportion of the population (who happen mostly to drive cars instead of pretend to be cycle couriers) is what needs to be tackled.
There's no fucking need for another nanny state law to either stop you hurting other people with your knife juggling, and if you want to hurt yourself... go for it.
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