Smartphone use at wheel more dangerous than driving while drunk or smoking cannabis, says IAM

Where I live I see numerous kids on bikes with phone held to their ear... not in the same danger league as car driving though.

I find it pretty hard to believe that cannabis slows reaction times by 21 per cent!!!
Yet alcohol is only at 15 per cent when over the legal limit!!!
I have read several drug driving test reports over the years & ALL of them suggested alcohol is significantly worse than cannabis

No problem believing that convasation is worse than both though slows reaction times by 26.5 per cent,hands-free mobile phone conversation could essentialy be normal conversation with someone in the back or passenger seat!!!

Makes you think Eh?

Simon I'm not saying this is the norm (cycling whilst phoning) but it does happen and it is very obvious when it does, even to a fairly inattentive car driver, What I was trying to get across was a point of fairness/balance (if we want one group of road users to do one thing perhaps we could call for this) and hopefully the roads will be better for all

A lot of the above comments blast the car drivers doing this (and rightly so) but nobody has said anything about the number of cyclist that use their mobiles whilst cycling. I agree that if the use of phones of any type is more dangerous than DUI then the penalty should reflect this, but a law should be introduced for the cyclist (and horserider, yes round my way they can't ride a horse without updating that fact!) so that all road users are seen to be treated equally.

What I find most concerning about this is that the drivers who have most recently been trained in driving(the 17-24 year olds) are those who most often ignore the law. What does this say of the driving test that you can pass it and have such a blatant disregard of the law. We need a much stricter driving test(one that actually challenges drivers), we need a graded licence system and we need regular retests to ensure that we know our responsibilities to drive and keep up our skills.

There needs to be a strong element of education into what can happen if you use your smartphone whilst driving, or drink, or speed, or squeeze cyclists.

All the other debates about cycle safety pale into insignificance when compared to the urgent need for better driving.

I imagine the police just don't have the time or inclination to stop drivers on phones. The only time they do is when they have a blitz which really isn't going to change the culture..

I get properly hacked off by this, some of the occurances just this week:
Pulled up at lights by a driver I'd already spotted on the phone, give my usual "phone" handsignal followed by the hang-up sign. He then pulls forward, rolls down the window and says "Did I hit you or get in your way?". Clearly the fact that it's illegal isn't enough of a deterant as long as you don't hinder or injure it's fine!

Later that day on the way home I pull up alongside an older chap in a rather expensive looking 61 plate Merc, with at least 1 person in the passenger seat (can't remember in the back, it was dark) with his phone glued to his ear. He got the phone sign as I rode off down the road. Further up the road he stops at a set of filters lights which gets the cars behind him leaning on their horn and a yell of "Put your phone down!" from me.

On the upside I have managed to get one driver pulled over having spotted them on their phone and signalling to the police car behind me, can't tell you the feeling of satisfaction after they passed me and put on the blue lights

What is so urgent that drivers need to risk life and their freedom to update their social media friends or followers !
Most of twitter and facebook is a waste of time when you have a life !

Like the breathe tester lock , cars should have a block that disables telephone signals when the ignition is on !

Of course the emergency services should not be blocked but that drawback can be overcome .

On a coupe of occasions I've stopped and pretended to take a photo of someone using a cellphone while driving. The reactions are rather amusing.

Since texting or checking the Internet is more dangerous than drinking and driving, why is the offence not given higher penalties. Those found using a cellphone while driving should be banned for 12 months and if texting or Internet use is involved, there should be a compulsory retest.

It does beg the question of why car manufacturers are not doing more. Modern cars do have technology to detect when someone is sitting in the seat or the vehicle is in motion with the engine running. It wouldn't be too hard or costly to add coding to the electronics that would trip a very loud audible warning should a single occupant attempt to use a phone while at the wheel.

A change in the law is needed as enforcement is non-existant: can i suggest that it becomes legal to put a d-lock through the window of any driver using their phone?

if I didn't ride a bike I'd think this was stupid and dangerous, but as it is, I find the idea of checking mails and posting status updates while driving, just downright scary.

Raise the fine and the minimum number of points then, as the article points out, it's such common practice that it would be really easy for the police to crack down and 'get the message across'.

I would think the threat of points and the subsequent rise of already sky-high insurance costs would help deter younger drivers but until prosecutions are common enough that everyone knows a 'friend of a friend who got done for it' the threat is too remote to be effective.

The bloke in the picture isn't wearing a seatbelt either.

road.cc wrote:

alcohol (above UK driving limit but below 100mg per 100ml of blood) slows reaction time by between six and 15 per cent; and alcohol at the legal limit slows reaction times by 12.5 per cent.

So if you're legally pissed your reaction times are 12.5% slower and if you're slightly illegally pissed your reaction times may only be 6% slower? Hmm. Dodgy summarisation somewhere along the line.

I think the concept of effect on reaction time is a red herring for smartphone use. I rather suspect it's not that your reaction times are affected, but simply that you're flitting between tasks and whilst actually operating a phone you are not able to observe things which require a reaction. When you revert your concentration to the road your reaction times are fine.

Still, it's good to see figures that show this is a massive problem. I really wish The Times's campaign wasn't so city-focused so that they'd included points in the manifesto such as short driving bans for things like use of phones whilst driving. It's loss of concentration from driviers approaching from behind that kills rural cyclists, quite different to the causes of death in the urban environment.

"Adequately enforced"? Is it being enforced at all? When seatbelts were made mandatory their use was muscularly enforced by the police. Now we appear to have no police on the roads to enforce the law. Government/police and local authorities are strapped for cash. mobile phones while driving and fog lights on when it's not foggy would appear to be a cash rich revenue stream.

Wow. I'm quite shocked at how much it slows your reaction compared to alcohol. But then again. When you've had a drink in your trying to watch the road more, knowing that you should not be driving. It can only be worse when you combine a smartphone with a heavy goods vehicle, like i have seen many drivers of buses and lorries using phones not for calls before. I'm writing this while traveling on a bus. Its near impossible to concertrate on anything elsre. Just as well i'm only a passenger.