Texting While Driving Advert

I think the analogy with drink driving is a useful one for understanding how to change behavior and how long that takes. I'm pretty sure that most christmases in the 70s my dad would drive us all back from parties at relations' houses really pissed. By the mid eighties he'd probably have been if not quite sober then a lot less drunk and a few years after that he would have a couple of pints at most. I think the change was caused by adverts, year after year, chipping away at the myths about drink driving, at the lies people told themselves about it and occasionally very graphically showing the potential consequences. But, at the same time the penalties got more severe and the chances of being caught, through targeting, increased. So the dual strategy, of informing, of making drink driving socially unacceptable and enforcing harsher punishments for people who didn't choose to change their behavior had a major effect.
I don't see why that approach wouldn't work with mobile phone use but nor do I think it would take any less time.

Basically by judging the pattern you describe, first come the shock-tactic advert to show the danger of using mobile phone while driving, then come the change in law.

Right now, the £90 penatly is a joke as people pay that much for petrol nowadays, netherless I do sincerely hope that in time the law will be a lots harsher, says £500 fine, and something like £10,000 fine with 15 years prison sentence if found using mobile phone in an accident where somebody has been killed.

maybe they should start by informing everybody that its against the law.

every mobile phone in this country should be sent a text message saying that its illegal to use a mobile phone whilst driving - job done, level playing field. nobody can say they didnt know.

next actually inforce the law, arrest , charge and fine people. cant pay the fine? take the car, sell the car, pay the fine and with the change buy them a bicycle or oyster card - they can choose.

people i think are more concerned about the money in their pocket than about the risk to somebody elses life. as said above a under a ninety pound fine is not enough to make people think twice before picking up a ringing phone whilst they are driving. sad but i think true.

as wiganwill said there was a change in his fathers attitude to drinking as time went on and i think we (most of us) do wise up as we get older and respect the fact that its crumbling around us and try to make a difference.

sorry if i missed something.

YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.

people i think are more concerned about the money in their pocket than about the risk to somebody elses life.

bingo, that's exactly what I'm thinking, I believe increasing the fine would make a difference.

YouTube - Don't Text and Drive whilst listening to Queen.

That was brilliant.

I think this is the advert that everybody went crazy about. When I say crazy I mean other authorities thought it was really good. Some American news tv company flew here to get interviews with the people who made it and it's got massive worldwide hits on YouTube. It's become a phenomenon rather than the hard hitting warning it was supposed to be.

I saw some dude this morning, negotiating Bishopsgate road eating a corn on a cob... was gonna knock on his window but instead gave him a round of applause. safe.

^^ should've thrown a knob of butter at him!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8407142.stm

Was on the news this morning.

I always make a habit of shouting "Get off your phone" when riding. Never works....

If drivers need this kind of sensationalist bloodbath type flic to educate them that **THEY SHOULD PAY ATTENTION WHILST DRIVING** then they really should not be on the roadin the first place.

My answer is to make everyone retake their driving test (with a medical and eyetest) every 5 years.

Signed: Adolf Shicklgruber

+1 to retaking driving tests every 5 years. Would stop a lot of accidents and bad driving in my opinion.

People in Lambeth should re-take their driving test every 6months

People in Lambeth should re-take their driving test every 6months

re-take?

That suggests they took one in the first place.

There is no way some of the drivers I encounter have ever taken a driving test and passed, certainly not the same test I had to take some 20 years ago (and I understand it's now harder)

The habitual failure to signal, inability to control speed, lack of concentration (mobile phone use etc), failure to use correct road positioning, poor road sense and failure to "read" traffic ahead, failure to obey traffic signals and road markings, inability to perform basic maneuvers and general aggression and carelessness is clear proof that something is badly, badly wrong with the way people are taught to drive and the way traffic law is enforced in this country.

Without wanting to get all racist, xenophobic and stereotypical but in Africa and The West Indies all you have to do to pass your test is to be able to turn the car on and change gear

Where's Rob Liddle when you need him?

re-take?

That suggests they took one in the first place.

There is no way some of the drivers I encounter have ever taken a driving test and passed, certainly not the same test I had to take some 20 years ago (and I understand it's now harder)

The habitual failure to signal, inability to control speed, lack of concentration (mobile phone use etc), failure to use correct road positioning, poor road sense and failure to "read" traffic ahead, failure to obey traffic signals and road markings, inability to perform basic maneuvers and general aggression and carelessness is clear proof that something is badly, badly wrong with the way people are taught to drive and the way traffic law is enforced in this country.

Back in Oz I once got a $150 fine and 3 points for failing to indicate. Not one driver on this island indicates. Ever. I hardly ever see anyone pulled over by the fuzz, especially in london. In Oz sometimes you get pulled over at random for no reason, just to check your licence and your car. Pain in the arse for the driver but good from a policing point of view.

If 1 in 10 drivers in london are estimated to have no licence or no insurance or both then the police should be pulling over 1 in 10 cars, or as near to that as they can. You'll never stop it otherwise.

i don't think that it is a good idea to keep extending police powers to non police officers who are not trained in this kind of thing.

I'm not trained but I know a c*** on the phone when I see one

It's all well and good raising the fines but unless there is someone there to do the enforcement it's a BIG WASTE OF TIME.

Issue is that we manage traffic via camera these days- which is cheaper than employing real life police to do it.

This runs into a bit of a problem however when you come to cars which change hands for cash and are never registered or insured- where do you send the fine, and to whom?

I forget the percentage of uninsured unregistered un-MOT'd vehicles in London but it is scarily high.

Want a cheap vehicle with no need to pay speeding fines, insurance, MOT, congestion charge or even for petrol (if you're quick to drive off)?

Then buy a £300 car from Gumtree for cash, abandon it when it gets too broken.

Until it does then one week of illegal mini-cabbing will pay for the car easily.

EDIT/ and you don't need a licence at all if you are not going to register or insure the vehicle, which explains a lot of the driving around my neck of the woods.

^^^^^Exactly. The 1 in 10 figure if true is absolutely scandalous. I can't believe this hasn't been clampled down on harder by the authorities, given the potential for accidents with unlicenced drivers, and the impact on those with insurance (or one of us) when they have an accicent with someone without it.

Does anyone know if the CTC/LCC has been lobbying for action, or even dare I mention the AA/RAC etc?

Given us cyclists are so vulnerable out there on the roads we have a right to be royally pissed about this.

Just think, if all those drivers/cars were removed from the roads there'd be 10% less traffic.

In business we call it cost of sale- and it is quite clear that the government have decided that camera/automated enforcement has a good cost of sale whereas actual police based enforcement has a poor cost of sale.

Therefore they will stick with giving fines to the people who register their vehicles, and leave those that do not to get on with their lives.

Using phones whilst driving is the biggest fucking joke of a law ever. The police can't inforce this, I've had people overtake me whilst on the phone.

I wonder if your more likely to get caught using the phone on a bike or in a car?

Does anyone know if the CTC/LCC has been lobbying for action, or even dare I mention the AA/RAC etc?

Oh, all the time--but it's really difficult to enforce it without dedicated traffic police. In the absence of well-trained traffic enforcement officers, it's mainly the easy things that are being targeted. Mobile phone use while driving is only a part of the tip of the iceberg of widespread and widely accepted driving offences such as speeding, driving unregistered cars, ASL encroachment, etc. Compliance withe the Highway Code is generally low across all the modes and more enforcement is sorely needed.

Did anyone else see the Mythbusters where they "proved" that driving whilst on the 'phone makes you worse than driving when over the alcohol limit? They were very quick to point out that they weren't saying that driving when drunk was safe, however.