On the phone while driving... Rant

L-M

I think it's beginning to annoy me more than people actually being on the phone, but having your phone on loudspeaker and holding it about 2 inches away from your face still counts as being on the phone while driving! I see so many people doing this, and I honestly don't get it! Buy a fecking handsfree!

si_guru

Limerick man wrote: »

I think it's beginning to annoy me more than people actually being on the phone, but having your phone on loudspeaker and holding it about 2 inches away from your face still counts as being on the phone while driving! I see so many people doing this, and I honestly don't get it! Buy a fecking handsfree!

..or even better - pull over!

johnos1984

si_guru wrote: »

..or even better - pull over!

Please don't

The amount of people who get a call and slam on the brakes and stop the car on bends, blind corners and dangerous stretches of road is more dangerous then just taking the dam call

Colonel Sanders

I don't think I've ever seen as many people driving while on the phone as I have over the last 6 months or so. You see someone driving erratically and quite often low and behold they're on the phone while driving!

Henry Ford III

STG£20 buys a very decent bluetooth handsfree device. There's no excuse really.

hanloj1

I've noticed this allot lately and most have been women. you can nearly always tell if someone is on the phone by there speed and control of car. I dont get it.

CyberGhost

Talking on the phone while driving
Not using indicators
Using indicators incorrectly(Roundabouts)
Leaving indicators on for too long or turning them on too late/too close to the turn
Driving with full lights on
Tailgating
Parking like an asshole

=

FUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cantona's Collars

I started a thread recently about this in After Hours,it's a crazy practice.Just yesterday I met a woman trying to negotiate an icy road while waving the phone just under her chin.She looked at me as if I had 2 heads when I gestured at her pointing out what she was doing.

shawnee

Research now says that using the phone on bluetooth is almost as dangerous as using without. Concentration is on the phone in both and not on the driving.
Pull over (carefully):D:D

si_guru

johnos1984 wrote: »

Please don't

The amount of people who get a call and slam on the brakes and stop the car on bends, blind corners and dangerous stretches of road is more dangerous then just taking the dam call

So you think it is better to drive?

L-M

Pulling out of my estate awhile ago and a women drove past doing the same thing! It's unreal!!!

Under A Funeral Moon

Talking on the phone is bad enough, but there's also a special breed of people who text while driving. I saw a guy steering with his elbows while texting with both hands. How did I notice him? The pleb swerved into my lane on the M50 in heavy traffic. The number of crashes on Irish roads is hardly surprising.

johnos1984

si_guru wrote: »

So you think it is better to drive?

Your message is missing a very strong word which I got into my inbox. Thanks mate!

However to answer your question in a civil matter yes I would prefer they just continued on driving rather than stamp on the brakes or just park the car on the road. It happens all of the time on country roads and it is VERY dangerous for every other road user.

I'd prefer if people just don't use their phone if they don't have a hands free kit fitted but I find the way a lot of people just abandon the car to take that all important phone call is dangerous.

And just before you go calling me an abusive name again I have a Parrot bluetooth fitted and never touch my phone while driving.

stimpson

shawnee wrote: »

Research now says that using the phone on bluetooth is almost as dangerous as using without. Concentration is on the phone in both and not on the driving.
Pull over (carefully):D:D

Research also suggests that having a conversation with a passenger is as dangerous as having a conversation on a phone.

Should we ban passengers?

robinph

stimpson wrote: »

Research also suggests that having a conversation with a passenger is as dangerous as having a conversation on a phone.

Should we ban passengers?

Not true, as the passenger is in the car with you and aware of what is going on so the flow of the conversation will be different to how it will go with someone on the phone.

stimpson

robinph wrote: »

Not true, as the passenger is in the car with you and aware of what is going on so the flow of the conversation will be different to how it will go with someone on the phone.

It is true according to a University of Illinois meta analysis:

http://mysite.verizon.net/horrey/papers/Horrey_HF2006meta.pdf

Results: Overall, there were clear costs to driving performance when
drivers were engaged in cell phone conversations. However, subsequent analyses indicated that these costs were borne primarily by reaction time tasks, with far smaller costs associated with tracking (lane-keeping) performance. Hands-free and handheld phones revealed similar patterns of results for both measures of performance. Conversation tasks tended to show greater costs than did information-processing tasks (e.g., word games). There was a similar pattern of results for passenger and remote (cell phone) conversations. Finally, there were some small differences between simulator and field studies, though both exhibited costs in performance for cell phone use.

Henry Ford III

I've used various bluetooth devices ranging from an earpiece to a fully built in factory jobbie over 7 or more years.

I have to say you get used to it.

I only ever had one concentration/multitasking problem. I almost lost control of the car whilst hustling along a lovely b road. The phone rang and whilst taking the call I cut myself shaving, spilt hot tea on my nadgers, burnt the carpet with a misplaced fag butt, and ruined the entire Simplex crossword.

A terrible moment.

bladebrew

it drives me bloody mad,
and cork is the worst place in the country for it apparently,

the other day i was driving towards the city, there was a guy parked on the left about to pull out, i wasnt going fast but he went out accross the road in front of me doing a u-turn, i slowed down and gave him a beep,

i looked across at him and he was on the phone, so he was trying to see who was beeping at him while doing a u-turn with one hand and on the phone,
the look on his face was priceless:)

WindSock

Everytime I see a dumbass flying around a corner and going over the line, they are always gabbling away on the feckin phone. I was even turning right at a crossroads the other day to see some thicko pull out from a his parking space while on the phone in front of me. I beeped as he didn't even look to see the traffic turning onto the road. Why he didn't stay parked until he finished his call, I don't know. Bloody hazardous things.

dcmraad

CyberGhost wrote: »

Talking on the phone while driving
Not using indicators
Using indicators incorrectly(Roundabouts)
Leaving indicators on for too long or turning them on too late/too close to the turn
Driving with full lights on
Tailgating
Parking like an asshole

=

FUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AMEN

Being in the wrong lane on motorways, or dual carr.

Light bulbs gone

Reading while driving.

Smoking a fag, and on the phone while driving.

Emptying your ashtray out the window while driving.

When leaving the petrol station, throwing the foil and the plastic out of your window as you drive out of the station while Lighting a fag and trying to put on a seat belt, and drive.

Women looking at their passenger during the whole conversation while driving.

People who cannot read the road ahead and slam on the brakes when they realise the cars ahead have stopped.

Curran

The other morning, after a night shift, I was on the way home and using the M1 heading North. I was in the overtaking lane and had just past two cars, when I came upon a red Astra, 08, i think!
Now this car, in the overtaking lane, was moving slower than the two I had just passed a few seconds earlier, and the other lane was empty....what is this clown at I think to myself. Turns out I was leaving the M1 in a few hundred metres, so I pulled into the other lane and as Im leaving the motorway I can see the problem! Woman doing her make up, eye liner no less, in the mirror of the sun visor doing about 60mph!! WTF...seriously!! :rolleyes:
Whatever about sitting in non moving traffic and perhps missing the lights due to lack of attention! Felt like going up the slip road and back down the opposite one and remerging and standing on the horn...but she probably would have crashed!! Or not...probably had some tunes blasting out and wouldnt have heard it! :mad:

Mr Magners

Mattie McGrath, T.D. seems to think it's OK though.

http://www.thejournal.ie/its-good-to-talk-unless-youre-driving-your-van-deputy-mcgrath-2010-12/

He sems to have totally gotten away with this as well as it happened around the time the budget was announced and it got lost among all the other headlines,

The man's a disgrace.:mad:

Cabaal

CyberGhost wrote: »

Talking on the phone while driving
Not using indicators
Using indicators incorrectly(Roundabouts)
Leaving indicators on for too long or turning them on too late/too close to the turn
Driving with full lights on
Tailgating
Parking like an asshole

=

FUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Add to this,
- Driving in the overtaking lane because they think its a fastlane! :mad:

Sids Not

To answer the "women drivers using their phones"...the simple fact is..WOMEN DONT DO TECHNOLOGY.....I've NEVER seen a woman using an ear piece (maybe if they sold them in pairs with nice shiny bits like ear-rings) ...Handsfree kits..WTF...they'd need a man to install and explain it to them....:p

Veloce

This drives me bananas. One day, I saw a woman stopped & attempting to turn right across 2 lanes on the dublin road in limerick, whilst on her phone AND with 2 kids in the back seat (who were also not wearing their seatbelts). This is a dangerous junction as cars are travelling quite quickly in both lanes in the same direction. I was pretty angry to see this.

I am no garda but once she had managed to cross the 2 lanes and onto the minor road safely I made her stop and had a few words with her. You should have seen her drop the phone from her ear straight away, and I don't think she even hung up. If it wasn't for her 2 kids in the back I would have l completely gone to town on her.

Ush1

Cabaal wrote: »

Add to this,
- Driving in the overtaking lane because they think its a fastlane! :mad:

Also add foglights to it. Sick of being blinded in my rear view mirror.

-Chris-

Sids Not wrote: »

To answer the "women drivers using their phones"...the simple fact is..WOMEN DONT DO TECHNOLOGY.....I've NEVER seen a woman using an ear piece (maybe if they sold them in pairs with nice shiny bits like ear-rings) ...Handsfree kits..WTF...they'd need a man to install and explain it to them....:p

This isn't After Hours, dial down the "colour" please.

Gary ITR

Sids Not wrote: »

To answer the "women drivers using their phones"...the simple fact is..WOMEN DONT DO TECHNOLOGY.....I've NEVER seen a woman using an ear piece (maybe if they sold them in pairs with nice shiny bits like ear-rings) ...Handsfree kits..WTF...they'd need a man to install and explain it to them....:p

Drop the sexism please, we don't do stereotypes around here

billbond4

Also a lot of cars already have integrated bluetooth in their cars, but they are too thick to pair their phone with the car.
Im sure they are thinking "Sure the garage should have did that when I bought the car" :eek:

TheBazman

Had a close call yesterday on the main Liffey Valley roundabout with the Fonthill road - a woman in a Passat came out between two cars with no view and cruised onto the roundabout as I was on it. She was on the phone I presume engrossed in conversation. Only that I had spotted the nose of her car and put the anchors down it could have been messy. She got a genuine shock when she realised where she was with the phone launching out of her hands.

mb1725

Veloce wrote: »

I am no garda but once she had managed to cross the 2 lanes and onto the minor road safely I made her stop and had a few words with her. You should have seen her drop the phone from her ear straight away, and I don't think she even hung up. If it wasn't for her 2 kids in the back I would have l completely gone to town on her.

How pray tell, did you do that?

Veloce

mb1725 wrote: »

How pray tell, did you do that?

I was at the other side of the road waiting to turn left so she was coming towards me. So I hopped out of my own car and walked out in front of hers and as she approached put the hand out to stop (I know, I know). She didn't know what to make of it at first, but I have to say the look on her face was a pure kodak moment.

Veloce

Veloce wrote: »

I was at the other side of the road waiting to turn left so she was coming towards me. So I hopped out of my own car and walked out in front of hers and as she approached put the hand out to stop (I know, I know). She didn't know what to make of it at first, but I have to say the look on her face was a pure kodak moment.

She was an awful fool to stop for you in fairness you could have been anybody. I wouldn't have a notion of stopping for anyone except a guard.

Veloce

Michaela Old-fashioned Coffin wrote: »

She was an awful fool to stop for you in fairness you could have been anybody. I wouldn't have a notion of stopping for anyone except a guard.

So you wouldn't stop for a lollipop lady letting schoolkids cross the road?

Whatever about her being a fool for stopping for me, she's an even bigger fool for driving on the phone across a busy carriageway with her kids in the back.

johnos1984

Veloce wrote: »

So you wouldn't stop for a lollipop lady letting schoolkids cross the road?

Whatever about her being a fool for stopping for me, she's an even bigger fool for driving on the phone across a busy carriageway with her kids in the back.

If she didn't see you due to the call (or thought you were nuts) and ran over you would you feel it ok to sue her?

I know which pedal my right foot would of been on

Veloce

Veloce wrote: »

So you wouldn't stop for a lollipop lady letting schoolkids cross the road?

Whatever about her being a fool for stopping for me, she's an even bigger fool for driving on the phone across a busy carriageway with her kids in the back.

Veloce wrote: »

I was at the other side of the road waiting to turn left so she was coming towards me. So I hopped out of my own car and walked out in front of hers and as she approached put the hand out to stop (I know, I know). She didn't know what to make of it at first, but I have to say the look on her face was a pure kodak moment.

She's a fool for driving across a busy carraigeway but 'tis fine to walk in front of her, ok.

Veloce

Veloce wrote: »

So you wouldn't stop for a lollipop lady letting schoolkids cross the road?

Whatever about her being a fool for stopping for me, she's an even bigger fool for driving on the phone across a busy carriageway with her kids in the back.

Obviously I would stop for lollipop lady etc. I was referring to someone approaching me in the way you describe. Plenty of car jackings, handbag snatching etc going on nowadays so no way should anyone especially a woman stop for a person who's intentions are unknown.