Meanwhile on the Roads...

There can't be many new cars sold over the last 6 years that don't have the ability to plug your phone into the car's USB port and get SatNav display on the car 'console' that way? My very basic 2018 Skoda even has that function - I didn't go for the fancier (at the time) bluetooth option. My current hire car is a very basic 222 VW - it doesn't seem to have a USB port I can plug into, but it took me about 90 seconds to get the bluetooth feature working.

It's such an easy tech fix if the will was there. I refuse to believe, going off the amount of 'physical phone interaction' I see on my commutes, that a significant proportion of people who use phone mounts don't also use them regularly for things they shouldn't.

Until that issue is sorted I don't want to hear another driver complain about 'dangerous roads' or 'bloody cyclists'.

There's already a tech solution to speeding, but there's clearly no appetite to implement and enforce it.

Trying to enforce the handheld device ban would be as effective as sticking your finger in a leaking dam.

No particular logic to this, but when I see someone in an 'old' car using a phone mount, I assume they're just using it for SatNav. But the amount of new cars - as in the last 4/ 5 years using them…

It's easy for me to say, as someone who has the functionality to hook google maps on my phone up to my car, but if we want to take phone use in car's seriously is banning phone mounts, and pointing people towards dedicated car-specific SatNav devices, not a reasonable first step? Could have a time frame set, as in by Jan 2026 everyone must have found a way to drive without a phone being accessible to the driver. We managed for decades without them.

EDIT: and don't get me started on the iPad sized 'console' screens as you mentioned! The stuff that you can distract yourself with on a Tesla is ridiculous. They're basically toys on 4 wheels.

Happens a lot for sure. A bug bear of mine 90% of the time. I know that a lot of those cyclists will argue that they're basically just acting like pedestrians and crossing through when safe to do so. I'd agree with that approach in principle, as there's a big difference between bikes and cars, in terms of velocity, weight, space and manoeuvrability. I just wish the powers that be would take a progressive approach and legislate for cyclists to be allowed filter through in specific circumstances. Anecdotally I believe that some countries already allow for cyclists to turn left on reds. Its simply a matter of common sense really. There's nothing more frustrating* on a bus in rush hour than when a load of cyclists filter through at a red light and stop in front of a bus (as they're perfectly entitled to do)… everyone then pulls off at the same time and the bus has to wait until enough space to overtake… until the next set of lights. Whereas when the cyclists filter through either on the pedestrian lights or when it would be safe for a pedestrian to cross, everything runs much smoother.

*Actually there is - when a car decides it's too important to slum it in the car lanes and should be entitled to skip ahead in the bus lane. Speaking of which, I came across a new Range Rover absolutely wedged under a large construction truck on the N11 last week. There's a lot of groundworks being done on a site near the Leopardstown crossroads and the truck was clearly in the inside lane swinging left to turn into the construction site. The Range Rover had clearly been barrelling down the bus lane and ended up driving straight into and under the truck. You'd have to assume, given the nature of the collision that the driver was either speeding and couldn't brake in time or was looking at the phone and didn't brake at all. No sign of ambulance, just Gardai, so looks like injuries were avoided. If it had been anything smaller than a Range Rover I'd say it would have been a different story. Just another day on the roads where people are too busy to bother caring for their own or anyone else's safety.

Wow… quite the take, even for a paper that seems more and more interested in generating content for the sake of clicks these days,

Enjoy your days out, but avoid exiting cars on narrow roads | Irish Independent

We've probably all either been doored or nearly doored at some stage, but the most dangerous users of the roads are stationary vehicles? Jesus wept.