Warning!!! Mobile Phones,

[Smooth Hound]

In our area because of the amount of youngsters who die on the roads up here they have started to let youngsters do a course which would normally cost alot of money for 15 quid, and still no one seems to be doing it, even though it would give quite a lot of money off an insurance quote. I suggested to my son that he does it so that when he goes to court he can say that he had done it and that then he would get a fine and less points, but he hasnt done anything about it, He still moans about the price of his insurance though.

[vannut]

It would be a very interesting experiment to see if anyone could pass their driving test whilst talking on a hands free phone.

[FredTransit]

Been reading through this, most are of the same opinion as me, speed cameras and mobile phones.

wile sometimes i agree its wrong but with the way some people drive wile on the phone i can see the police,s point !
i see loads of people who just cant drive and use there phone and normally lady drivers are the worst!

Hmmmmm, women drivers eh Mark? The van I was driving was hit by a bloke driving his car whilst staring at two women on the pavement. On my birthday.

Back to mobiles, I am an habitiual wearer of a handsfree. It's put on in the morning and I take it off at night, the phone inevitable rings at the wrong moment, such as when I am unloading, not just when I am driving. It's the wired type as I am not happy with the sound quality of the bluetooth and find the battery life of them isn't enough for me! The wired type is very cheap, so cost is not an excuse. It's just a matter of getting into the habit of plugging it in before driving off, or getting over other people's problem about your apparently talking to yourself and leaving it in all the time! I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who drive and use a hand held phone and get done for it. On the other hand, it's just not realistic to expect people to not use the phone at all whilst driving. I see it as being no more distracting than talking to a passenger, unless of course there are plans to make that illegal too.......

[Altransit]

Couldn't agree more, Fred
Using a handsfree is cheap and easy if you need to use a phone on the move, and I couldn't care less if people think it looks stupid. I do use a bluetooth cos I keep ripping the earpiece from my ear by catching the connecting wire. The quality isn't good, but I'm sure they'll get better with popularity

I nearly collided with a car pulling away from the kerb, last week. when I caught up at the lights I glared at the oblivious driver, only to see him not only with one phone to his ear......................but texting with another one at the same time

[Den]

I wish they'd ban phones here! Hands free? Here they just use it so they can rifle through their busness papers while driving (?).

My thoughts on it are QUITE clear here:

http://z15.invisionfree.com/Anarkist_Ga ... owtopic=67

Funny how someone can drive on black ice on all season tires while yapping on her phone during freezing rain but IT"S THE ROAD'S FAULT!!!

That's normal here. Guy went down the same road the other day and drowned in the canal. Police said "no signs of skidmarks or exvasive action". Uh huh. straight road!! I wonder if HE was on his phone?? Sorry but I KNOW this strech of road and agree it's kind of spooky on the nerves but anyone with a BRAIN would slow down!! Even I slow down to 10 over on that stretch! heehee.

It's not that people use their phones, it's the attitude when they DO do it. Lieing across the car like they're at home. I've run right up their back bumper (I don't usually tailgate but phone users bring out the worse in me, especially after I've exhausted every other "polite" means to move them over at their 20 under the limit plod and the line behind us gets longer and longer and.......), straddling the left shoulder (right for you guys) and honking, high beaming and swerving back and forth and they don't even know I'm there. Pass on the right, (illegal) and cut them off, look in the mirror to see they never even noticed or noticed the nest guy who is now behind them flashing the high beams, honking........

And trust me I agree with the comments about NAV systems etc. I think they should be banned too. carmakers and Government are making so many excuses for bad drivers, no wonder they can't be bothered to DRIVE!!

Sorry mate, I wasn't implying that you were 17, I know you're older

What i meant was I sympathise with younger drivers, both my driving sons have collected points in the last two months, and they're both good drivers, (one has been taking an advanced driving course) and the points will probably raise their already exorbitant insurance premiums. If the younger one gets caught again, he will be the same as you.

There can't be many on here that can honestly say that they NEVER speed.

I almost never drive at the limit. LOL. But I have slowed down over the decades and yes, driving for a living makes you VERY aware how you depend on that thing!! Yet a few speeding tickets can ruin you.

(luckily I only get one about every 5-10 years. Now having said that!! I was most paranoid after discovering Dec. before last that my license was officially "spotless" on the 26th. I though "with my luck I'll get nailed for 10 over" and all day that day it seemed there was a speed trap "around every corner" so to say. LOL)

Weird after you watch the cell-users running red lights at their unattentive crawl and not signalling and just generally driving badly but "slow is safe" is so thrown around here......well.

That's it, as long as you crawl along like a nice sheep, you're "safe". Blocking the left (right there) lane? Good, you can slow down those nasty "speeders" for us.

Problem is too that the idiots hammering along, cutting drivers off with no indicaters make the public lump them in with those of us who drive at higher speeds but give our fellow road users lots of room and warning about our moves on the highway. Seems no matter how considerate we try to be, one slip in front of a cop and the rest don't matter as we're all lumped in as "aggressive" drivers.

Yeah. Here they call speeding "aggresive" driving. Huh??????? How the Hell is that??? I agree if the dimwit is tailgating and driving like a jerk, but if I have an open highway ahead of me I'm going to run the truck on the governer (100 mph-okay, these days I barely run over 90 and mostly average 70-80 but more to lower the risk of getting a ticket, as the Ford Super Duty is QUITE safe and steady at those speeds and has the brakes to go with it!!) until I see traffic, then slow down before I get near.

If I don't affect other traffic then how am I "aggressive"?

It's all about revenue.

[I_hate_rust]

Just last week I had 2 Bluetooth handsfree kits installed in company van and car meaning either driver can use there mobiles whichever vehicle they drive. OK cost was £130 fittted EACH but most practicle answer for me.