Be honest! Do you use the phone while driving?

[SaturdayGiraffe]

I’ve noticed sooooo many more drivers in London using their phones while driving post-Covid.

They are making calls (holding phone to ear), texting/typing at lights, and checking phone while moving. First hand I have seen this behaviour.

I do not, but I’m curious, do you do this?

Please be honest, I am curious if anyone gets caught TBH.

Surely its ever less likely to use it in London with cyclists, lorries, changing traffic conditions etc! I lived in London 20yrs and never!

The one and only time I texted whilst driving, 25+yrs ago, I looked up to see myself facing on coming traffic! Never again!

A call or text notification can come up on the satnav screen and it will be read out and I can reply all by voice command. I don't think I can send texts using it though but haven't tried. A friend got caught twice in two weeks on their phone - they drive as part of their job too, idiot!

No, my phone sometimes sits on a dock near the steering wheel for the Bluetooth music apps. I'll start the car, choose a playlist then set off.

However, I dislike chatting to passengers whilst driving, so would never bother answering the phone, even though it has hands free buttons. Anyone needs me urgently can leave a message and I'll check when I'm parked up.

I see a lot of people holding their phones and chatting away here in rural Ireland. I think they assume that they won't get caught as there's so few patrol cars.

Although, I've seen far worse things whilst driving:
Dogs sat on the drivers lap, people with long objects dangling out of the back hatch and even people carrying stuff on the roof (without a proper roof rack) and holding onto it with their right hand whilst the passenger holds the other side. Seriously! 🫣

To be honest, my pet peeve is speeding motorists along rural lanes. The parents driving to school are particularly dreadful. I nearly got hit last week when I posted a letter into a roadside postbox. I was about to get back into my car and grabbed the door handle just as a car on the opposite side was bombing towards me. There was no other traffic and a fairly straight road so she had about 300m to see my car parked up but she didn't bother to slow down at all. I'm guessing she was doing at least 50mph. The limit is 80k but a lot of drivers go faster on the straight sections.
The gap between me and her car was probably about a foot and I could feel it whoosh past me. 😳🫣

Whenever I drive into London I lose count of the number of people I see doing this, including on the M11 at speed

I was following a driver on the M1 yesterday and they were driving all over the road and veering in and out of the hard shoulder. As I overtook I noticed it was an elderly gentlemen, on his phone!! It was so dangerous.

I don't make calls or texts as have handsfree but I am ashamed to admit I do occasionally scroll through my playlists and flip the music tracks, yes I know it's illegal but I have never been caught in almost 20 years of driving and I only do it at very low speed/at traffic lights etc.

I also never make it look obvious what I'm doing though, and will try to make it look as though I am fiddling with the air con or something like that, some people don't even try to hide the fact they are scrolling their their phone and it is so obvious, no wonder they get caught.

Also all these answers are lies! No way are all these 'no never, the phone stays in my bag' true! I spend a lot of time crawling through heavy rush hour London traffic and ever other driver is looking down at their phone!

I think car manufacturers need to install some kind of phone blocker as standard to all vehicles, not just for the phone signal but to lock the phone screen itself. The technology is there and this is the only way people will truly go 100% handsfree.

No, mine is in my handbag, I have the I'm driving thing switched on which sends a text that I'm driving

I don’t text, I don’t answer the phone.
I do click on notifications so they disappear (it goes over tte sat nav map)
and I’ve been known to change the playlist a few times.

And I think most people do that tbh.
Even if they don’t want to recognise it.

I only use CDs and the radio in my car so I don't need my phone for anything really.

Nope never. Didn't even do it before it was illegal as it's too distracting.

If someone calls me I'll talk to them on handsfree but I can do that through the car controls.

Phone in my bag always.

I hate talking on the phone anyway so tend to ignore most calls whether I am driving or not.

My phone sits in a cradle and I can answer or make calls using handsfree if I really felt I needed to (eg a quick "I am running late" call or if the GP calls as they are notoriously hard to get hold of), however my commute is 15 mins tops so rarely anything that I need to do.

If I am using maps on my phone and a notification comes through that is blocking it then I risk assess if I am crawling / stationary will swipe it out of the way.

No never!

No. I've got Apple car play so it's in my bag

Never.
But 1 in 10 wankers do. I count them as I walk past. It's a pity there aren't enough traffic cops to start banning them all.

No, I do not use the phone while driving.

No, I couldn't if I wanted to! I can barely text and walk and I find it scary how much I miss even turning the car radio volume up. If the phone rings and I know I might want to take it I stop, and if I can't stop, I miss the call. I would never pick up to check a message unless I thought it might be significant and I was stopped in traffic anyway.

Never. But the number of of vans going through the village first thing in the morning with drivers using their 'phones is appalling.

Never, but I can always tell if other road users are, by the way they weave across the carriageway.

Never. I know my DH does but never when I’m with him because I’d lose my shit.

My new to me car has blue tooth connectivity though, so I can answer a call if I need to but I don’t even like that. It’s still distracting.

Nope. My phone connects to my car via Bluetooth so I can change songs by flicking a switch on the steering wheel and answer phone calls in a similar way.

As a PP said, I may send a text whilst in standstill traffic on a motorway. Only when I’ve been there for a while and can tell it’s going to be a while longer. I will put my car in auto start mode though to save on fuel so doesn’t actually count.

No, unless it's plugged in to act as the sat nav I put it out of sight.

Honestly, no never. I genuinely wouldn’t even consider it.

London traffic is something else though. Used to take me over an hour to do 10 miles. You can be sat about a long time.

This is awful! 😔

No. I live in London and I do not use my phone when I'm driving. Even when I'm not driving, I don't like using it for phone calls 😂 I tend to use it for reading emails and texts etc and looking things up