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.

I use my phone as a sat nav so sometimes have to touch it. Bloody Google has a habit of finding a “faster route” and if you don’t click and tell it to stop it will reroute you away from your carefully rehearsed route onto different roads that you didn’t expect to be driving on.

cin I've not been organised enough to upload dashcam footage yet. The police need it within 7 days and it keeps slipping my mind. I must start doing it.

Yes (not to make calls or check email)

But to make it re Center or something on Google maps if I'm following complex directions

I have never used the phone at any speed but occasionally used to text or send short WhatsApp messages when stuck in long tail backs and either stationary or driving at less than 5 mph. I did that perhaps 2 or 3 times, always when I was meeting someone and knew I would be very late.

However I now have a newer car so if I needed to let someone know I was going to be late I would do so using the car controls.

No. I once received a devastating phone call when I was in a shop. Before that I would sneak a look at traffic lights or stuck in a queue but after that call, never ever whilst in charge of a vehicle. Phone stays in my bag in the boot now.

No!

Never and it makes me so fucking angry when I see people doing it. I was nearly killed last year by someone who drove straight through a red traffic light and into the side of me at 60mph because he thought sending a text was really important. It's traumatised me, and I wish I could scream at every person I see doing it and just tell them the consequences or what they might inflict on someone but I imagine most of them wouldn't care

I've seen so many things, people brushing their hair, applying lipstick, rolling cigarettes etc. Fucking idiots

If I’m sat in traffic with the hand brake on and need to check the map / tell someone I’m late then yes, otherwise I don’t.

@FluffyDiplodocus thats now illegal . You can’t touch your phone unless it’s in a cradle for satnav .

Admittedly I do. I'm not entirely sure why, it is rarely something urgently important. I have an unhealthy addiction to my phone, it is pure habit of picking it up. It is a dirty addiction I'm trying to get control of. I had a conversation with an older colleague about using phones while driving recently and a lot of what he said has stuck with me and is helping me to change my ways. I have started putting it in the glove box when I get in but don't always remember.

Never!

Never. My phone plugs into the screen for satnav but I have only been driving a year so don't even answer calls on the hands free as I find that too distracting.

If I am next to someone using a phone I gesture at them to make my feelings on their phone use known!

I bought the cheapest description of a blue tooth headset, it is crap.

I set it up if I am going to drive and think someone might call, I tap the headset to answer and say driving, will call you and hang up.

The quality is so bad nobody argues. 😂

No. I set satnav before I start driving, and let it speak to me, but that's all. I might be tempted if I were in stationary traffic because of an incident, just to say I'd be late, if it's the sort of traffic where engines are off and people are getting out of cars.

I did use it the winter it took 7 hours (rather than 25 minutes) to drive home, but I had the engine off and even got out to go to the loo at one point. No way would I have used I while actually driving on snow.

I do sometimes eat or drink water at the wheel on long journeys.

No way.

You are not exactly going to get people rocking up and admitting they are breaking the law.

I hear you. I have seen tons of people on the road using their phones while driving. I see it all the time.

Thanks for the honest comments.

This is the film I watched. Chandler Gerber now campaigns to raise awareness.

https://topdocumentaryfilms.com/from-one-second-next/

Not sure what the impact of eating or drinking (or brushing hair) while driving is. Would be interested if anyone has a study/stats link. I would have thought the interactivity of the phone is what removes the concentration and slows responses.

As a cyclist, I often observe people on their phones driving and know it takes the bit of their concentration that should be used to check for the presence of cyclists like me.

Especially when stopped at junctions - people use phones, look up and see the traffic is moving and skip the proper observations because they want to get moving.

In my experience, tradesmen in vans are the worst! If I see someone in a liveried van using one then I take a pic and report them to their employer. Eg if I'm a passenger in a car on a motorway and see another vehicle where the driver is using their phone.

Okay I'll bite. I don't take or receive phone calls as standard and am an exceptionally careful driver. I'm that person that puts on the handbrake at junctions instead of using the brake, meticulously maintains safe stopping distance and stays within speed limit ( or less if in adverse conditions).

However, if I'm fully stopped at a red light or stationary in a traffic jam (in neutral, handbrake on) then I will sometimes message DH to say running late or put on Google maps to check the route - why is that dangerous and irresponsible?

Also, reading this thread makes me think there has been a change in the law I am not aware of around only being able to use phone sat nav mounted on the dashboard...off to check now....

On the one hand, I can see why people stopped at lights think it's OK to check or send messages.
I've seen people watching tiktok (I walk past a junction on the way to the station).
But you must know that if you send a text at a red light, the reply will tempt you when you're driving?

Never.

Yes I have mine in a dock for sat nav and Spotify and use it to check my route and skip music. Will be re thinking this now though.

It's so bloody annoying when this happens.

Very rarely indeed, and only ever with the handbrake on. And only then when mission critical to wherever I'm heading - I have offsite appointments during the working day. I might glance at a text if I'm in the kind of traffic where I can't easily pull over, but again, only with the handbrake on. Once I've sorted my playlist for the journey I pop my phone in the passenger door pocket so it's out of reach enough for impulsive temptation, but I can get at it if in heavy traffic and in real need.

No because I don't want to cause an accident.

People who do are twats.