Nob on a bike

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I repeatedly drive a similar route for work/school run. There are two inevitable tailbacks (at least 10 minutes in each, every time, mostly stationary). One at a set of traffic lights, one before a very slow junction. A man on a bike clearly does the same route as I do. Every day, he rides up the side of each traffic jam, looking through all the drivers' windows... and when he sees someone on their phone, he'll bang on their window and gesticulate in a really sneery, condescending way. He wears a suit and just looks like he thinks he's the dog's bollocks. I don't use my phone in the queues, but tbh I wouldn't really judge someone for carefully glancing at theirs whilst in such a massive tailback.

I think this man is a nob and hypocrite (why aren't HIS eyes on the road, rather than looking through all the car windows?). DH says he's reasonable, and doing a public service. AIBU?

I nearly had a head-on crash with a young lad too busy looking at his phone than the road. I saw him just as I was coming out of an uphill bend I so wasn’t fully up to speed yet (I was probs doing about 30mph in a 60mph), and he was driving quite slow himself, thank god. He had fully drifted onto my side of the road. I literally had to stop, sound my horn and hope he’d look up before he hit me. He gave me a sheepish wave as he drove past me. I was too shocked to respond and take a reg number, but I did buy a dash cam not long after!

It's illegal. Just because you perceive there to be a difference, doesn't make it any less illegal. The cyclist might well be a knob, but you should not be handling your phone AT ALL whilst you are at the wheel of your car. Whether you are stationary or going at 70 mph down the motorway, put your phone away.

Here's the short, easy to understand version: https://www.gov.uk/using-mobile-phones-when-driving-the-law

I really can't believe you are trying to defend people using their mobile when driving-even if stationary. How can you think that the need to pick up a phone is more important than being aware that a pedestrian is crossing in front of you or a cyclist is beside you when you are about to move off again.

I don't believe in intimidation but this guy is right to point out that what the drivers are doing is wrong. If he is causing a danger it's far more likely that he will hurt himself rather than anyone else.

We should be making this habit as unacceptable as not using a seat belt, drink driving, or using the wrong car seat for children.

And 85% of people agree that it’s unacceptable to use a phone handheld. Check out few stats of people injured or killed with phone use a factor. In 2022 22 killed, 674 injured in road traffic collisions where a driver using a mobile phone was considered to be a contributory factor.

4,188 injuries were recorded where there was a ‘distraction in vehicle’, where a mobile device could potentially have played a factor in the collision.

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/advice/legal/using-mobile-phones-while-driving-dat

it needs to be made totally socially unacceptable.

totally agree!

Don't use your mobile when you're in control of a car/van whatever!

You might think that, but you're wrong

I’m not really an advocate of ‘hands free’, because it’s still not as safe as not interacting with the phone at all, but when most people’s mobile phones cost between £200 and silly money why don’t people just buy a hands free for £20 - £30 ? At least they don’t need to look at the thing.

It’s a fact that ‘multitasking’ i.e. trying to do two things at once or switching from one task to another introduces a time delay in concentration which can be deadly even in slow moving traffic.

‘The law still applies to you if you’re:
stopped at traffic lights
queuing in traffic
supervising a learner driver
driving a car that turns off the engine when you stop moving
holding and using a device that’s offline or in flight mode.

from

I'd never punch this public-spirited man.

But I'd accidentally hit him fucking hard with the van door.

Just be careful you don't drop your phone in the process. 🙄

Just because something is no less illegal, doesn't make it no less wrong. I'm always flummoxed by people who seem to equate legality with morality. It used to be illegal to have gay sex. The law is just the law. And no one's going to persuade me that a quick glance while your engine is shut down at red lights is the same as looking at your phone while moving. Both are illegal, and I don't do either, but I don't think it's the same in terms of risk. Driving at ALL risks other people's lives. We should do it less.

Look, it's obviously shitty to use your phone while driving, and I absolutely don't do it. I'm not REALLY condoning it. I just think this guy is not going about it right. I suspect if you saw him, more of you might agree with me tbh. I get the strong feeling he loves belittling people with his self-righteousness.

Thats Cycling Mikey for sure op. If you dont like what he is doing you are I suspect guilty of what he is trying to stop.
Edit because I x posts with you (and can now see you saying you dont do this - but you still think its sometimes acceptable. It isnt)

Just looked him up. It's not him (and in a different city). Maybe a wannabe?

You feel this way because your own children are safe inside your car on the school run. If they were riding their bicycles next to drivers playing on their phones at the lights, or walking to school and having to cross junctions where drivers waiting in traffic might be distracted by their phones, and you had to worry every time they left for school about whether the next phone call you received would be somebody telling you they were in A&E, you’d feel very differently. My dad used to take a similarly blaise approach to drivers being careless, until I began cycling to work: now that he has to worry about the impact of other people’s carelessness, he gets it, and has also chastised drivers playing with their phones.

Comparing it to gay sex is puerile and you know it. Shaming people and creating social stigma was exactly how we pushed down drink driving levels, when only a couple of decades ago many people would have posted about it in exactly the same way you’re posting about phone use: “it’s only a short drive; I only had two pints; I feel fine; it’s not the same as being bladdered and racing down the motorway.”

If every fucking idiot got off their phones whilst being in control of a motor vehicle then he wouldn’t need to do what he is doing. Win win imo. You no longer get annoyed by him, people stop being needlessly killed by reckless dickwads.
You’re thinking is skewered and you’re annoyed by the wrong people.

he had earbuds in too

Do you use the radio in your car? There are studies that clearly demonstrate that drivers inside vehicles with the windows up and radio on can hear significantly less than cyclists & pedestrians wearing headphones. Motorised traffic is pretty loud when you are not inside a vehicle.

You'd be amazed at how much more you notice when not inside a vehicle

Yeah I agree, texting while doing 70 on a motorway is a world away from looking at your phone when at a COMPLETE standstill. The law doesn't permit it because it doesn't want a grey area but howay man can't people just use a bit of common sense sometimes

"Both are illegal, and I don't do either, but I don't think it's the same in terms of risk."

There is no "both/either" - using your phone while driving your car is a risk so the law says don't do it.

And yes, driving at all is a risk but there are laws in place to mitigate that risk, i.e. speed restrictions, child car seats, seatbelts etc. Are you saying we should do away with all those? Or by your logic, should we let children out of their car seats while in stationary traffic? The risk is less than travelling at 70mph, right?

I'm not comparing it to gay sex. I'm making the point that saying "it's illegal, so it's wrong" is logically nonsense. In my humble opinion.
You think it's wrong because it's dangerous - fine, I'm listening. Is it more dangerous when someone looks down at their phone whilst entirely stationary, with their engine shut down, or when a nurse drives home after a stressful night shift, say? My point is that there are degrees of risk, and equating two things because "they're both illegal" is moronic.

You mean the April Fool

Wanker

People who use their phones while driving like to make out that it was essential - just waiting for an update on my nan/next door's goldfish/pot plant that's literally on life support - but it never is. 90% of the time it's replying to whatsapp/scrolling social media. Put your phone away while you're driving, it's that simple.

PandaCwtch · Today 15:20

Do you use the radio in your car? There are studies that clearly demonstrate that drivers inside vehicles with the windows up and radio on can hear significantly less than cyclists & pedestrians wearing headphones. Motorised traffic is pretty loud when you are not inside a vehicle.
You'd be amazed at how much more you notice when not inside a vehicle

Everyone capable should ride a motorbike, or a scooter for a year, before being let loose in a car. You really need your wits about you, it's difficult to tell where sirens are coming from, for example, so you need to observe much more. The air moving past the bottom rim also contributes to lower outside sounds reaching your ears.

I’ve just read all the comments up till this comment and thankfully there is only one comment that agrees with OP everyone else is saying no phones while driving.

Was going to say the same 😂

He sounds like an annoying wanker.

But he's technically right, isn't he. No one needs to be picking up their phone whilst driving, even when at the lights stationary. I do take your point OP that the level of risk is different to someone using their phone whilst the car is moving. But ultimately, neither is acceptable.