AIBU to believe that using your phone while driving is absolutely unacceptable?

[Anonymous2003]

The other day the topic came up about how so many people nowadays seem to send texts, take Snapchats and video themselves while behind the wheel. My friend expressed that she uses her phone all the time while driving and would use Snapchat and watch TikToks while on the motorway... She said it so noncholently too as if this was no big deal. I was horrified and told her I thought that was a terrible thing to do. I do think it's different if you're sitting with the handbrake on in a long queue of traffic or at a red light which is taking ages... But in a moving vehicle to me is different. However I have seen more and more of this behaviour on the likes of YouTube shorts with people videoing themselves while driving or sending photos of themselves behind the wheel, is this just something that a lot of people do now???

Well people would agree with you until they need to justify it to themselves 'it is wrong but I really need to make that call everyone else is terrible but my need is waaaaaay more important'

My phone has driving mode which doesn't allow notifications, great, but for some reason still allows alarms! Very annoying as I use it as my satnav and would rather not have to shift focus however briefly to shut the blessed alarm off!

Its very different and research has shown this to be so, for a start another passenger is able to tell you to "shut the fuck up and look where you re going!!!

if you re concentrating on the book or dictating messages, then you re not focusing on the driving.

Modern cars with their large tablet style do it all screens have been shown to be distracting.

You are a very dangerous driver and should recognise this before its too late.

And yet if would have been ok if you had looked at a map or changed a setting on the controls.

I bet no one can explain why it's ok when stationary to look at a map on the passenger seat or to alter the controls but it's not ok to touch a mobile phone.

To a certain degree car manufacturers are expecting you to do all this by supplying the tech to do it.
A person commented on a different thread about most controls on newish cars being touch screen instead of a knob/button/dial. With the touch screen you do have to avert your eyes briefly to sort out the fan/radio/demister etc. In older cars, once you had a while, you could simply do by touch without looking eg turn one notch anti clockwise
I got a car last year with the function to synch my phone, and I haven't bothered, because I'm used to not answering calls when I'm driving.

DD connects her phone and plays music , listening to music or audio books is surely similar to listening to the radio though?

Ir's about what the brain is doing.

If you were engaged in a heated conversation with DH, then your brain is focused on that and not on the driving.

Same for phone calls - calls requiring brain power, concentration etc take away a focus. I sometimes give a quick ring to say if I'm going to be late, but that's it. I can imagine some people are having long detailed sales negotiations whilst driving

I do think it's different if you're sitting with the handbrake on in a long queue of traffic or at a red light which is taking ages.

Cars these days are enormous and in many it's easy not to see a child or wheelchair user from the driver's seat as they cross the road in front of you. Imagine rushing to set off as the lights change and driving into someone because you've not been paying attention.

I know there have been arguments with road safety organisations and manufacturers because of these new fancy screen set ups and they have proven they are not a good thing, especially when basic functions like air con are controlled by touch screen rather than a knob. They do all distract.
I think screens are inherently more distracting than glancing at a map or a dial, it's not always a static display and I suspect the brain responds differently. More likely to linger longer perhaps because of the lights involved and the fact we know there is more going on than what we can see, so your brain shifts to oh I wonder if that text as come through etc. Rather than remaining as focussed on the driving. I'm not saying you mind doesn't wander sometimes when you're driving a familiar route but the external stimulus can't help.

It should be a jail sentence.

Ah well, Darwin's law of evolution will strike eventually. Don't get too attached to the stupid woman.

Depends what you are listening to. You could be listening to a very heated debate or complicated issue on a radio show, or a complex case, eg radio show about KC Jason Beer and the PO scandal of Paula Vennells.

And this is the problem - no one thinks what they’re doing is wrong until it’s too late. The case for banning mobile phone use at the wheel is overwhelming but there are still arrogant fuckers who think they’re the exception 🙄

No it’s not the same, it really isn’t. Your passenger can SEE the road, the recipient of your call can’t. It’s that simple. Keep it simple and everyone understands.

I used to be like that - but I will use hands free to say if I am going to be late.
No long conversations.

People talk to their children on the back seat. Is that different to telling someone on hands free that you are going to be late?

I hate driving my partner’s car for that reason - everything is touch screen so I have to look at the central console to do anything, even demisting the windscreen if it’s become a bit foggy.
with my car, I know exactly where every button and dial I need is without taking my eyes off the road.

Obviously illegal in the UK. I was in heavy rush hour traffic this week, saw a driver using both hands to text and accelerating quite quickly to close the gap every time the lights ahead changed. What concerned me more was the very small child in the front passenger seat, head barely reaching the dash! I thought you were supposed to put small children in the back? I don’t see how the seatbelt would protect him. The car-no idea if this is related to the (female) driver’s behaviour-was a tricked out Subaru, big tin can exhaust, body kit.

They’re not “far more dangerous”, they are ALSO dangerous. All this whatabouttery to disguise the danger of using mobiles while driving is tedious. The science proves it dangerous - let’s for once believe the bloody science. If you want to carry on doing it then do but if you cause an accident while doing so you can’t say you weren’t warned.

Well to be fair that wouldn't be unique to someone looking at their phone, blowing your nose, looking out the side window, anything really and a child or wheelchair user could cross in front of the car. The issue is driving off in a rush.

I find it very difficult to understand that some people here think it's acceptable to make calls, dictate messages etc. while driving.