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Do you check your phone at traffic lights?
- Thread starter dogslobber
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We have a new guessing game we play when watching drivers--"Drunk or on the phone?" You see someone asleep at the light, driving too slow, swerving erratically, making an extremely wide turn, etc., and you have to guess. Obviously, most of the time, you see the phone.
I'd honestly equate texting while driving to be as safe as people who can hold their liquor and claim to be safe to drive after only a few drinks.
That being said I saw someone stick a neon orange sign saying "get off of your phone!" to their window when they saw someone texting while driving which is arguably more distracting.
That being said I saw someone stick a neon orange sign saying "get off of your phone!" to their window when they saw someone texting while driving which is arguably more distracting.
Based on your comments, I'm guessing you're actually too young to drive.
Wow man. No need to be petty. Just because I disagree with you or hold an unpopular opinion doesn't mean you need to be rude to me.
Same kind of people who do stuff like that are the same people who are road-ragers and cause accidents. :/ I hope you're just having a bad moment.
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That doesn't make any sense. I would implicitly have concern for other people because if I made a mistake it would also possibly injure me.
Aside from that, you could make the same general comment about anything that's remotely dangerous. Get off your elitist horse man.
Your attitude in this thread, that you seem to have claimed, suggests that you are the one riding the elitist high horse.
Checking your phone at the lights and texting while in charge of a motor vehicle, along with a whole lot of other activities is (to use your unfortunate choice of word) dumb.
How many road accidents have you been involved in?
Two for me, over the past 40 years, both minor; neither my fault.
The first, about 40 years ago was a SMIDSY (sorry mate, I didn't see you), when a car passed another at high speed, then cut in and knocked me off my motorcycle…… just a broken thumb and bent handle bars, but could have been worse. It was the other driver's fault, but I realised than that, had I been more aware of what was going on around me, and better positioned on the road, I could have avoided it.
The second was about 25 years ago, when I had been stopped at lights. I became aware of a car full of drunken yobbos coming up behind me, and realised that it would hit me. I released the brakes and moved off, against the red light, but steering away from traffic entering the intersection on green, thus minimising the impact when it did occur…… just a small dent on the rear.
Now, had I been busy checking a phone when stopped at the traffic light, I would not have been aware of what was coming from behind.
Utterly ridiculous. I've only asked people to stop being judgmental and to relax and put things in perspective. There's certainly nothing elitist about that.
I disagree and it depends on the context. Doing it in a snowstorm? Yeah that's not smart. Doing it at a red light? No issues whatsoever.
One, somebody else drove into me. Won a court case and everything.
Speaking of unnecessary, dangerous death machines... motorcycles just scare me everytime I see them. Drivers are always being reckless. We really need these things banned off of highways...
I don't think this is a fair arguing point at all. Well, IF everybody had been doing something differently, different things would have happened. Of course!
You give every impression of being on a very high hobby horse in defence of a driver's "right" to check their smart-arse phone (then likely respond to it) when they should be paying attention to what is happening on the road around them.
Plenty of issues, for reasons several posters have mentioned, and the situation that I described.
Perhaps if you had been a bit more aware you could have avoided the incident.
In both the incidents I described I could have self righteously taken a court case to recover the minimal costs, but why bother with the hassle? Chalk it up to experience and move on.
Why…….? I have been riding for more than 50 years, and licenced for more than 45. Small motorcycles have always been my primary mode of motor transport. I have ridden motorcycles at least 300,000 miles on the road (and a good few off road) in about 15 countries, and have cycled in in a few more. While there are a good few hobbyist motorcyclists who ride like they have a death wish, those of us who ride to get around know how vulnerable we are, and how aware we need to be to survive the mean streets.
Drivers are indeed reckless, all to often distracted by phones and other things. I would gladly see a good few of them off the road….. Or perhaps be required to spend a bit of time riding on two wheels before being allowed to drive on four. You soon learn about distracted drivers from the vulnerable perspective of a two wheeler.
I do occasionally drive a car or a truck; have done so in about half a dozen countries. Enough to know what it is all about, but I don't make a habit using four wheels. It is several months since I was even a passenger in a car….. and then the driver concentrated on driving, with any phone stuff dealt with by a passenger.
It a totally fair point to argue…….. it is the point of the argument.
Checking your phone at the lights and texting while in charge of a motor vehicle, along with a whole lot of other activities is (to use your unfortunate choice of word) dumb.
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Nobody described any issue. They just complained that somebody didn't instantly speed through the light when it turned green. I just say chill out, quit being stuck-up.
No I couldn't have. I'm much more aware than most drivers anyway, I can promise you that.
That is just idiotic. There's nothing self righteous about ensuring the driver who was at fault was shown to be at fault to repair the damage to my car.
So what? This is just anecdotal.
Motorcycles are usually more reckless in my experience, and put themselves at risk unnecessarily. The vehicles should be kept to a test track where they belong. They don't belong on our nation's highways.
Yeah cool man we all have stories about whatever stuff we've seen. It's irrelevant.
Lol no it's not. If we were all perfect all the time blah blah blah.
Depends on the circumstances. For the most part, neither you nor most other people on this forum (and this is indicative of poor drivers, go figure) don't have a proper perspective at what texting and driving actually is. When you text and drive, change a song on your phone, etc.... It's not something you focus on or continuously do without still checking your surroundings. If I respond to a text message, it's not some long, drawn-out conversation. It's a quick "yes omw" or "watch out cops on road xyz". If you're taking more than a few seconds to reply to the text, you're doing it wrong. If you're texting and the weather is bad, you're doing it wrong. If you're in heavy traffic, you're doing it wrong.
This mother hen dogma that you're all spouting and then the draconian measure you want to take to ensure people never ever touch their phone while driving is uninformed, irresponsible, and reactionary. The world isn't black and white.
Watch out kid, you might fall off your rocking horse into your sandbox.
Motorcycles are not reckless, but some riders are.
No, I don't check my phone at traffic lights when riding, or driving; to do so is distracting thus foolish.
What some us do sprout regarding phone use while on the roads of your nation and others is indeed reactionary…. to the realisation that it is a distraction that can inconvenience and endanger others unnecessarily.
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I think @smallcoffee would love this thread.
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/people-who-drive-slow-in-the-fast-lane.1142425/
https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/people-who-drive-slow-in-the-fast-lane.1142425/
Omg people don't realize how dangerous it is to be driving the speed limit or slower in the left lane. Huge problem. That's an area where you'd want to make a huge crackdown.
I'm all for driving the speed your comfortable with. I usually go speed limit maybe 5-7 over depending on if traffic is fast or if it's not heavy, but I always do that in the right lane and then pass if I'm coming up on somebody.
Jesus people need to learn to drive and be conscientious of others and aware of their surroundings.
Honestly, some people just can't multi-task but believe they can. Pretty sure it's been proven that most people tend to think more of themselves than their peers. But anyway, I've *always* checked my phone at red lights, why not? I'm not in motion!
And all you have to do is type, check email, do whatever you're doing, while keeping an eye (pun intended) on your peripheral vision. If you see the car ahead of you moving, or cars on the sides of you in the other lane moving, or brake lights easing off, then DUH, the light has turned, and you immediately put your phone down and continue on driving.
How is that difficult? Well, for many it is. A whole lot of the human population are ding dongs. The people speeding up, veering off, are the same people who cannot talk to someone in a passenger seat and drive, or chew gum and walk, or anything else that requires awareness while doing something else. No way to stop/enforce them from trying though.
I'd say a large amount of the people on the road are barely qualified to operate a vehicle if we're using the original driving test as a metric or if driving safely is the main priority.
I'm not trolling.
Again, having a different opinion doesn't make me a troll.
And yeah it's tragic that people have died from other's inability to drive properly. But that's just an emotional appeal and it won't get you anywhere.