Grass a driver week: MK59USB, texting across a junction

Apparently some police forces in the country are now rolling out enforcement of driving too close to tax dodgers, maybe even section 59 ASB orders, which are interesting as there is a lower burden of proof. It doesn't impact penalties or insurance, simply threatens to take the car away.

We watch these experiments with trepidation.

Meanwhile, Bristol has a page to report incidents for their records alone.

This week we are conducting a small experiment to report a few dangerous drivers to this site, to see what happens. Expect followups if there are any results.


First, MK59USB on Tyndall's Park Road, crossing Whiteladies Road while reading their phone.



There are now pedestrian crossing lights on some of the arms of the junctions, specifically Tyndall's Park Road has a walk and ike one (a small dip in the kerb allows the bikes over); Whiteladies Road inbound also has green. These require left-turns to be restricted, which has long been a rule more ignored than observed. The council has recently done some raised corner sharpening; be interesting to see what's happening.

Where there is not any pedestrian crossing is on St Pauls Road —the Clifton Side— people run across when there is a gap, such as when vehicles heading inbound are waiting to turn right, and in that little gap between Whiteladies Road going read and TPR/St Pauls Road going green.

Which means this mercedes is about to head towards a junction where there are likely to be people sprinting across. Will they put down their phone?

No, is the answer, they keep on looking at it, going down to one-handed so they can hold the steering wheel with the other. About half way through the junction, they look up, notice the cyclist, and hold the phone down out of sight.

Interesting question: what would have happened if the tax-dodger hadn't been there?

The experiment begins, then, by filing this on the A&S police site, see how they react.

What about the full report an incident process? Too much hassle given its inevitable that nothing is going to happen. If they don't act when you go to the station with a CD of a video and a complaint, it's unlikely that they will react to a youtube URL.

Hard to steer with a phone in your hand.

A lot of cyclists complain about cars passing them too closely on narrow roads, how they get in our way (technical term "the primary position") to stop the vehicle behind doing this.

The problem with this approach is that it assumes that the road is wide enough for oncoming vehicles to get past, an assumption invalid for most of the best rat-runs in the city.

Here our secretly-filmed cyclist causes delays for a driver who is not only paying road tax and fuel tax, they are paying VAT on the telephone call, plus of course the telcos paid lots of money for the 3G networks that modern smart phones like the iPhone seen here needs.




Sadly, by driving one handed without proper driving gloves, the driver cannot navigate the gap between the parked cars without potentially clipping the wing mirror. If the bicycle had correctly deferred to the more important driver, this would not have been an issue. Instead she is forced to back off, here on effingham road, though this doesn't appear to interrupt the conversation, except she may have been swearing more than normal in the call.

People complaining about drivers making and taking calls on the road do not realise that we are forced to do it because of the congestion. If the council re-instated the lost inner city motorway plans of the 1970s, we wouldn't be stuck in traffic, we wouldn't need to phone or text. It is not our fault.

Safe Phone use

The usual complainers will be whining about vehicles like this van, stopped in the Park Row bike lane. They are misguided

• The bike lane has dashes -it's only advisory and any vehicle is allowed in. It's a hint only.
• The double yellow lines have no restrictions on waiting, only parking.
• The driver is parked there to make a phone call.
• Behind the van there are a line of parked cars, so nobody is going to run into the back of it.
• They aren't taking up that much pavement, and by parking that way they make it easier for bicycles as well as cars to get past.

Which would the troublemakers rather have -a van waiting legally in a purely advisory bike lane to make a phone call, or the driver to drive while actually talking on the phone? By pulling over, this driver is in fact being far safer than anyone who drives round talking on a hands free phone, according to the latest research -and way better than anyone trying to text.

Certainly we in the Bristol Traffic Project have had some near misses while trying to post some of our articles from an iphone while driving. Such near misses are unwelcome, as they give the bus company which employs us a bad reputation.

mobile phone criminals

Crap Cycling and walking in Waltham Forest -which we only keep an eye on to make sure that Boris is doing a good job at keeping those tax-dodgers in their place- is picking up on the threat that cyclists on mobile phones present.

Our thoughts exactly. There should be laws against this kind of thing, and if the cyclists are not going to obey them, car drivers should be allowed to enforce them, vigilante style, probably by overtaking them then braking suddenly and turning.

Here we see someone on the phone on a quiet empty road in Clifton on a Saturday afteroon. The greenery are something that has been causing a problem recently, as apparently the street lighting is poor. The greenery makes the streets darker and more edgy here than in say, tree-free inner-city areas like St Pauls or Upper Easton. With the reduced lighting and the illusion of green and pleasantness, the risk that a pedestrian will blindly step out in front of a cyclist is increased -it is far more likely than on a busy main road. Yet this man is making phone calls while going along, instead of wearing the high-viz clothes what would attract the attention of pedestrians, or a helmet to reduce the damage he causes them when they step out in front of him.

If these subversives had vehicle numbers, we would be able to report them to the police, instead of being forced to stick our head out the window and swear at them as we drive our landrover discovery past at 40 mph while taking these photographs one-handed.

On the Blower

Another cyclist, dangerously using the phone while towing a child from school.

He has pulled over, but given this is the top of Cotham Brow, that's a very wise move. But it is still dangerous.

Why? That child is getting bored. Another couple of minutes of parental chat and then dad's going to set off down the brow at speed, curve round the mini roundabout at the bottom and only on the level bit will he notice the lack of pedalling coming from the stoker. At which point, it's back up that hill to try and find the kid that got bored and ran off earlier.

Some people say this isn't going to happen, but those people haven't been half way down Burrington Coombe when they discover their small child has actually got off by the ice-cream van at the top.

Priorities

The fiat X402EDB may appear to be endangering road users by blocking the exit of a downhill bike lane that corners into Woodland Road, on the popular sustrans-4 route to the university.

It is, however contributing to road safety.

Because it is not just sitting waiting, the driver is on the phone. They have pulled over to make or take a call. And as studies have shown that even hands-free phone calls are dangerous, it is far safer for everyone to have the car pull over than drive round.

It comes down to priorities. Which would cyclists prefer
1. Cars blocking bike path exits on downhills
2. Cars moving around with the drivers on the phone rather than paying attention
The choice is obvious. Stationary hazards are manageable; they can be dealt with. Drivers on phones are a death threat. We should celebrate this driver for the choice they have made.