woman eating cereal while driving

[axel_knutt]

The problem we have is that some 'role models' are giving exactly the opposite signals.

I'd go along with that, Clarkson is menace whether he's serious or just tongue in cheek.

People didn't accept the drink-drive laws beforehand, or the seatbelt laws. What gets them (largely) observed is that people got punished for breaking them as well as the public information films.

Adams argues the complete opposite. The majority of the reduction in drink driving occurred before the ban, and the law just ratified a change in public behaviour that had already occurred. The legislation would have been politically untenable like the poll tax if there hadn't already been a change in opinion.

Seatbelts are a good example of the converse: a counterproductive law that got introduced against all the evidence just because it was popular.

[simonineaston]

today's misandric Britain...

had to look that one up...

[honesty]

I remember seeing an HGV driver being interviewed on TV talking about how much you see going on from an HGV cab and his "most amazing" was a woman driving along breast feeding her baby. Would it be un-PC to be critical of that or would a negative comment enrage the Social Media Crowd.

Ian

You spoiled a reasonable comment by adding the bit in italics.

Well no. He didn't. He just pointed out the truth: that in today's misandric Britain, it is almost forbidden to criticize women in any way.

If you think Britain is misandric you are a almost definitely a white middle age male. I think you need to have a better look at the society we live in, and the institutionalised benefits being a man gives.

[beardy]

and the institutionalised benefits being a man gives.

Though most of us are in couples so that benefit was never held by just a man. Which is why you get so many women objecting to "feminism" alongside their husbands because they are both benefiting from a far greater injustice occurring based on class* than on gender.


*which may appear to also be race as the immigrants tend to have to start at the bottom of the class ladder.

[jan19]

Of course you'd criticise a woman breastfeeding while driving in the same way the silly bint eating cereal has been roundly and quite rightly lambasted. Its not safe, end of. The fact its a woman is irrelevant - you'd criticise a man doing the latter action although I accept he'd have a job doing the former. I suppose he could be bottle feeding.

Jan

[reohn2]

How do we stop people from using mobiles whilst driving:-
a)ask them to stop
b)fine them £200+points

I'll go for option b every time,simply because they know they shouldn't do it,and if you ask them to stop they will,but only whilst the one doing the asking ie;police officer,is there.
We need more police and we need more people to be booked and punished for the crimes they're committing.
Don't do it and it want cost you should be the cry.
Not,please don't it's not allowed.
The problem is one of leniency and one of a lack of policing,to hell with the molycoddling!

[axel_knutt]

How do we stop people from using mobiles whilst driving:-
a)ask them to stop
b)fine them £200+points

Neither.

They will stop when they feel that their actions are disapproved of by their peers. If you punish them when nobody sees anything wrong in their actions, you just create the righteous indignation that we saw with speed cameras.

I'll go for option b every time, simply because they know they shouldn't do it

They know the law says they shouldn't do it. There's a difference.

I'm not suggesting we stop fining them, just that it won't have any real impact until they accept the justice of the fines. Telling them they won't get fined if they obey the law will just rattle their cages all the more if they still think the law is unjust. Most people obey the law that says they have to pay road tax, but it has a terrible effect on us because they don't accept the justice of it. Whenever they misbehave they act as if the road tax is a licence to flout the law. Having just typed that, it reminds me of the nursery school that had a huge problem with parents turning up late to collect their children. They introduced a fine to deter them, but the problem got worse because the parents saw the fine as a fee for a child minding service. If motorists see fines and road tax as fees for the right to speed and run cyclists off the road instead of a punishment then they'll aggravate the problem in the same way.

The problem is how do you get motorists to see fines as a punishment rather than a fee for a service, and the only answer is peer pressure.

[Postboxer]

c) Crush their phone, their car, ban them from driving.

There's no excuse for it so why shouldn't the penalty be really harsh?

Speeding you could argue you only momentarily sped up and didn't realise you were speeding. There's not really any way you can accidentally answer your phone or make a call or send a text whilst driving.

[Spinners]

Using a (non-hands free) mobile whilst driving? I'd go for three stages for initial and repeat offenders: First Offence - Month ban (and 6 points), Second Offence - Year Ban (and 6 points) and Third Offence - lifetime ban. No right of appeal.

[Psamathe]

Using a (non-hands free) mobile whilst driving? I'd go for three stages for initial and repeat offenders: First Offence - Month ban (and 6 points), Second Offence - Year Ban (and 6 points) and Third Offence - lifetime ban. No right of appeal.

At the same time they need to massively restrict the numbers who get let off the ban part of their punishment because "it would impact their lives".

Ian

[axel_knutt]

Using a (non-hands free) mobile whilst driving? I'd go for three stages for initial and repeat offenders: First Offence - Month ban (and 6 points), Second Offence - Year Ban (and 6 points) and Third Offence - lifetime ban. No right of appeal.

The issue is not how to introduce that kind of policy, it's how to get society to agree with you. If you were Prime Minister or Transport Minister, you would have riots in Trafalgar Square within months of introducing policies like this, just as they did with the poll tax. If you're going to pursue policy that makes you feel better rather than what works that's not really any different from those who campaign for compulsory cycle paths, registration, insurance, helmets etc.

A society that thinks they drive as they please regardless of the effect on other road users is not really any different from the society that thinks it can consume whatever it likes regardless of the effect on the environment. We have cultivated a culture that says you are entitled to anything you can grab. I don't think that mobile phone fines are going to have any more effect that carbon taxes. Societies like Denmark and the Netherlands are different because they have a different culture.

[Manc33]

I didn't believe it, then I saw the pic. You better hope their wheels are aligned.

Instead of "punishing" these people they should be made to retake their driving test.

[Flinders]

Seatbelts are a good example of the converse: a counterproductive law that got introduced against all the evidence just because it was popular.

I'm not sure I 'get' that- what was counterproductive about it?

[Flinders]

Sarah Vine (wife of Michael Gove) has written a piece in the Daily Wail that is in defence of eating, applying make-up etc and calling cyclists who use head-cams "Cyclist Stasi". Although I hope her tongue was firmly in her cheek (but she did marry Michael Gove, so you have to doubt her decision making skills) the piece has elicited the usual response from the "I pay road tax and cyclists always run red lights" brigade.

For those of you with strong stomachs - here's the link

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3130690/SARAH-VINE-says-real-menaces-roads-vigilantes-Lycra-filming-move.html

Her toungue won;t be in her cheek if her previous form is anything to go by. She's just one of those people who get paid for being obnoxious, and they closely resemble kids who like to draw attention to themselves by saying 'bum'. Unfortunately people do use what people like that say to justify their bad actions.
One can only hope that if anyone's kids get killed by a driver doing that sort of thing, that they are her kids.

[Flinders]

I remember seeing an HGV driver being interviewed on TV talking about how much you see going on from an HGV cab and his "most amazing" was a woman driving along breast feeding her baby. Would it be un-PC to be critical of that or would a negative comment enrage the Social Media Crowd.

Ian

You spoiled a reasonable comment by adding the bit in italics.

Well no. He didn't. He just pointed out the truth: that in today's misandric Britain, it is almost forbidden to criticize women in any way.

You seem to be living in a parallel universe to the one I live in. Do you ever read the criticism of women in politics, just for a start?