Submitted 9 months ago by C4d@lemmy.world to unitedkingdom@feddit.uk
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/whats-driving-cycling-mikey-britains-most-hated-cyclist-tn966jm9j
“In four years Mike van Erp has filmed 1,400 drivers using their phones, leading to 1,800 penalty points, £110,000 of fines — and him being assaulted by disgruntled motorists. Is he a road safety hero or just a darned nuisance? Nick Rufford joins him on patrol”
I’ve watched a few of his videos. I should be surprised that he catches so many drivers in their phones, but in and around London? Not surprised at all.
Cycling Mikey is a legend.
Love what he’s doing but fuck me, he looks like if you met him in a pub you’d be thinking up reasons why you had to go back to work 😂
Need more drivers to actually get their comeuppance for their shitty driving, no excuses for the way some drive.
People wanna talk about cyclists breaking rules, they should be okay with being called out for breaking the rules as well
Especially when the consequences are magnitudes more dangerous.
I don't understand why someone who likes to pick out people driving with their phone, fails to wear s helmet give that he has a high probability of being run over by the same people he is pissing off. Odd!
One of those things is illegal, the other is not. One puts others at risk of injury and death, the other does not.
A helmet doesn’t really protect you if you get run over by a car.
It protects your head though.
I disagree, it improves your odds for surviving significantly
There are situations where it turns out to have been detrimental to have been wearing a seatbelt in a car too. Doesn't mean it's not a good idea in general.
A helmet might not help much if he goes under the wheels of anything that can be measured in tonnes, but it'll help if he gets nudged (or slips) and tries an unexpected game of tarmac headbutt.
Wearing a helmet might also might make some drivers drive closer to you and with less care. So it might help make some accidents less severe, but it also might make the chance of a serious accident more likely. It’s not as straightforward as many seem to think.
The folks being caught on their phones only have themselves to blame; the law is clear.
As for the prospect of taking revenge on the cyclist, the very thought is heinous - and helmet or not the liability for any injury would rest wholly with the driver.
I’m sure he’ll find that comforting when he’s dead or injured.
I wouldn’t be bothered if he was reporting drivers putting people’s life in danger, but people stuck in a traffic jam checking their phone? Many people rely on driving for their work of for their independence, I don’t think that the state should take that away from people just because they held their phone for a second in a traffic jam. If you’ve got your handbrake on then I really don’t see what the issue is.
I have very little sympathy for people who were using their phones while actively driving, especially if they’re looking at their screens to use them, but honestly the law as it stands is too strict imo.
Like, if you’re driving and you get a call on your phone, and your friend hands it to you so you can put it on your magnetic hands free mount, you could get 6 penalty points just for that brief moment of handling the phone.
Either way, the guy sure as hell isn’t a hero, he’s a tool of the oppression of the state
If people rely on driving for their work or independence, they should not be using their phones while driving. It’s not hard. A friend of mine is a train driver and you can imagine that being caught using your phone in that job is instant dismissal. His solution is to turn the phone off and put it in his bag, therefore there can be no temptation to use the phone and absolute proof in the case of an incident that phone usage wasn’t part of it. If a motorist can’t resist the temptation to use their phone, they should be doing the same.
The overwhelming majority of people ‘caught’ by Mikey seem to be using social media, not taking urgent work calls.
It is still dangerous to use the phone in traffic jams, because what phone users do while texting or doing Instagram is to be looking down while using their peripheral vision to see if traffic is moving, or even less. So they see a movement and move off, not having seen the pedestrian crossing through the gaps. I’ve witnessed a crash caused by such a distracted driver - albeit it was in Houston - the phone user next to us heard a car horn from behind and without looking just went and hit the car in front. Had there been someone crossing the road in front they would have been crushed.
Being in a traffic jam is still actively driving.
I’m not discussing whether it’s hard to avoid texting while driving or anything like that. Obviously, it’s not hard. Phones are a distraction to drivers, and distractions are dangerous while driving.
With all of that said, however, I believe that The laws of society should be just. It wasn’t so long ago that people were hanged for stealing a loaf of bread. While that’s clearly a more extreme punishment, my point simply is that I’m interested only in whether the punishment, loss of one’s livelihood, fits the crime - using a phone while completely stopped. I haven’t yet been convinced of that.
Under the law, if you pull into a lay-by, stop the car, turn off the engine, remove the key, and leave the car to take a phone call, you can still be charged and found guilty of using a phone “while driving”.
If you don’t think that is an absurd overreach, then honestly, I have nothing more to discuss with you - we would have such radically different values that we could never reach consensus.
There are countless things which could distract drivers in stopped traffic and we do not regulate most of them. We don’t ban listening to any kind of media, we don’t ban conversation within the vehicle, we don’t ban the use of two-way communication radios. But if you’re stopped in traffic, listening to Spotify and a song comes on that you’re not a fan of and you dare to press “skip”? That’s you half-way to losing your job if it’s your unlucky day.
The only question I have is: Is that justice? That’s the only point I want to discuss.
I don’t agree.
Being stopped in traffic is part of driving.
If being able to drive is so critical to personal freedom or for work, there’s all the more reason to ensure performance and compliance with the law.
Compliance with the law is assured by connecting up the phone to an appropriate system or leaving it well alone. Rather than taking the phone from the friend in your scenario, ask them to deal with it.
Do you intervene when the safety law is broken, or do you wait until after an incident has occurred?
Road safety laws are there for a reason. Many are written in blood.
What additional danger is posed by someone distracted by their phone stopped in traffic if they’re holding it in their hand, as opposed to it being on a hands-free mount?
If you rely on your car for work, then you should be taking more precautions not to break the law and lose your licence, not less.
This is the type of neighbor who spies on you through their blinds XD
Emperor@feddit.uk 9 months ago
It’s a funny old world where someone reporting people for committing crimes is a “nuisance”. I presume it’s because it’s the sacred art of driving, rather than littering or not picking up dog poo.
jscummy@sh.itjust.works 9 months ago
Honestly, someone who did the same for littering would probably get a similar reaction. To a lot of people this is turning a minor infraction into a bigger deal.
Think of those nosy neighbors that watch out the window and call the cops on any minor violation. Yeah its illegal but some people take reporting to an obnoxious level.