B.C. government announces stiffer penalties for distracted driving

[DragonChi]

The police should really have a co-pilot working the laptop. I agree that even with training, they're still human and are susceptible to being distracted.

For now, I don't think there have been enough accidents with police and their laptop use for them to make a change. Too bad they don't make their accident statistics public.

[BoostedBB6]

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/britis...dent-1.2739007

Here is a prime example. Officer hits concrete median and flips the cruiser. Clearly distracted......chances are its because of the overload of information that's going on inside the car but they are still investigating so this is just stipulation at this point.

[meme405]

Originally Posted by DragonChi

The police should really have a co-pilot working the laptop. I agree that even with training, they're still human and are susceptible to being distracted.

For now, I don't think there have been enough accidents with police and their laptop use for them to make a change. Too bad they don't make their accident statistics public.

Police make up too small a percentage of the road users for anyone besides someone looking for a problem to notice a trend, and since we have nobody watching over our police departments we might as well just forget about it.

I just don't see why the police are so fixated on checking for drivers while texting at red lights. Besides the sheer fact that they can hand out quadruple the number of tickets...

I feel they could make a much bigger impact on the problem if they sat at a highway exit with a scope looking for texting drivers, then pulling them over. They do pretty often at the exits for hwy 1 by langley, checking for drivers not wearing their seat belts. I am sure they could use a similar method to catch people using their phones. At the end of the day these are the individuals who are the ones that are at the high risk end of the totem pole.

It's the same thing as speeding. Sure the police can pull over every clown doing 5km/h over the limit, but they fixate on the drivers going 20+km/h over because those are the real problematic people.

[Spidey]

Originally Posted by meme405

Police make up too small a percentage of the road users for anyone besides someone looking for a problem to notice a trend, and since we have nobody watching over our police departments we might as well just forget about it.

I just don't see why the police are so fixated on checking for drivers while texting at red lights. Besides the sheer fact that they can hand out quadruple the number of tickets...

I feel they could make a much bigger impact on the problem if they sat at a highway exit with a scope looking for texting drivers, then pulling them over. They do pretty often at the exits for hwy 1 by langley, checking for drivers not wearing their seat belts. I am sure they could use a similar method to catch people using their phones. At the end of the day these are the individuals who are the ones that are at the high risk end of the totem pole.

It's the same thing as speeding. Sure the police can pull over every clown doing 5km/h over the limit, but they fixate on the drivers going 20+km/h over because those are the real problematic people.

The vast majority of tickets I have issued, cell phone related or not, are violations that I encounter just driving around. I am not looking for anything specific. If I am at a red light, and a driver next to me is using their phone, and does not even see me beside them staring at them for a full 10 seconds, in a MARKED cruiser, um sorry, you are getting a ticket.

[GabAlmighty]

Gotta keep your head on a swivel!!!^^^

I am quite adept at this.

[Brad Fuel]

Originally Posted by Traum

By my own count, I have only seen these cell phone usage crackdown happen at intersections, but I have never seen anyone getting chased down / pulled over for using their phones while they are driving. For the most part, I'd say that I see about the same percentage of people using their cell phones while they are at a red light and while they are driving.

When you see a car pulled over by Police, how do you know what they were pulled over for?

[MG1]

All I can say is, it's a good thing summer is over........ less distractions.

[Gumby]

Originally Posted by MG1

All I can say is, it's a good thing summer is over........ less distractions.

[tiger_handheld]

Originally Posted by MG1

All I can say is, it's a good thing summer is over........ less distractions.

have you heard of yoga pants?

[Spidey]

Originally Posted by Brad Fuel

When you see a car pulled over by Police, how do you know what they were pulled over for?

exactly... and also the general public will not notice other drivers on their phone or looking down and texting while their phone is on their lap, as other drivers who are mobile are paying attention on driving (at least that's what I would hope).

Secondly, there are enforcement blitzes that are set up to catch drivers on phones while mobile... but why would I give away those hot spots

[Traum]

Originally Posted by Brad Fuel

When you see a car pulled over by Police, how do you know what they were pulled over for?

Originally Posted by Spidey

exactly... and also the general public will not notice other drivers on their phone or looking down and texting while their phone is on their lap, as other drivers who are mobile are paying attention on driving (at least that's what I would hope).

Secondly, there are enforcement blitzes that are set up to catch drivers on phones while mobile... but why would I give away those hot spots

When I am on the road, I still see a lot of drivers talking on their cel phones while driving (overtly holding the phone in 1 hand, with other hand on steering wheel) at a regular frequency, and I see more people texting away at their phones while they're at a stop light. I have also seen a lot of police enforcement catching people texting at the intersection (for cel phone usages), and I still see cops with their radar guns at their favourite hideouts. But I hardly see any cars getting pulled over for violations or whatever unless it is at a speed trap setup.

I am glad to hear from Spidey that there are enforcement to catch drives on cel phones while the car is moving. But honestly, the perception of these blitzes happening is just not there. Cel phone usage while driving (with the car in motion) is nowhere nearly as prevalent as speeding, but I continue to see it pretty much everyday, and sometimes I get really annoyed because there is always someone that is so obviously incapable of multi-tasking, and yet he continues to endanger other drivers around him...

[pinn3r]

Originally Posted by Traum

When I am on the road, I still see a lot of drivers talking on their cel phones while driving (overtly holding the phone in 1 hand, with other hand on steering wheel) at a regular frequency, and I see more people texting away at their phones while they're at a stop light. I have also seen a lot of police enforcement catching people texting at the intersection (for cel phone usages), and I still see cops with their radar guns at their favourite hideouts. But I hardly see any cars getting pulled over for violations or whatever unless it is at a speed trap setup.

I am glad to hear from Spidey that there are enforcement to catch drives on cel phones while the car is moving. But honestly, the perception of these blitzes happening is just not there. Cel phone usage while driving (with the car in motion) is nowhere nearly as prevalent as speeding, but I continue to see it pretty much everyday, and sometimes I get really annoyed because there is always someone that is so obviously incapable of multi-tasking, and yet he continues to endanger other drivers around him...

Of course they're going to be catching the ones at stop light intersections more frequently; they're easy.
I'm sure the government's got an ulterior motive, other than this perceived extortion of money from distracted drivers.
Maybe they're attempting to ingrain this into our daily habits, so the use of electronic devices while driving will be eventually eradicated altogether. Obviously that's not possible, but it acts as a deterrence and more people (regardless of where they are) are gonna be asking themselves whether or not it's worth texting their buddies back
Less frequently distracted drivers = ultimately, a safer society? Idk that's just my theory

[meme405]

Originally Posted by Spidey

Secondly, there are enforcement blitzes that are set up to catch drivers on phones while mobile... but why would I give away those hot spots

What traum said is bang on. The perception is that you guys are not doing this.

I got my ticket for distracted driving at the intersection of Canada Way and willingdon. At that time (1 year ago), I asked this police officer (politely, I am not an asshole), If he would have preferred I waited till i got on the highway to do what I did, where I knew he would never catch me.

He said of course not, so I asked him why he wasn't enforcing the real danger, he told me straight up, because he wouldn't be able to catch as many offenders.

When PO's give those types of answers or we see the enforcement that we do, what do you expect people's perception of this to be?

[westopher]

If someone can't keep their cell phone out of their hands at a red light, there is a 90% chance they can't resist while they are driving. They are handing out tickets on probability, as well as the fact that it's illegal to do at a red light anyways. Even if it's a flawed system remember in the grand scheme of things it's a relatively new problem and enforcement of the laws has had to adapt in a very short time. Common sense and discretion will come over time, but as it stands they feel the need to make a point that the behaviour won't be tolerated, and that's fine with me. My phone is in my glovebox hooked up to my Bluetooth HU. If something is important enough to call me, I'll pick it up with the click of one button on a stereo, otherwise, it can wait.

[Presto]

West Bound 64th @ 200 Street seems to be a popular hangout for the police, here in Langley. They were pulling in driver after driver.

[Grim]

what if I have this?



technically "HANDS" free...
its on my arm/wrist...

[meme405]

Originally Posted by Grim

what if I have this?



technically "HANDS" free...
its on my arm/wrist...

Buy a pebble. Its way better.

[maksimizer]

You guys see the new popo cars with 360dome cameras!?!?
I was chillin at a red light, and across me in oncoming lane was the popo sitting there looking into his laptop with the camera pointed behind him.
As the light turned green and i drove a few hunny meters past him, i also passed a woman clearly texting and driving, surely enough, whoopwhoop as she passed the cop car.

I can only imagine how much tax dollars those cameras cost. At least they are catching driving users, rather than red light adhd users.

[Tr1ll]

Originally Posted by maksimizer

You guys see the new popo cars with 360dome cameras!?!?
I was chillin at a red light, and across me in oncoming lane was the popo sitting there looking into his laptop with the camera pointed behind him.
As the light turned green and i drove a few hunny meters past him, i also passed a woman clearly texting and driving, surely enough, whoopwhoop as she passed the cop car.

I can only imagine how much tax dollars those cameras cost. At least they are catching driving users, rather than red light adhd users.

So that's what those are. Originally thought they were for infrared/night vision when I first saw them. Wouldn't be surprised if they came with that functionality though.

[underscore]

Originally Posted by meme405

What traum said is bang on. The perception is that you guys are not doing this.

I got my ticket for distracted driving at the intersection of Canada Way and willingdon. At that time (1 year ago), I asked this police officer (politely, I am not an asshole), If he would have preferred I waited till i got on the highway to do what I did, where I knew he would never catch me.

He said of course not, so I asked him why he wasn't enforcing the real danger, he told me straight up, because he wouldn't be able to catch as many offenders.

When PO's give those types of answers or we see the enforcement that we do, what do you expect people's perception of this to be?

It's illegal whether you're at a light or moving, so how can you fault them for picking off people who are so distracted they can't notice a cop near them? Do you want cops to just ignore people who are distracted at lights or something?

[Hondaracer]

As westopher and myself said on the last page, it's not about whether your at a red light or not, mass-ticketing at lights etc is about getting the message driven into people's heads.

[meme405]

Originally Posted by underscore

It's illegal whether you're at a light or moving, so how can you fault them for picking off people who are so distracted they can't notice a cop near them? Do you want cops to just ignore people who are distracted at lights or something?

No, I just think the time and effort spent enforcing this specifically at red lights, would be more appropriately spent actually trying to catch the higher risk offenders. AKA those ACTUALLY DRIVING not stopped at a red light.

Police don't stop every vehicle going 5km/h over the limit, they have learned to pick out the higher risk offenders and ticket those people, that sends a more proactive message than ticketing me for going 70 down Kingsway.

Maybe you guys are right, maybe it drills the message into people's heads, but like I said earlier if people are anything like me, they will notice enforcement around burnaby, downtown, and north and west van is all at red lights, I can almost freely roll down highway 1 texting away with no problems, or atleast thats my perception. So my thought process is totally that those who were checking their phones at red lights, or doing both, will just continue to text while actually driving, at a higher rate than before because enforcement is not yet targeting that risk.

If that makes sense...

[westopher]

The average person in the gvrd is by no stretch of the imagination smart enough to think that objectively about how to "get away" with distracted driving. You are giving the average driver too much credit.

[Gumby]

Originally Posted by meme405

Maybe you guys are right, maybe it drills the message into people's heads, but like I said earlier if people are anything like me, they will notice enforcement around burnaby, downtown, and north and west van is all at red lights, I can almost freely roll down highway 1 texting away with no problems, or atleast thats my perception. So my thought process is totally that those who were checking their phones at red lights, or doing both, will just continue to text while actually driving, at a higher rate than before because enforcement is not yet targeting that risk.

If that makes sense...

Makes sense to me - if I was one of those people that cannot put their phone down, I would think to myself "hey, I'm going to get busted if I use my phone at the red light. So I'll do it while driving instead, cuz police are too busy enforcing this at intersections..."

Originally Posted by westopher

The average person in the gvrd is by no stretch of the imagination smart enough to think that objectively about how to "get away" with distracted driving. You are giving the average driver too much credit.

Good point.

[Hehe]

Originally Posted by tiger_handheld

have you heard of yoga pants?

That plus UGG...

Spoiler!