Cagers and Phones

So, I'm on my way to work this morning - normal route. I'm at a light on the inside lane (in a school zone). Light turns green, and I go - cager to my right turns right on red with inbound traffic (me + cages) from the (now) green light, and turns - not into the lane closest to her, but my lane. I blow my Wolo horn (two long blasts), check six, change lanes and pass on her right. She gestures at her phone on her right ear with her left hand :loco:, and in a very animated fashion, mouths "I'm on the phone" WTF!!!!! :mad2: :frusty:

 

That's when you want to get off the bike, reach in and grab her phone and toss it into the street and then say "There, now you can can concentrate and DRIVE!". Cell phones are such a mixed blessing, but the seem to be the key to more accidents now than drunk drivers!

 

Women struggle more with driving naturally, they shouldn't be allowed to use phones.
It weren't for the Alreds of the world they'd probably have stricter licensing, restrictions, and higher insurance premiums.
I was watching this lady in front of me yesterday spray and tease her hair in her car. I quickly passed her on the bike.
It was a POS too, she was probably ugly. Sometimes you see a really hot girl in a POS car but I could tell by the back of her gross hair she was not hot. Another time I had a lady run a stop sign in mall parking and almost take me off my bike, I met up with her again at the end of the lot by chance and she ran another stop sign and cut me off again, at least I was ready the second time.

 

Yikes, I'm not touching that one with a 60 foot cattle prod. :scared: ound:

 

FYI, cell phones are now the number 6 cause of all fatal accidents, equal to DWI.

Larry

 

She's lucky you didn't kill her. If it would have been me, I'd have followed her, and taken her phone from her. Then I would have proceeded to call the last person she was talking to, explain what a total bitch she was, and then destroyed her phone right in front of her.

 

FWIW, I have been known to be a dick to people on their phones... like throw things over my shoulder at them. I used to chew tobacco and one day I had someone cut me off who was on the phone. I saw it coming and reacted accordingly then pulled up beside her, pulled the chew out of my mouth, and threw it through her window onto her white dress. I smiled the rest of the day.

 

That's what you call a sticky situation.

 

Riding home from church Thursday night and a dude on the phone starts into my lane. Phone on his right ear never looked left. My front wheel was at his door. I hit he gas and was in front of him before he got any more than half way in my lane. He never stopped migrating into my lane. I slowed back down and he gets on my tail. No way I could give him another shot at me so now I have to take off. I'm forced to speed to get away from the numnutz. I know what a boon a cell phone is but I wish vehicles would just cut off if any one answers (views text or whatever.) I simply do not see why communication and driving must occur at the same time. My company has saddled me with a cell phone because they want me at their beck and call. They have cut technical staff until about 10 or 12 people keep 3000 people working. A cell phone is the bane of my life. If they aren't calling me in to work the nut in the cage is trying to kill me because of it. Damn it it can wait. The epitome of the instantaneous self gratification the younger generation demands. Not sure but cell hone related deaths exceed gun related deaths. If not yet ... soon.

 

What it's going to take to legislate and enforce a national ban on cellphones including texting (at, above or below the ton) is for some celebrity to do some poor soul in, or the opposite of some private citizen offing somebody like George Clooney. Then the shit will hit the fan or little pieces of George whichever comes first. The PC way would be to ban the cell providers from funneling money into the pockets of greedy legislators but you know that ain't gonna happen.

A couple of other gubbmint enforced items that really should be looked at more carefully are those center lanes designed for left turns that are used as parking spaces for semis, get in line to merge for cages and the biggie of a lane in the middle of arterials that two moving vehicles can occupy, each travelling in the opposite direction. Another one that will have to wait until somebody famous get splattered in head on.

Bicycle lanes in general that have more width than the rest of the roadway.

 

PA passed a texting law this year.
Personally, I talk on the phone in the cage all the time. I'm a good driver, so I can handle it. I always do a mirror check and shoulder check before I change lanes even if I'm on a phone.

 

I would imagine if you would inform all the LEOs in your area of your superior driving ability, they will probably not cite you. It's worth a try anyway.

 

It might be Keith Code, but its one of the big motorcycle guys that says you only have so much concentration at any given moment. When you split that concentration among different tasks, you can no longer give full attention to a single tasks. A series of decisions must be made before full concentration can be given to one tasks. Thats all very paraphrased, but it makes obvious "Multitasking divides concentration." So even if you are a very good driver, you are less of a good driver on the cell phone while driving. All distracted driving should be outlawed. Or make all cages self drive and leave the driving to a single minded machine. Because that is what you should be while driving.

I could make it so simple. Don't outlaw cell phones while driving, have the car recognize cell phone activity and flash the emergency flashers and sound the horn for.5 seconds every second. Have the car voice shout "Cell phone activity detected!!! Distracted driver warning system deployed!!!!" I think people would learn to not use the cell phone while driving.

Bill

 

I once proposed a device to the chair of the Washington State DOT, an engineer ex-Naval Officer and a sort of bike guy. (a harleydood) to come up with a device consisting of a couple of lights (LED) front and rear of any type cage that would light up if a cell were in use. Shot down bigtime and found out he was getting bigtime PAC $s from the cell providers.

I think he must have had superior driving skills too or was Chicky's cousin.

 

NOBODY 'can handle it', IMHO. The diversion of your focus from driving to comprehending and responding to a telephone conversation reduces your ability to competently operate the vehicle - no matter who you are or how 'good' you think you are. Cell phones should have technology that prevents their use in a moving vehicle, period. Hands-free is only marginally better because you can keep both hands on vehicle controls, the diversion of the brain remains.

MHO, of course; but think about it before you flame my arse.

 

I don't text while I drive, I'm not sure if that was clear.
I used to travel for work and I managed to eat a sandwich occasionally and not kill anyone either.
I also I have a 2 year old that likes to scream, cry, and throw things at me while I drive.
Bear in mind that there are people that are such shitty drivers they won't even look over to make sure they don't run you and your bike off the road even if they don't have any distractions.

 

I've been in sales all my life with all of the pressure that involves. Prior to cell phones, I would stop at a hotel or rest stop and call the office to pick up my phone messages and return my calls, once or twice in the morning and once or twice in the afternoon. The world didn't come to an end because I was cell phone deprived. Everything got done.

I often wonder what in the hell is so damned important that drivers (and pedestrians, too) feel they must be on the phone at all times of the day and night. I see my neighbors on the phone while backing out of their driveways in the morning, and on the phone when pulling in again after work. Really? WTF! And these shoppers who enter the store talking on the phone, and continue talking the entire time they shop, and still continue while paying (about as ignorant and rude as it gets).

Maybe this just makes unimportant people feel important.

 

+1 to jugornot & FoothillRyder. Pilots especially military refer to what your talking about as Situational Awareness, and everyone only has so much of it. I seem to recall an article or news story about how the technology for disabling a cellphone while in motion already exists. It has something to do with your provider having the ability to triangulate position based on your signal to the relative cell tower. As your signal moves from one tower to another the provider can tell your in motion. This was prior to most cellphones having GPS capabilities. It was proposed in the article that if a provider detected your signal moving at speed greater than 30-35 mph your phone would be automatically disabled.

As far as those that think they're a good driver & can handle multitasking while operating a vehicle; BEST OF LUCK TO YOU, SINCERELY. There will come a situation when your awareness meter is on empty and bad things will happen. In 2006 I was on the receiving end of such an incident. The silver Escort was my car the gold Grand-AM in the background was the other car operated by an 18 yr old on the phone at the time. Full airbag deployment both cars, both cars totaled. As far as car accidents go really not that serious. An ambulance ride, night in the hospital, some x-rays, sore for a week... no big deal. If was on my bike well use your imagination.

 

A good one is when ya see two folks in a cage both talking on cells and trying to figure out if they are talking to each other.

I have seen exactly what you are talking about even in classy stores like WalMart.

 

And she probably was saying something like-Oh what are you doing, oh nothing how bout you ? VERY IMPORTANT SHIT that they cant wait for --JMO - yesterday I was a passenger in my Buddy's truck and I would say that at least 90% of all the vehicles I looked into the owners were either texting or talking WTF