Ban Hands-Free calls in the car

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Fatzdaddio
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Ban Hands-Free calls in the car

#1 Post by Fatzdaddio » Tue Aug 13, 2019 9:52 am

The Commons Transport Committee have called for the ban of all phone usage whilst in a moving car even using hands free systems ..that will cause a few traffic jams !

The next logical (!) extension of such intelligence will be to propose that every aircraft must be stationary for the pilot to use the radio.

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Fox3WheresMyBanana
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Re: Ban Hands-Free calls in the car

#2 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Tue Aug 13, 2019 10:50 am

Since the inception of general phone usage in the car, all research has shown that it is the use of the phone which makes the difference, not whether it is hands-free or not. The initial legislation allowing hands-free usage was scientifically stupid.
The Government has two choices, repeal the hands-free law or ban all phone usage.
Repealing the law would admit they screwed up in the first place, and will therefore never happen.
Banning all usage is unenforceable, especially of hands-free equipment.

Use of the radio in aircraft is acceptable for several reasons which are not the case with general phone usage. First it is necessary to understand what causes accidents during phone usage in cars (at around 4 times the rate for non-phone usage), and the main reason is consciousness. The human brain is only capable of focusing full attention on one thing at a time. What most people are doing when they think they are "multitasking" is in fact giving Continuous Partial Attention to the various tasks. This gives the brain the internal impression it is multitasking, but external measurements show that it isn't. The aspects which particularly cause attention to focus are the planning of actions and some forms of memory retrieval. We can experience, as PN recently mentioned, that driving a very familiar route can be done without conscious attention, and one may arrive without remembering the journey.
The problems with phone use in the car are:
People have no training in managing the use of the phone and driving the vehicle at the same time, or indeed conducting any multiple tasks as well as driving, and the instinctive reactions are dangerous.
The content of phone communications tends to involve both planning and memory retrieval. Furthermore, due to the initial pleasantries, one can be easily sucked in to losing attention on the road outside since the communication starts with subjects that do not involve focusing attention.
Because of the risk of socially offending, people are extremely reluctant to not pick up the phone, pause conversation, or prematurely end conversation should the outside situation on the road require the full attention of the driver. You don't hear "Wait. Out" from phone users in cars.
The person at the other end may not even be aware that a caller is driving, and also has no training in allowing for that.

Very largely, none of the above applies to airborne use of the radio.

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CharlieOneSix
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Re: Ban Hands-Free calls in the car

#3 Post by CharlieOneSix » Tue Aug 13, 2019 11:17 am

Fox3WheresMyBanana wrote:
Tue Aug 13, 2019 10:50 am
......Banning all usage is unenforceable, especially of hands-free equipment.......
Unenforceable agreed, but when someone comes out of a side turning and rams your car you can be sure that the Police will check the mobile phone usage of both drivers. If in this instance there is a ban on all mobile phone usage in vehicles then even as the innocent party you will end up being prosecuted with a fine ensuing and possible loss of licence points.
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Re: Ban Hands-Free calls in the car

#4 Post by Fox3WheresMyBanana » Tue Aug 13, 2019 11:32 am

You know that every business person will get a burner phone if the ban is brought in, don't you?
And the accident has still happened.
And what happens with foreign drivers, or illegals, who seem to be ubiquitous?
Partial enforcement after the accident is not going to be an effective law. People will take their chances just as they do now. Let's face it, the hands-on ban is only enforced sporadically and isn't working at all from what I saw last time I was in the UK. Doesn't work here or in the US either. It's a means for generating fines income; road safety is just the excuse and there's basically no positive effect on it.

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