http://m.scotsman.com/the-scotsman/scotland/drink-drive-limit-will-be-cut-to-one-pint-1-2850281
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Debate!
"Drink-drive limit will be cut to ‘one pint’ "
(15 posts)-
Posted 12 years ago #
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However...of the 138 respondents? I take it they haven't decided on this policy on the basis of this number of individuals?
Posted 12 years ago # -
Yet no stronger penalty for being on mobile/texting which has been shown to be AS dangerous if not more dangerous.
Posted 12 years ago # -
A further step in the right direction, but until it's simply illegal to get behind the wheel after drinking any alcohol it won't go far enough. Yes, an allowance has to be made for a residual amount of alcohol in the system and whatever is agreed to be and insignificant amount after 24 hours should be the limit.
Then again, people could simply act responsibly in the first place... Crazy, I know!
The same applies for phone use, I agree. I'd personally ban even hands-free use by drivers, including speaking into a phone held by a passenger. And cyclists shouldn't be exempt from either the drink or phone laws IMO.
Posted 12 years ago # -
I should know better than to read EEN comments of course, but that "Alternative (High Octane) Fuel Head" is one of the most ridiculous posters on there, regardless of subject. He really does car drivers' reputations no favours whatsoever.
I especially love how he claims drivers are "targeted" the next morning. So, the police are out at night, watching people drink, then spy on them until they get in a car the next day? Really? Paranoia at it's best!
(I had to give up reading after page one of the comments for fear of my mental well-being!)
Posted 12 years ago # -
I always assumed that High octane uelhead was a parody account done by one of us,.....
Posted 12 years ago # -
If I had the mental fortitude to deal with the EECW muppets I'd sooo do that!
Posted 12 years ago # -
Focus- "I'd personally ban even hands-free use by drivers, including speaking into a phone held by a passenger."
The horse bolted on this when mobile phones first came on the scene 20 years ago. The thinking then was that emergency services, taxi and delivery companies used radios so they couldn't ban hands-free phone use. Or enforce it if they did ban it.
Of course what they should have done was read the scientific reports of proven lack of safety and distraction and made an exemption for emergency services radios.
Now that people are texting/facebooking/gaming/GPSing with hands-free devices while driving, it is even worse. Car manufacturers have made it even worse by adding essentially computer displays to the dashboard.Posted 12 years ago # -
"I'd personally ban even hands-free use by drivers, including speaking into a phone held by a passenger."
What about speaking to passenger? That must be as distracting.
Anyway, back on topic, I would lower the alcohol limit to 0 for anything with wheels too.
Posted 12 years ago # -
"What about speaking to passenger? That must be as distracting"
Yes but when driver needs to pay extra attention and stop talking, passenger knows why.
Harder when talking to someone who doesn't know what's going on.
They may not even be aware they are talking to someone driving.
Posted 12 years ago # -
Actually the science showed that talking on the phone is much more taxing mentally/distracting than to a passenger/rowdy-kids-in-back-seat.
That is why there is no excuse for the driver to take any phone call while driving the car. How hard is it to ignore, wait until it safe to park-up and then return the call in comfort?A friend of mine actually got a call while driving and was silly/falsely-conscientious enough to try to turn off the phone - as a police van overtook her. 3 points and a fine!
Posted 12 years ago # -
I don't know if there is (or technically can be) any scientific evidence to back this up, but a possible theory for any phone call to be more distracting than talking to passengers could be that we subconsciously try to picture the person on the other end of aphone line. That would certainly take away some of your cognitive skills.
Posted 12 years ago # -
When I was trying to learn to drive I found the radio distracting - I was very bad at driving, I needed to concentrate. My dad once made me drive after I had consumed a half pint of heavy. (One unit, as was 3 per cent) I felt my faculties were impaired. I Am the worst case exemplar but there are others like me out there driving around
Is the offence drunk in charge of a bicycle the correct terminology? If polis stopped you for wobbling and breathalyser you, would they fine you if you were over the 80mg limit?
Posted 12 years ago # -
"As a result, broadly held, populist assumptions regarding the relative pros of hands-free over hands-
free phone units - especially with regard to probable accident likelihood - cannot be supported. All
vehicle transmission and phone types in all possible combinations evidenced significant fluctuation in
driver performance and workload in ways which strongly suggested increased accident likelihood -
possibly simply to maintain phone task performance - even when participants were specifically
instructed to attend primarily to the driving task." ReferencePosted 12 years ago # -
"Driving while using a handsfree cellular device is not safer than using a hand held cell phone, as concluded by case-crossover studies.[19][20] epidemiological,[1][2] simulation,[9] and meta-analysis.[11][12] The increased cognitive workload involved in holding a conversation, not the use of hands, causes the increased risk.[21][22][23]" For example, a Carnegie Mellon University study found that merely listening to somebody speak on a phone caused a 37% drop in activity in the parietal lobe, where spatial tasks are managed" Reference wikipedia
"2004 University of Utah simulation study that compared passenger and cell-phone conversations concluded that the driver performs better when conversing with a passenger because the traffic and driving task become part of the conversation. Drivers holding conversations on cell phones were four times more likely to miss the highway exit than those with passengers, and drivers conversing with passengers showed no statistically significant difference from lone drivers in the simulator."
"The study also found that drivers typically take their eyes off the forward roadway for an average of four out of six seconds when texting, and an average of 4.6 out of the six seconds surrounding safety-critical events"Posted 12 years ago #
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