Blocking phone service best way to protect cyclists
DRIVERS have shown they cannot be trusted so blocking phone signals in cars is the only way to ensure safety on our roads, writes Wendy Tuohy
Wendy Tuohy
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VICTORIAN drivers have had plenty of time to show they have the self-discipline not to use mobile phones at the wheel, endangering their life, passengers’ lives, cyclists and pedestrians.
They have comprehensively shown they do not have the strength to resist picking up the phone; many don’t just pick it up when they are called either, they choose to go online while driving.
They say one thing, “Oh no, I’d never be so stupid”, but Victoria Police evidence shows they do another.
CRACKDOWN ON MOBILE OBSESSED DRIVERS TAKING SELFIES
CALLS FOR MOBILE BLOCKING IN CARS
They consider it quite OK to selfishly break the law and take the lives of others into their irresponsible hands.
So, as a driver and as a cyclist (back on the bike for a couple of years now after being scared off it by ugly drivers), I say what a great idea it is to take the choice to use the phone while driving literally out of our hands
Recent research found that while road deaths in Victoria are trending down, road trauma to cyclists doubled in the last nine years. It’s no coincidence that the last decade has also seen an explosion in the number of Victorians heavily engaged on social media.
According to the Monash University research released late last year: “For cyclists, the number of major trauma cases rose by 8 per cent a year. The “disability burden” — the number of years lost to disability or early death — decreased for all road accident victims but cyclists, for whom there was a 56 per cent rise.”
Phone addiction is real, but it is not just addiction to blame for the vast numbers of people easily spotted using their phones at the wheel in the city and suburbs.
It is the sense of entitlement to put your own need for a quick check of your socials, texts or emails above the right of the next guy or girl to continue to be able to use their limbs.
Victoria Police admits it is not making headway in the vigorous campaign to get drivers to lay off the phones, and shame is not working either.
Blocking signals to drivers is the only way to ensure the growing number of cyclists doing us all a favour by taking active transport to work in a traffic-choked town are protected.
The argument that blocking the phone signal endangers people because they will not be able to make phone calls in a crash could be easily fixed if whatever device is developed ceases working once the engine stops — as they tend to in a crash.
Hundreds, maybe thousands, more lives will be protected from serious trauma, and the community protected from massive health expenditure, if serious incidents involving drivers on phones and cyclists reduced.
It really is a no-brainer, and no matter what your addicted mind may tell you, it is absolutely no offence against your civil rights.
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