Drive Time

So today became the day for tougher laws regarding mobile phone use in cars.
Woah....a massive £200 fine and 6 points on your licence if you are caught using your phone while driving. For new drivers, having passed your test within the last two years, you could see your licence being revoked and having to take a retest.

So is this a long time coming? Too harsh? 

Personally I think it's about time. I am not sitting here writing this, polishing my halo (not been issued with one) and saying at some point I have not done things by the book but for most of the time, while I'm driving I do tend to put my phone in my bag and the bag goes in the boot (trunk for my US readers). For me I just can't have the distraction, it's enough to have passengers in the car without a phone ringing, a text message pinging or my sat nav sending me in the wrong direction. I do use the hands free option on a long journey and use the sat nav on my phone but I would honestly prefer the old road map.

This is where I may consider I have a place on the autism spectrum, amongst other things I do obsess about a map. I could read a map like people read novels. Love it! If I've been on a journey I like to retrace my route afterwards. My perfect preparation for a long journey though is to read a road map the night before, I can memorise the route quite well which totally surprises me as I can't for the life of me remember anything else. Then what I do is write the main roads down in order and stick it in the car, job done! I have never gone wrong using that method. The sat nav however totally frustrates me. You program your journey and it takes you everywhere except the place you want to go. The shortest journey??? It turns into the longest ever, I swear there is a real pixie person in that box, goodness knows I swear at it enough. 

I do feel for the people who use a mobile phone a lot in their car for work but I just feel safety comes first and as we see more in the media, lives need to be saved. These rules on how we use our phones while driving have been in place since December 2003 but I think the changes in the penalties has highlighted what we can and can't do regarding taking calls and general usage. I can't actually believe the amount of people who were caught out today after all the media attention. They were probably reading the news on their mobile phones on the way to work when they got caught. 

I find the information on the AA website is really good regarding 'using mobile phones while driving' www.theaa.com/driving-advice/legal/mobile-phones .....hope this helps and just please be careful when driving.

There are many distractions while driving, not just phones. I've never been able to even mess with the stereo in my car especially after the 'Rachel Incident' the last episodes of the original Cold Feet. I won't spoil it if you've not seen it, for those that have will know what I mean. That has stuck with me for years now.

So please stay safe, and join me tomorrow........

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