Collateral damage | GTAMotorcycle.com

Collateral damage

nobbie48

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A buddy was out for a ride on his bicycle and was almost run over by, we assume, a texter. He wasn't hit by the car but in dodging the hit ran into a utility pole damaging his bike and sustaining minor injuries. The car kept going.

Our politicians have sold out to the phone industry. We are just collateral damage in the profit wars.

At the worst the driver, if caught, would get a few points and a bit of a fine.

What's the fine if a driver had an ounce of beer in his / her hand?

Rant over. Nothing is going to change.
 
No contact = no fault...unless he got a deliberate attempt on vid maybe.

It's not the politicians, it's people's attitudes about being on their amazing smartphone. That has to change. Stats in the news says phone users driving are 3x worse than drunk drivers. Other than being spotted the moment you are on the hone, cops can't detect if you were using it. Get off the damn phone.
 
All tools can be used for good or evil. A hammer can build a house or bludgeon your mother.

For some reason we have an addiction to our smartphones. Why and how does this small electronic box tap into our primal instincts? Fire, food, the opposite sex, a moving object, then smartphones? It seems uncanny. Watch downtown as people walk forward, head down, looking at their smartphone. I saw a guy walk right into a telephone pole. Until we see a social attitude change that will curb this addiction, texting while driving will continue. We all have been told it is wrong, there are punitive fines on the books, and yet our addiction continues. The topic is deeper than even the seatbelt or smoking in cars issue. This problem will not be easily solved.

Riding a bicycle in Toronto is very dangerous. On the news yesterday there was the girl cyclist doored by a truck. The police do not enforce the no parking in bicycle lane laws, putting all cyclists in grave danger. Cyclists, as yet are not important enough to warrant strict compliance. Toronto cyclists are collateral damage to our car bias.

I hope your friend recovers well and gets his bicycle fixed. In Toronto we have way too many cyclists that get doored, all for the carelessness of car and truck operators.
 
One of the main problems with bike lanes IMO is that they close the curb lanes on the streets where they are located.
Truck drivers have to make deliveries and there's no way they are going to park around the corner where its legal.
They are going to park right in front of the building where the delivery is going, and to hell with the bike lane or anything else.
In the era before bike lanes, the cops would allow this. After all, no one wanted the commerce of an entire city to come to a halt.
Now, a new policy is required. A $500 parking tag for stopping in a bike lane would be a start.
But we still have the problem of where do the trucks park to make deliveries.
 
One of the main problems with bike lanes IMO is that they close the curb lanes on the streets where they are located.
Truck drivers have to make deliveries and there's no way they are going to park around the corner where its legal.
They are going to park right in front of the building where the delivery is going, and to hell with the bike lane or anything else.
In the era before bike lanes, the cops would allow this. After all, no one wanted the commerce of an entire city to come to a halt.
Now, a new policy is required. A $500 parking tag for stopping in a bike lane would be a start.
But we still have the problem of where do the trucks park to make deliveries.

The delivery problem is mostly in the downtown core where most of the streets were laid out when deliveries were made by horse drawn wagons. Horses can't text thus making them safer than most drivers.

There are solutions but they require thinking outside the box. When I get a service call for downtown I ask about parking. If I'm told I'll have to take my chances I refuse the call. I can't afford a tag, tow, storage fee, loss of income hit for a service call.

In some ways I have more compassion for drunk drivers in that they can plead the drunk defense. True, they didn't have a game plan for getting home after going out a few so no big tears on their behalf. Texters on the other hand, with a clear head, choose to take their eyes off the road and get a comparatively light fine if they kill someone, if the texting can even be proven.
 

A couple of months I answered a cell call as I was walking to my car. As the conversation continued I started the car and absently minded drove away, phone in hand. Caught myself a minute later and switched to blue tooth.

I would hate to be a convicted criminal over that but the guy that ran a red and could have killed me is a different story because of the me/him thing.

How about a mandatory week suspension? How about a court order to not use a cell phone anywhere for a month?
 
You can pass all of the laws that you like. If they aren't enforced, they won't make a difference. You're looking at a problem equivalent to maybe 20 percent of the drivers on the road thinking that it's OK to drive while impaired, on a daily basis. Do you think we would have gotten to the point we have with impaired driving, if that was the case?

This is only going to be corrected with either a technological solution or a quantum shift in attitude, as it was with impaired driving. It's already illegal and carries a heavy fine, plus points, and yet I generally see up to one in five drivers on the road actively using their cell phones. On top of that most of the cell phone users are texting on phones which are held below line of sight for driving, not talking on them.
 
You can pass all of the laws that you like. If they aren't enforced, they won't make a difference. You're looking at a problem equivalent to maybe 20 percent of the drivers on the road thinking that it's OK to drive while impaired, on a daily basis. Do you think we would have gotten to the point we have with impaired driving, if that was the case?

This is only going to be corrected with either a technological solution or a quantum shift in attitude, as it was with impaired driving. It's already illegal and carries a heavy fine, plus points, and yet I generally see up to one in five drivers on the road actively using their cell phones. On top of that most of the cell phone users are texting on phones which are held below line of sight for driving, not talking on them.

Our idiot politicians passed a law that actually made things worse.

And yes you're right. The problem won't end until there is a major attitude shift.
 
The difficulty level in trying to prove that the person was on the phone is the crux.

We're heading towards a very paranoid society cuz this 'me first' mentality is so outta whack...you gotta protect yourself cuz entitled ********** will fight with every tooth and nail to prove they're correct/right... Soon, everyone will have head mounted cameras just so people can't lie anymore.
 
The latest stats are showing that accidents caused by distracted vs. impaired drivers are now almost 3 to 1. I guess the first step will be to jack up those fines but as mentioned above the real solution to this madness will most likely be a technological one. I'm sure in the future engineers will come up with a vehicle system that will automatically connects to any mobile device, fully enforcing hands-free operation and disabling any screen functions.
 
Hands free operation isn't the answer. Driving undistracted is.
 
I was told that the Police can/do check your phone records to see if you were using the phone at the time of an accident.
I think the insurance companies do it also...if you were then I think they can drop you as a violation of the law and their policy/contract.

Perhaps someone can validate/invalidate what I mentioned.
 
I was told that the Police can/do check your phone records to see if you were using the phone at the time of an accident.
I think the insurance companies do it also...if you were then I think they can drop you as a violation of the law and their policy/contract.

Perhaps someone can validate/invalidate what I mentioned.

I can do both. Which is more pressing?
 
Hands free operation isn't the answer. Driving undistracted is.
Remember those days? When you got a phone call in the kitchen or the den. Messages were waiting when you got home, and that was perfectly OK.

Sent from my Le Pan TC802A using Tapatalk
 
Remember those days? When you got a phone call in the kitchen or the den. Messages were waiting when you got home, and that was perfectly OK.

Sent from my Le Pan TC802A using Tapatalk

Do I? I was going to start a thread on this very subject. But I don't want to wear out my welcome.
 
I was told that the Police can/do check your phone records to see if you were using the phone at the time of an accident.
I think the insurance companies do it also...if you were then I think they can drop you as a violation of the law and their policy/contract.

Perhaps someone can validate/invalidate what I mentioned.

If you were writing a text but didn't hit "Send" it wouldn't show.
 
The difficulty level in trying to prove that the person was on the phone is the crux.

We're heading towards a very paranoid society cuz this 'me first' mentality is so outta whack...you gotta protect yourself cuz entitled ********** will fight with every tooth and nail to prove they're correct/right... Soon, everyone will have head mounted cameras just so people can't lie anymore.


Russia is almost there already.
 
Soon, everyone will have head mounted cameras just so people can't lie anymore.

Hey now, when I'm out riding I resemble that remark! :p lol
 

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