710 replies to this topic

[sebberry]

http://www.timescolo...ickets-1.861491

 

Despite plenty of warning from police, Greater Victoria drivers are persisting in using electronic devices behind the wheel.

In 90 minutes, Saanich police along a seven-kilometre stretch of Douglas Street and the Trans-Canada Highway issued 50 tickets of $167 each to drivers using cellphones and other devices.

Tickets were also issued for nine cases of failure to wear a seatbelt, two intersection offences and eight other miscellaneous offences, and one prohibited driver was taken off the road.

 

[...]

 

[Mike K.]

I'd be interested in seeing the gender breakdown for people ticketed for using a cellphone behind the wheel.

 

The volume of drivers I see texting every day is alarming and I'll go so far as to say it's an epidemic.

[HB]

This is crap what they are doing and it doesn not portray a real danger.

 

North Of Tillicum rd just after you cross the interurban/Burnside rd overpass there is a cop that stands in the bushes watching cars as they drive by at a snails pace in bumper to bumper traffic. Up ahead at McKenzie there is a gauntlet of about 7 cops handing out tickets.

 

These guys are like pit-lampers poaching deer in teh headlights.

 

Pretty lame if you ask me.

the traffic is barely moving.

 

They are out there a lot.then they go to the media with a HUGE story like this playing it up like these people in the snail race are putting lives at risk..

I say cops that jump out of bushes at cars and ones that run ito traffic are the most distratcing thing out there.

 

Congrats to all those who elected the fliberals. are you happy about our new Police State here in BC???

 

 

Good boy mr cop now go run and get your reward at Timmys

Edited by History Buff, 21 February 2014 - 06:43 PM.

[Mike K.]

How else do you expect them to catch people using their phones if not in a location where vehicles are moving slowly and drivers can be identified without having to deploy a police vehicle to waste time and gas chasing them down?

 

I'm 100% behind this and think tickets should be WAY more expensive and not just a drop in the bucket.

[sebberry]

It's not just the Liberals, remember the photo radar regime under the NDP?

 

I agree that the safety squad is looking for the low hanging fruit when it comes to texting/driving. 

 

Basically with the tactics they're using in these enforcement blitzes, interacting with your phone while you are stopped seems more likely to net you a ticket than if you're moving. 

[sdwright.vic]

Yeah HB... you should get it by all the previous post that you are not going to get a lot of sympathy because you got a ticket.

[sebberry]

Good boy mr cop now go run and get your reward at Timmys

 

I'll admit to reading a text message on occasion in the Tim's drive-thru so I can see what my friend wants me to order on the way to his house. 

 

One of these days they'll be doing Operation Timbits - watching drivers in the drive-thru.   

[sebberry]

I'm 100% behind this and think tickets should be WAY more expensive and not just a drop in the bucket.

 

I'd support that providing the tickets are only issued when there's actual risk involved.  If you're sitting at a red light, no ticket.  If the phone isn't down by the time it goes green, ticket. 

[LJ]

^Yeah, that would be fine, but, in my experience they never know when the light turns green.

[Mike K.]

I'd say the vast majority of those texting at a red light will continue to check their phone and text while driving. They just happen to be caught also texting at a red light.

 

I can't even begin to count how many people have sat idle at a green light staring into their phone. Red light or not, they should still be paying attention to what's going on around them and not dealing with their phone's autocorrect.

[sebberry]

No doubt the dangerous behavior likely continues after the light goes green. Hint to drivers:  the phase of the lights for the street running perpendicular to yours is a good indicator of what's about to happen next for your lights...  I suppose I'm giving drivers too much credit here, aren't I? 

 

But those who are reading a note, checking a map, skipping a song, etc... shouldn't be shouldn't be ticketed at a red light. 

 

Speaking of skipping songs, I guess I need to go back to burning CDs if I don't want a ticket from the Easter bunny, Santa, fake construction worker, etc...

[bluefox]

This is crap what they are doing and it doesn not portray a real danger

 

I agree. When it comes to traffic, that's not where I want to see police spending their time. Completely nonsensical.

 

On the other hand, it would be nice, if they're going to do this, that they did the same thing and just picked off jaywalkers. They'd make as much of a fortune off these tickets if they actually put their priorities in order. I think the number of pedestrians making stupid, risky or illegal decisions still (and always will) outnumbers the number of people still driving distractedly.

 

For example, I almost hit an idiotic young girl at Commercial and Broadway today. Our light westbound on Broadway had just turned green, and I was about the third or fourth car back from the intersection.

 

Lo and behold, this little demon weaves through the cars, Safeway bags and a backpack slung over her shoulder -- just comes out of nowhere, right in front of me. I had already started accelerating at this point and I'm pretty sure she brushed up against my car, but had she darted across a second later, she'd be in the hospital.

 

When I tapped the horn to admonish her (considering I was in the middle lane and the 99 bus was just about to come up on my right), I got a nice little middle finger and a couple of expletives thrown back my way.

 

She could have safely crossed the road at the intersection on a green, or used the pedestrian overpass that connects the two SkyTrain lines and come down the stairs onto the sidewalk. But she chose not to.

 

Again, I ask, where are the cops on situations like that one?

[North Shore]

^ That infuriates me.  I don't mind jaywalkers at all - those of us with driver's licences are given all sorts of latitude to make good, safe decisions in our vehicles, so why shouldn't we be able to utilize the same judgement as pedestrians - especially as the danger is so much greater on foot... BUT, if you are jaywalking, realise that you don't have the right-of-way, and get out of the bloody way, pronto, when the cars start rolling..  Sauntering jaywalkers really annoy me..

[sebberry]

Didn't they do a big jaywalking blitz downtown a few years ago?  I think it was on and around Government street, where traffic is light, the road is narrow, the speed limit is 30kph and it's pretty easy and safe to cross. 

 

Oh, and they were handing out gift cards for a coffee place to pedestrians who walked up and used the crosswalk. 

[sebberry]

Again, I ask, where are the cops on situations like that one?

 

They can't be everywhere all the time. 

[HB]

 without having to deploy a police vehicle to waste time and gas chasing them down?

 

 

 

 

No they will waste time by and gas by having 7 cop cars sitting on the side of the highway all idling and all manned by their respective drivers.

 

ICBC must be throwing out money to this project like confetti out the windows on Wall street.

 

The over head costs involved (cops)running big stings like this to rid dangerous cell phone talkers who are stuck in gridlock must be massive.

[Mike K.]

I'd vote to quadruple that budget if given a choice.

I had a friend kill himself while texting and driving. And like you HB, he was a professional driver.

[HB]

I am sorry to hear that

[HB]

In the US and I can speak for Alaska for sure when I drove Highway Coachs in Alaska for Holland America and Princess the rules  regarding cell phone use were strict and spelled out in easy to understand terms.

 

A person with a CDL is not allowed when driving a bus of any sort to have a cell phone within arms reach or anywhere within the cockpit that would make it accessible. If caught there are US Federal Laws that would see a minimum fine of about $2800 for a first offense.

My employer also had company rules where if you were caught doing it by police or anyother employee it called for imediate dismassl.

 

That was enough for me I did not need any further clarification.

 

The US has huge fines for commercial drives of trucks as well. Its not worth it because it can lead to losing ones livelyhoofd if teh license is taken away.

[stormy]

In the US and I can speak for Alaska for sure when I drove Highway Coachs in Alaska for Holland America and Princess the rules  regarding cell phone use were strict and spelled out in easy to understand terms.

 

A person with a CDL is not allowed when driving a bus of any sort to have a cell phone within arms reach or anywhere within the cockpit that would make it accessible. If caught there are US Federal Laws that would see a minimum fine of about $2800 for a first offense.

My employer also had company rules where if you were caught doing it by police or anyother employee it called for imediate dismassl.

 

That was enough for me I did not need any further clarification.

 

The US has huge fines for commercial drives of trucks as well. Its not worth it because it can lead to losing ones livelyhoofd if teh license is taken away.

That says it right there.  No cell activity whilst driving.......period.

You accepted it and apparently obeyed it. 

You are a far better driver than many out there and maybe you can do a lot of different things while driving, but the fact remains distraction causes accidents.  Mike's friend lost his life, my client and his family were seriously hurt by another driver chatting on the cell.  Look as you drive, how many people are STILL texting as they drive.

 

Watch the young people today in a restaurant, how many times do you see four friends sitting at a table and no one is talking, every single person is texting. People walk heads down texting. paying no attention to their surroundings.  I think someone earlier said it has become like an epidemic, I agree.  It's like people just can't function without their phone.  Responding to it, for some, is as automatic as scratching an itch.

 

I do think that checking your phone while at a red light is harmless, but the problem is that people will dispute the tickets. It opens up a whole grey area that will be a frustrating time waster. It has to be no hand held at any time.

 

I know a person who was in the centre lane at a red light.  She was putting on her mascara.  The vehicle in the right lane turned just as the vehicle in the left lane got the advance.  She automatically moved forward...straight into the bumper of the car in front of her.  I could see this happening to a person texting.

 

I think the fines need to be higher.