"you should watch where you're walking!"

[HipGnosis6]

I almost got hit today by a guy on his cell phone on his bike. And I've all but stopped bothering calling out when I'm passing pedestrians and joggers because so many of them are listening to music or talking on their phone.

[Owlie]

Everyone who is likely to call me (family, BF, close friends) knows that I will not answer my phone while driving. I've seen people texting while riding a bike..how the heck do you do that?

Yeah, I'm guilty of walking around and talking on my cell (or plugged into my iPod), but I'm good about not running into people and checking intersections before I cross streets. People on paths--I check to see if they have music (iPod headphones are nice for that) before yelling. usually the ones on the phone hear me. The ones with music, I try to get around them as quickly as possible.

[marni]

I just love to shout out the acronym "gotpha" (get off the phone a******) or "gotphi" (get off the phone idiot) at people in cars when I ride by or as they pass me. Doesn't affect them but it makes me feel better.

I do wish texas would start applying some no texting or cell phone or hands free driving rules in areas other than selected school.zones.

marni

[Tri Girl]

and he had the balls to tell YOU to watch where YOU'RE walking?? WoW!

I swear, I just have that feeling I will be killed or maimed one day by a distracted driver (either texting or talking). Don't mean to sound gloomy, but I've had close calls in the past and since I have no intention of ever stopping riding my bike- I fear the situation will only keep getting worse. People just don't pay attention when they drive (and I've been guilty of that in the past myself). I don't use the phone in the car anymore at ALL. I'm not that important that a call can't wait 10 minutes.

marni- with yelling "gotpha"- LOVE it.

[Roadtrip]

Actually most of these newer luxury cars have blue tooth build right in so there is no reason for someone in a Mercedes/BMW/Porsche/Lexus to be talking on a cell without hands free.

I admit I DO talk on the phone while in the car, but it's always with hands free or the speaker phone.

I thought about getting a newer CPO BMW as I saw how nice my co-workers car was... but then I rode with him a few times and changed my mind. He was a totally different person behind the wheel. He even joked how he might as well live up to the "prick" standard owning a BMW came with.

[Crankin]

Wait a minute.
I am not a p**** (I don't like saying that word, although I have no trouble with much worse). I don't see the connection here. Because you have a BMW you are an azzhole? Geez, I bought my little 325xi because it was a) a small sedan and b) it has AWD and a hill descender feature that I wanted. At the time, (2003) I had very little choice in finding a car that wasn't an SUV or mini van that had those features, besides a Subaru (which I had already had and hated).
Sure, my car can be driven very aggressively, since it goes quite fast very nicely, but that doesn't mean I drive that way.
And, I do not use my phone in the car at all (no Bluetooth here).
This reminds me of the guy at the beginning of the group ride I went to a couple of weeks ago; as I was lifting my bike out of the back of my car he said, "Wow, you can fit your bike in the back of that little BMW and it has all wheel drive?" I was like, yes, and that's why I bought it....

[Eden]

I admit I DO talk on the phone while in the car, but it's always with hands free or the speaker phone.

You should understand that it is actually no safer to use hands free, though no where in the states has any government been ballsy enough to ban phoning in cars entirely..... its not so much the hands factor as the brain occupied elsewhere factor when it comes to driving and cellphone use.

WA state just passed a no texting and no talking without hands free law. The press release announcing the law comes out and says right on it that no cell phone use in cars is safe, even though it allows hands free devices..... cops say hands free isn't safe, research studies say hands free isn't any safer.

Over three days, the subjects took the wheel in various ways: sober and off-the-phone; legally under the influence of orange-juice-and-vodka cocktails; while talking with a research assistant by hand-held cellphone; and chatting over a hands-free cellphone device. The result: Compared with drivers exceeding the legal blood alcohol limit, users of cellphones -- hand-held or hands-free -- reacted 18% more slowly to braking by the car in front and were more likely to get in a rear-end collision.


It's too bad when it comes to cars in the US, politicians are so frightened to actually pass laws that have a real effect or any teeth....