So, from today the penalty for using a mobile phone at the wheel is doubled to £60, with three bonus points. No doubt some drivers will be sufficiently apprehensive to resist the temptation, but I wonder if it will really have much effect. It relies on the driver being seen using the phone by a police officer, and then the officer bothering to stop the vehicle. But these days I almost never see a police patrol car. I do see plenty of drivers on the phone; it's not just the white van driver, but everyone from the artic driver negotiating a mini roundabout to the bimbette in the beat-up Peugeot 306 discussing last night's entertainment.
There's an interesting piece by Tom Clarke on the Channel 4 News blog, on the level of distraction caused by a phone call, measured in Tom's test on a simulator at the Transport Research Laboratory.
Some time ago I found myself being followed in the outside lane of the M25 by a well-heeled middle-aged lady in a Mercedes, who was on the phone for 10 or more minutes. She'd come to my attention as she was driving rather too close to my back bumper for comfort, and I spent a fair portion of my time looking in the rear view mirror. After a while I realized that she'd also lit a cigarette, which she was manipulating between mouth, window and steering wheel with her right hand while keeping the phone to her ear with the left. All the time she talked, laughed and bobbed her well-coiffured hair, and I was glad when I had the chance to pull in and let her pass.
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