01-01-2018, 06:48 PM
There's a pretty fundamental question about what one should and shouldn't do while driving. The mobile phone has brought matters to a head. They all (unless you can do it all with voice activation) require you to look elsewhere—whether at the screen or a keypad— and it's clearly a problem. That's why it's illegal pretty much everywhere.
Drinking hot tea or coffee; or water; or eating while driving may well be a problem. Less so in an automatic car, although I live in terror of being wiped out by some clown spilling a hot drink all over their crotch while driving. On that front, I can't quite understand why drinking water or tea or coffee is legal while alcohol is not. If logic applied, a traveller on the way home from the office would be fine unless your blood-alcohol content was over the limit.
Putting on makeup or painting your fingernails is not a brilliant idea either, although I see it from time to time.
Ferret's technique for taking photos theoretically requires little distraction as you have but the vaguest idea of what you're actually going to shoot. However, there is probably an argument that taking a hand off the bars or the wheel and thinking about the photo rather than the ride is a distraction. Certainly taking photos with anything other than a point-and-click camera is hazardous.
Fiddling with the radio or loading a playlist on the mp3 player is risky.
Should we be encouraging all drivers and riders to do only those things necessary to effective driving/riding?
As a postscript to this, I've been an enthusiastic practitioner of the Ferret technique of mobile photography. I'm thinking of giving it up for a couple of reasons. One is that, particularly while wearing heavier gloves, turning the darned thing on can be a distraction. Secondly, it's another thing I have to sort when it rains. Finally, it means I'm often thinking about taking a photo rather than enjoying the moment. That's a problem for all photographers anywhere, but it's something I find myself thinking about from time to time.
Drinking hot tea or coffee; or water; or eating while driving may well be a problem. Less so in an automatic car, although I live in terror of being wiped out by some clown spilling a hot drink all over their crotch while driving. On that front, I can't quite understand why drinking water or tea or coffee is legal while alcohol is not. If logic applied, a traveller on the way home from the office would be fine unless your blood-alcohol content was over the limit.
Putting on makeup or painting your fingernails is not a brilliant idea either, although I see it from time to time.
Ferret's technique for taking photos theoretically requires little distraction as you have but the vaguest idea of what you're actually going to shoot. However, there is probably an argument that taking a hand off the bars or the wheel and thinking about the photo rather than the ride is a distraction. Certainly taking photos with anything other than a point-and-click camera is hazardous.
Fiddling with the radio or loading a playlist on the mp3 player is risky.
Should we be encouraging all drivers and riders to do only those things necessary to effective driving/riding?
As a postscript to this, I've been an enthusiastic practitioner of the Ferret technique of mobile photography. I'm thinking of giving it up for a couple of reasons. One is that, particularly while wearing heavier gloves, turning the darned thing on can be a distraction. Secondly, it's another thing I have to sort when it rains. Finally, it means I'm often thinking about taking a photo rather than enjoying the moment. That's a problem for all photographers anywhere, but it's something I find myself thinking about from time to time.
