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PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 11:03 
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The Mirror wrote:
Celebrity lawyer Nick Freeman calls for a ban on "dangerous" Sat Navs
Nov 19, 2013 15:33 By Charlotte Cox

Road safety charity Brake has called for hands-free mobile phone use by drivers to be outlawed - and Mr Freeman thinks this should be extended to Sat Navs

Controversial: Celebrity lawyer Nick Freeman has called for a ban on Sat Navs because of the "acute dangers" motorists face then using them
Celebrity lawyer Nick Freeman has called for a ban on Sat Navs because of the "acute dangers" motorists face then using them.

Mr Freeman, from Knutsford, whose clients have included Sir Alex Ferguson and David Beckham, issued the controversial call after road safety charity Brake said hands-free mobile phones should be banned in cars.
But the lawyer - who has been nicknamed Mr Loophole - believes this should be extended to Sat Navs.

He said: “There is no difference between hands-free and hand-held and using a hands-free mobile is on a par with drink driving. If you do get caught with a phone you should be disqualified.
“Sat navs are of equal distraction. I’m a user myself but at the same time I’m acutely aware of how dangerous they can be.
“People are not being aware and education is needed so they are advised of the potential acute dangers.
“A balance has to be drawn, but if we want to completely prioritise road safety above all else then we should completely change our sat nav devices, remove the screen when the vehicles is moving. And if the primary concern is road safety then I would encourage the banning of sat navs.”

He said other distractions were incomparable, adding: “When you start a journey you don’t say to your kids ‘I want you to argue for the next three hours’. You tell them to shut up.
“The problem is people are blissfully unaware of the danger.
“I use sat navs all the time and when I get in my car I have 30 calls to make, but I drive gingerly. I’m acutely aware. Phones should be for emergencies.”

Mr Freeman's comments have criticised as ‘extreme’ by driving safety experts.

Jeremy Dent, chairman of the Manchester branch of the RoSPA Advanced Drivers and Riders Association, says it’s all about skilled driving – not removing specific distractions.

Mr Dent, a driving tutor from Stockport who has been driving for 43 years, said: “I think the sat nav suggestion – even for the screen to be off when moving – is extreme. Good driving is about overcoming a number of distractions. I don’t think one specific distraction like sat nav is critical in itself. Suggestions like this are gut feeling, not based on any research.
“There is no research that says, for example, that sat navs cause 75 per cent of collisions.
“It’s about a safe approach overall to driving.”
He said it is more important to make sure the sat nav is positioned safely.
“It’s more dangerous to have a map on your lap and trying to drive at the same time.”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ce ... z33f67nyDg
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This is pointless and a waste of time. Motorists ensuring that all attention to their aids are done so only at safe and appropriate times.
Brake calling for all mobile use to be banned would only drive it into more dangerous levels. Making things illegal doesn't prevent their action if people see that action as safe or necessary.

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PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 22:44 
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Possibly folks will call me old fashioned, but I would never use a sat nav. On my own I'd plan a route with way points,where I'd stop to look at my route to next way point. etc. With my sit nag on board, she'd have a list of waypoints and a route, and guide me through them .

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 10:10 
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Isn't it funny how quickly we forget what it was like trying to drive through a strange town, read a map and look at street names all at the same time? Was that really safer? So despite the additional distraction of mobile phones, the increased traffic density, the increased complication of road layouts and now, (it seems) the additional distraction of sat-navs, the KSIs continue to fall! Man, those cameras must be good!


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PostPosted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 11:23 
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I pretty much know how to do 95% of any journey in the UK and just use the SatNav for the last bit to get exactly to the destination. I reckon most people, for example, know where Nottingham is but are not familiar with the local roads and junctions.

The answer is to keep its use to a minimum.

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PostPosted: Thu Jun 05, 2014 22:48 
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Malcolm, I spent a large portion of my time in the Midlands in the late 80's ,early 90's ,pre Sat Nav. Nottingham, I'd look at the A-Z and know where to go to almost a street. Then it was stop and lock in.

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PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 08:14 
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I'm actually really pleased my new car doesn't have sat-nav, on the old car i used it for almost every journey (with the sound off) mostly for the traffic warnings. I had set the map to be always North up so I could at least keep my bearings when looking at it.

I have a good sense of direction and a fairly photographic memory so I can mostly remember the key parts of a journey & end details. My brain is enjoying the exercise.

A couple of journies I have stopped and let google maps on my phone take the strain for the last couple of miles, but since that uses bandwidth I'll be keeping it to a minimum :)

Plus you can't underestimate the joy of finding a wiggly little white road :drive1:


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 12:12 
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As someone who does 25,000 miles a year but has a sense of direction so poor, he would would struggle to find his way out of a phone box, I think they're the best thing ever! That said, they can sometimes take fairly bizarre routes, so I tend to have a "paper" atlas in the car so I can just check where it's planning on taking me once it has calculated it's route.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 15:08 
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Like any tool a satnav is only as good as the person using it. Like malcolmw I had very good sense of direction and could get myself fairly close to wherever I wanted to go. It was always the last few miles that I would have issues. I started using satnavs for that last little bit.

However over the last 12 or so years, as I have become a heavier user of these devices, I have noticed that I no longer seem to retain the new routes that I drive as easily. It used to take me 2 or 3 repeats of a route to remember it. Now it is more like 7 or 8. Also I have noticed that when I plan a route on paper or google or mapsource or any other route planner I have an easier time or remembering the route and I also find that I tend to enjoy the driving / riding a lot more. I think it is the time taken to choose the route enhances it.

I think somebody who is totally reliant on a satnav is more interested in the destination, where as someone who invests time in working out a route is more interested and engaged in the journey. The journey is usually the part that interests me, especially if I am on my motorbike.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 18:01 
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I use mine as a hands free kit, scamera warning device and easier to read speedo, more so than a satnav but is is far less dangerous than the A-Z, I used to rely on a few decades ago.

i do think some people position them in stupid places which give you a severe blindspot on the windscreen and I place mine in the far right corner, as low down as possible.

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.


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PostPosted: Fri Jun 06, 2014 23:39 
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grabs- I've got a better position for my SIT NAG. Passenger seat. She's had that position for 40+ years ,and is a second pair of eyes ,and a great map reader.

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Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 13:11 
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I know one bloke who refers to his other half as the "Saft Nag", saft being a shropshire word for soft (simple) or stupid...;-)

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My views do not represent Safespeed but those of a driver who has driven for 39 yrs, in all conditions, at all times of the day & night on every type of road and covered well over a million miles, so knows a bit about what makes for safety on the road,what is really dangerous and needs to be observed when driving and quite frankly, the speedo is way down on my list of things to observe to negotiate Britain's roads safely, but I don't expect some fool who sits behind a desk all day to appreciate that.


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PostPosted: Sat Jun 07, 2014 23:28 
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Grabs, he's not married to a Yorkshire lass then. But then,my navigation system has more than 40 years of experience. she's guided me through motorway systems to single track roads in the middle of nowhere, and we've never got lost. All from a paper map. Sadly our younger daughter has not inherited our sense of direction. So one very worthy xmas present a few years back was a sat nav. But ,she will still ask dad for the best route.

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Drivers are like donkeys -they respond best to a carrot, not a stick .Road safety experts are like Asses - best kept covered up ,or sat on


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