Both hands on the wheelHabits

unbry

Both hands on the wheel

A short book about using your phone while driving and trusting that you're the exception

26 chapters12,129 wordsAbout 55 minFirst edition

What's inside

·Before you startThis is a short book and you can read it in two or three sittings. It's about one habit, which is looking at your phone while you're driving. Not the…2 min
1The red light, the knee, and the buzzYou're on the high street at ten past eight, third car back at the lights. The phone's in the cupholder and it lights up. You don't decide to look. Your…2 min
2Why the peek makes senseNobody reads a message on their knee at fifty because they've weighed it up. They do it because the phone buzzed and the itch arrived and the road looked…2 min
3"It's only a glance"A glance is short. That's the whole case for it. Two seconds, eyes down, eyes up, and the road hasn't had time to change. Held against a crash, which is a…2 min
4"I only do it when it's safe"This is the belief that does most of the work, so it's worth taking seriously. You don't peek on a roundabout. You don't peek in the rain with a lorry…2 min
5"I'm a good driver, it's the others"You probably are a good driver. Most people who've driven for fifteen years without hitting anything are, in the ordinary sense. And the belief that…2 min
6"I've done it a thousand times"This is the belief under all the others, and it's the one that feels least like a belief and most like a fact. You've peeked at the phone hundreds of…2 min
7"Hands-free is fine"The law says you can, and the belief follows naturally. The problem with a phone in the car must be the hand off the wheel and the eyes off the road, so a…2 min
8"It's no different from talking to a passenger"If conversation is the problem, this belief says, then every car with two people in it is a hazard, and nobody's banning passengers. You talk to your…2 min
9"I use voice, so I'm not looking"The newer version of the belief has moved from the hands to the eyes. You don't hold the phone and you don't look at it. You say the message and it types…2 min
10"It's not like drink-driving"You wouldn't drive after four pints. You'd think less of someone who did. But the phone feels like a different category. Drink-driving is a moral thing…1 min
11"It might be urgent"The buzz might be anything. It might be the school. It might be your mother. It might be the boss, and if it's the boss it might be the one message that…2 min
12"I'd stop if it were really dangerous"This one's a comfort rather than a claim. You're a sensible person. If the peek were really as bad as the adverts say, you'd have stopped, and the fact…2 min
13"It's only at the lights"A lot of readers will have got this far thinking, fair enough, but I don't do it on the move. I do it at the lights. The car's stopped. Nothing can happen…2 min
14"Everyone does it"Look around at the next red light. The driver alongside, head down, thumb going. The one behind, lit face. It isn't just you and it isn't a few people…2 min
15Six points, and the first two yearsThis is the chapter with the law in it, and it's short, because the law isn't the argument. It's a fact you should have straight, and one part of it…2 min
16What the peek costs youThe obvious cost is the crash, and this book has deliberately not described one. But most peeks don't end in a crash, which is the whole problem of…2 min
17What the drive was forThere's a belief under the belief that the drive is dead time. It says twenty minutes in a car with nothing to do is twenty minutes lost, and the phone…2 min
18Out of reachThe method has three parts and this is the first. It's the one that does most of the work, and it's the least dramatic. The phone goes somewhere your hand…2 min
19The standing messageOut of reach solves the hand. It doesn't solve the people, and the people are why the urgent belief has held up so long. If your boss, your partner, your…2 min
20Set it before you moveThe third part is the things on the phone you actually use while driving. The map. The music. The call you were always going to take. These are real…2 min
21The decisionHere's the rule, and it's one sentence. The phone is out of reach before the engine starts, and anything with a screen happens with the handbrake on.…2 min
22The sat-nav, the work phone, on call, the child in the back, driving for a living, and the driver beside youThe rule is short and lives can be complicated. Here are the cases readers will raise, each in turn. The sat-nav. A phone in a cradle showing the map is…2 min
23When you picked it up anywayIt'll happen. A week in, the phone's in the cupholder because you were on the phone when you got in and just put it down. The buzz. The hand. You're…2 min
24The buzz on the A-roadA Tuesday, a month or so on. You get in the car, the phone's in your hand from the call you just finished, and you open the glovebox and put it in without…2 min
·NotesThese notes give the sources behind the claims in each chapter, and say where I'm giving my own interpretation. The book isn't legal advice, and the…7 min