Set it before you move

The 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 needs, and out of reach can't be a rule that leaves you lost in a town you don't know with the map in the boot.

The handbrake rule. Anything that needs a screen happens with the handbrake on. The map is set at the kerb before you pull out, with the destination in and the route showing, and it lives in a cradle where you can see it without touching it. The music is chosen in the car park, a playlist or an album long enough for the drive, not a song you'll want to change. The call you were going to take is made before you start, or after you stop, or answered by voice if it comes in and you've decided you're going to take calls. If the map goes wrong on the move, you drive on, and it re-routes, because that's what maps do now. If you genuinely need to touch it, you pull over, and pulling over takes a minute, and it's the minute that used to be the peek.

The cradle. If you use the map, you need a cradle, and it's the one bit of kit this book asks you to buy. A phone in a cradle at eye level is a legal hands-free device you can see. A phone in the cupholder is a peek waiting to happen. Put the cradle where it doesn't block your view, which GOV.UK also requires.

The passenger navigates. If there's someone in the car, the phone is theirs. They hold the map, they read the message if you're expecting one, they change the music. This is the one time a passenger is unambiguously safer than the alternative, and it's the case Drews and Charlton's research is about. The passenger can see the road. Let them do the phone.

What this doesn't cover. It doesn't cover the call that comes in on the move, which is chapter 7's problem and not this one's. My honest view is that the hands-free call is legal and costs attention, and that you should take fewer than you think. The clean rule is that calls happen parked. The compromise, if you won't have that, is that you answer by voice, keep it short, and say you'll ring back. What you don't do is pick the phone up, because that's the peek with a voice attached.

The three parts together, out of reach, the standing message, and set before you move, cover every reason the phone has ever come out of the cupholder. The next chapter puts them into a rule.