Telling Lies To Motorists
I have a new game!
Riding home tonight, a car passed me as I was approaching a set of red traffic lights. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the unmistakable shine of a mobile phone’s screen in the driver’s hand. Sure enough, when I pulled alongside, he was texting. 
Naturally, I knocked on the window, and here’s how the conversation went . . .
Karl: You shouldn’t be on the phone.
Driver (face like the kid who’s just been caught red-handed with his hand in the cookie jar): I’m not on the phone.
Karl: Oh. It’s just that when I can the other way, there was a police car parked just up ahead, so watch out for it.
Driver (closes phone & shoves it into pocket): Oh, right. Thanks.
I hadn’t come from the other direction, and there wasn’t a police car, but I got the outcome I wanted. Kinda fun too - it felt naughty to be telling a blatant lie!
So - do these two wrongs make a right? Or if I keep up this sort of behaviour, will there come a time when anything someone on a bike says to a driver is automatically disregarded?
Karl,
I see that nonsense almost every day while commuting to and from work. Is it really that important to reply while driving? I think that 1000 years from now, when archeoligists are examining remains from our time, they will discover a generation of homosapiens with overly developed thumbs.
Oh, it’s all very wrong. You are so bad! Good job!
Well done!
It shows a motorist that cyclists are nice people.
It shows the motorist that if you can see they’re on the phone, so can the Police and will hopefully deter them from doing it in future.
It makes the road safer.
It’s entirely legal. (IANAL).
If there really were Police ahead, and you were to warn a driver of the Police’s presence to help a driver avoid apprehension. IIRC you would be open to prosecution, for the serious offence of Perverting the course of Justice.
I sometimes say “I thought you were drunk but I see you are on the phone…. so that’s ok then”
…although it does perpetuate the idea that traffic law enforcement is something trivial, and that it’s entirely natural for us all to help others avoid the consequences of breaking it, I suppose.
I despair of seeing any real change in mobile use among UK drivers - they simply don’t care. At least on Winter commutes, the glow of the screen makes them easy to spot.
Rather than lie, why not note the car’s registration number, take out one’s own mobile, dial 999 and complain about the dangerous driver posing a serious threat to others?
Once, while approaching an odd T intersection, where I had no stop sign, but oncoming traffic did. I was turning left, and the on coming car was not stopping. I noticed he was on his phone. So while maneuvering away, I looked at him and (I’m slightly ashamed to say) yelled at him to get off the phone.
The next mile was down hill at 10% grade, and he gave me a good 30m cushion as we descended. I feel slightly bad about the yelling. But he heard me. Realized he hadn’t seen me. And put the phone away sheepishly.
Hopefully he thinks twice before picking up the phone again while driving.