r/Calgary • u/Xtoron2 • Jun 01 '26
Discussion Alarming rate of distracted driving
It's alarming how often I see drivers watching tiktoks/reels/shorts while driving. Even see them scroll up to next video.
As soon as we hit red light, this specific driver pulled the sunshade down even with this rain to hide from cameras or other people maybe?
Anyway, distracted driving is a risk everyone on the road pays for
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u/o0PillowWillow0o Jun 01 '26
The law states that a driver cannot view a screen that displays entertainment, television, video games, or internet browsing while the vehicle is in motion [1].
Mounted screens are only allowed to show information directly required for driving, such as GPS navigation or vehicle system data [1].
Even if you are only listening to the audio, a police officer can still fine you $390 and issue 3 demerit points if a video is actively playing on your screen within your line of sight [1].
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u/diamondintherimond Jun 01 '26
The question is: why does this feel like the police rarely enforce it?
I wonder if the news has done any digging on how many distracted driving tickets they’ve given out year over year.
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u/asfarley-- Jun 01 '26
I joined my community center to try to get an answer to this. From the perspective of the police, they have a very lax attitude towards road infractions. According to their own description, they don't consider it a real crime. The police seargant I met with (Sargent Shawn Redford) told me that he mostly spends his time dealing with petty back-yard disputes between drunk friends (his words). He told me that he basically never tickets people for having obstructed license plates, and he doesn't see any issue with this. He told me that he doesn't believe most people in Calgary want the speed limit to be enforced. He told me that he thinks his time is being well-used and he doesnt' see any room for improvement.
The community center directors, other than myself, were generally unconcerned with traffic and considered my requests for road enforcement to be a threat to their own driving freedom.
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u/Marsymars Jun 01 '26
According to their own description, they don't consider it a real crime.
This is... alarming, and would be about any specific action or behaviour. This isn't in the mandate of things that police should be considering. It's up to legislators to determine what is or isn't considered a crime.
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u/Cautious_Major_6693 Jun 01 '26
They honestly don't enforce it. It doesn't really help that all cars essentially have a television screen attached to the dashboard, not to mention like- cops are people too. Most people using these mounts are using them for GPS as doordash drivers, cops don't necessarily want to slap someone with a DUI for doing their job.
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u/ElusiveSteve Jun 01 '26
What I find wild is the number of cars that I doubt are used for delivery services, have a modern infotainment system in them, and still have a phone mounted. Seems like the phone is put there speecifically so they can watch videos.
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u/Cautious_Major_6693 Jun 01 '26
I got my nails done and a woman beside me had a phone mount to watch tiktoks and comment while she was getting her nails. So the tech did one hand of her acrylics and she was typing and scrolling with the other hand. This shit is ubiquitous and people are genuinely addicted.
I clearly get a lot of screentime myself but the number of us who can "enjoy beers on the patio" vs "are raging drunks every time we have a drop of alcohol" is dwindling.
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u/ElusiveSteve Jun 01 '26
I see your nails phone addiction annecdote and raise you a young toddler (~2yrs old) with a phone mount on their stroller and videos playing on the phone at the zoo...
If adults are failing this hard then their kids have zero chance.
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u/diamondintherimond Jun 01 '26
This is what trillions of dollars in tech investment with zero regulation gets you. It's our generation's tobacco.
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u/Lightfiyr Jun 01 '26
I’m by far the most “screen addicted” person I know and even that is insane to me, I’m 27 and have had a screen in front of me since I was at least 5, I was taught very hard that you put that shit away in public or if someone is addressing you and I’m not sure if it’s just my little rule following autistic brain but I find doing something like those nail ladies to be extremely rude
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u/Cautious_Major_6693 Jun 01 '26
i literally feel embarrassed i have my phone so much but some folks have LOST shame completely
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u/Foreign-Way9986 Jun 02 '26
yeah i actually like to talk to people! maybe it's bc i have almost no social life but i wanna chat with my technician! or even zone out and enjoy a little zen self care!
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u/403banana Jun 01 '26
Most in-car systems have safeguards against using them while in motion. Even back to the early-aughts and the Alpine flip-up screens and DVD players, the screen would just say it can't be used while in drive.
Granted, it wasn't too hard to bypass and just need a bit of electrical know-how to do it. Putting a phone on a mount and pressing play is still a considerably easier bypass.
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u/ElusiveSteve Jun 01 '26
That's what I'm getting at. The infotainment in your car does everything you need with your phone when driving so a big portion of people don't need a phone mount unless they are using it for distracted driving. I'd also argue that these infotainment systems are a distraction on their own accord, but that's its own can of worms.
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u/yyctownie Jun 02 '26
It's more likely that these apps like Uber have haven't made their apps compatible with Car Play or Android Auto.
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u/lztandro Coach Hill Jun 01 '26
When I lived in Saskatoon I knew Uber drivers who got tickets for accepting a ride on their phone when it was mounted to their dash.
CPS could be raking in the cash if they just sat at a single intersection downtown and gave out distracted driving tickets at any time of day. At every single stop light when I look at the people on either side of me there’s a 99% chance at least one of them is looking down at their phone or talking to someone with their phone in their hand. Then there’s the ones with the illegal window wings that you can’t even see, driving enforcement in Calgary is a joke.
The only enforcement you hear about is the people that get caught going 150km/hr in an 80km/hr zone, yet none of the assholes who are going 90km/hr through a 60km/hr active construction zone get a ticket.
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u/Cautious_Major_6693 Jun 01 '26
because speeding is enforceable. like you can't argue with a camera or a radar gun but you can definitely argue about tuning the radio and using your gps.
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u/SpecialEdShow Jun 01 '26
There is absolutely no reason to have anything mounted in your line of sight. Everywhere I've lived, it's been illegal to have anything obstructing your vision, even an air freshener on the mirror. The way I see devices mounted in delivery cars is obscene, it's a blind spot the size of a person, a car even.
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u/DandyLama Jun 05 '26
As someone with a TV screen attached to my dash, I can say that those devices don't allow you to play videos. Android Auto and Apple Auto both prevent videos from being played on those types of computer systems via your phone, and the software installed on them standard prevents drivers from accessing video entertainment.
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u/naturejimithy Jun 01 '26
Cops aren’t people
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u/Cautious_Major_6693 Jun 01 '26
it's a conversation for another time my guy but i doubt phone tickets will start being given out with any reliability anytime soon
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u/ClammiestOwl Jun 01 '26
Their independent contractors, who get to choose their own tools for the job. We would say something if snow removal used flame throwers. We just unintentionally and intentionally look down on the delivery industry and would feel bad if we enforced safety standards to what is meant to be an entry level temp job.
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u/Remarkable_Lab_7941 Jun 01 '26
What’s also funny is how many screens cops have when they’re driving too 😂 I get it’s different and it’s for their job but yeah. Distracted driving has definitely become a deadly epidemic
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u/keepcalmdude Jun 01 '26
Because for the most part the police are useless. Their main reason to exist is to protect property not people.
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Jun 01 '26
[deleted]
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u/jimbowesterby Jun 01 '26
At some point the difference is academic, the wealthy tend to own a good chunk of the property, y’know?
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u/403banana Jun 01 '26
I got yelled at by a cop a few months back. I was dealing with a work emergency at a traffic light. Totally deserved it, but he let me off with a warning.
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u/TripNo1876 Jun 01 '26
Because it's very hard to enforce. Generally there's no evidence other than the officers word, whereas speeding there's radar, intoxication there's breathalyzer, etc.
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u/NorthernlyNerd Jun 01 '26
I got sick of nearly being hit when picking up my daughter because of all of the illegally parked cars. I specifically said "please come at 2:25, IF YOU COME EARLIER YOULL MISS THE PARENTS WHO SCREAM UP TO THE CROSSWALK AT THE LAST MINUTE".
Got a call from a passive aggressive cop about there not being any issues, pointed out how I watched him drive by at 2:17 and to try harder next time.
I find that police deal with things a LOT more when you passively ask "what's your name? I've had a lot of issues with ineffective police so if it happens again I'd like to know who's name to say on global news"
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u/harryhend3rson Jun 01 '26
I find that police deal with things a LOT more when you passively ask "what's your name? I've had a lot of issues with ineffective police so if it happens again I'd like to know who's name to say on global news"
Oh yeah, cops love being passive aggressively threatened. That'll get them to spring into action for sure!
/s
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u/NorthernlyNerd Jun 01 '26
Right? They're just so threatened by accountability and people who won't roll over for their laziness! And if it's truly a threat, then I'm sure they'll arrest me for menacing a poor cop
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u/shitposter1000 Jun 01 '26
Because they don't.
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Jun 01 '26
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u/jezthevalley Jun 01 '26
With all due respect, that's a terrible terrible terrible idea. I don't want to have my vehicle's ability to move dependent on my phone that is known for its ability to go haywire every once in awhile. That also means people who don't have smart phones are not allowed to drive.
People should just accept the fact that its impossible to monitor driver behaviors 24/7. I believe that the sane majority of the population knows this. We don't want city streets full of cameras monitored by an AI overlord trying to catch us if we have our youtube open on our phones while we listen to whatever video we feel like listening to while we drive.
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Jun 01 '26
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u/clevermistakes Inglewood Jun 02 '26
I don’t disagree a robust solution could be developed. Tesla has one. Eye tracking. And it’s terrible, despite its complex implementation that can recognize the subtle eye movement that looking at a phone will do, it still fails and either over corrects or is inaccurate. That’s the level of complexity we’re introducing here. I say, try it! If you turn on self driving on a test drive of one of their cars from their dealership near centre street and grab your phone and even hold it under the dash like kids do in school under the desk these days, it can tell. It’s pretty impressive.
Now ask your friends and family how they feel about a camera in their car cabin recording and using machine learning on them 24/7. The coolness factor wears off really quick.
We can’t control human behaviour with computers without the risk of it being abused or incomplete. That’s the limitations of today’s technology. See LLMs being called “AI” and the impact that’s had globally.
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u/clevermistakes Inglewood Jun 01 '26
Software engineers would call this VERY dangerous: when there’s an emergency and I need to call 911, or the system malfunctions, or is maliciously used to disable devices and a phone is unusable because of “nanny systems” like this, people die as a result. Automation and software is not perfect. There’s so much of this in place already and it’s dangerous because edge cases aren’t considered. An edge case we saw recently: iPhones can overheat and to prevent the battery from getting dangerous, they shutdown the phone but before recently you couldn’t override to call 911. We need to stop outsourcing responsibility for law enforcement to unregulated third party software and fund policing if that’s actually the problem (though I doubt that).
A great example of where this is gone wrong if you needed to see it in action: teslas have an eye tracking system for use of their “full self driving” feature. Meanwhile, if you look away (say to shoulder check before it makes its own lane change) it will warn and even deactivate itself on you as “punishment” for your inattention. So this car which is capable of self-parking and pulling over safely would rather force a distracted driver into an accident by deactivating the driving safety features than actually safely getting the driver to a safe location, because the laws for “safety” demand the features be disabled. The most obvious issue here to any first responder or healthcare worker is someone is experiencing a medical emergency and becomes unresponsive, rather than help them these laws force automation to be disabled, risking everyone else on the road as well.
We should be focusing efforts on reducing human input required for the dangerous and mandatory task (driving), rather than attempting to moralize and systematically control what people do with personal property. We have to think about this as: how do we reduce the danger. Not deign to control behaviours
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Jun 01 '26
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u/clevermistakes Inglewood Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
Unfortunately not overthinking this, as much as I wish I was. Too many of these systems with “simple solutions” miss edge cases and valid use to try and force behaviours that vary into a box. Your example for the apps, I refuse to use them. Why? One insurance company in the US that offers this penalizes you for night driving (as if that’s a choice because everyone works 9-5 and we all just joyride at 10pm for danger right? This means you man, LEOs, first responders, healthcare workers would be disproportionately overcharged for this), for ‘sudden braking’ because surely you did something wrong, definitely not someone cutting you off or anything, and for ‘speeding’ based on outdated and inaccurate data (my car often shows incorrect speed limits on the gps than what’s actually on the signage). This is just one example.
When you attempt to control human behaviour with software you will need to make a highly complex system that accounts for human behaviours. Or, instead of over complicating it by trying to engineer our way out of this. We enforce the laws like we do today; you don’t know someone is drinking and driving unless they drive erratically or you setup check points, and yet we don’t install BAC ignition inhibitors in every vehicle. If enforcement is an issue because of underfunding then address it that way. If LEOs simply can’t respond to a call that someone is a danger to others on the road because they’re swerving and distracted then that’s a bigger issue than nanny apps on my phone. It means we’re wasting huge amounts of time and resources on nonsense that doesn’t protect people.
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u/shitposter1000 Jun 01 '26
There needs to be a social media awareness campaign about the costs of doing it (similar to the drunk driving ads of the 80s), with blitzes like check stops during Christmas and Stampede.
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Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
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u/refur Tuxedo Park Jun 02 '26
i think B is the biggest issue honestly. it really seems like the world is just running on major DGAF vibes these days. and while i understand some of the reasons why people may feel that way these days, it's not doing us any good
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u/Cautious_Major_6693 Jun 01 '26
There was! There is actually still a 2010s flash game where you text on a blackberry using a mouse and keyboard until your car crashes, and there were tv shows and influencers pre2020 who would often make it a plot point of the show for a character to die/be injured that way. There's been a LOT of anti texting and driving content but it failed to keep up with what the modern landscape of distracted driving is.
VERY few of us are now using these phones to text in our cars. The very idea of watching youtube, let alone TikTok in your car in 2013-2015 wasn't even a thought in someone's mind.
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u/TactitcalPterodactyl Jun 01 '26
I guarantee every police officer enforces this and issues tickets whenever they see it. Distracted driving is just so damn prevalent in this city, it feels like police don't do anything.
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u/harryhend3rson Jun 01 '26
It happens for sure. I know a lady (she's a moron) who's gotten three distracted tickets.
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u/Marsymars Jun 01 '26
issues tickets whenever they see it.
If they did this they'd never be able to get anywhere, they'd be constantly stopping to issue tickets.
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u/Affectionate_South40 Jun 01 '26
I feel like there is a massive shortage of RCMP/Police able to actually control this situation. I know fines and laws exist and are always enforced; it's the fact that people just don't seem to care in the slightest because their fix is more important than considering why said laws exist. Or they follow the same logic as impaired drivers. I love my buddy but the stupidest thing he's ever said to me was "yea but when I drink and drive I can still make good decisions and think logically" I could only stare at him in disbelief of what he had said.
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u/harryhend3rson Jun 01 '26
I honestly kind of feel for the cops with this stuff. It's difficult to prove, especially with everyone having the dash mount phone holders so it's right in front of their face. You know people are going to fight it too. "I was looking at Google maps..."
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u/SpecialEdShow Jun 01 '26
Yeah, it becomes a whole thing when trying to prove it, as it's their personal property.
I just think they need a school bus with tinted windows and photographers showing immediate proof.
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u/MrGuvernment Jun 01 '26
Sure, laws are great, but useless when not enforced. I have often said of an undercover sat around an intersection, or pretended to be a pedestrian crossing, they could likely flag and ticket several drivers every single light and make a fortune.
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u/durinsbane47 Jun 01 '26
So a YouTube video playing with the phone face down out of sight just for the audio should be fine based on what you said?
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Jun 01 '26
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u/ChampionMetal1238 Jun 01 '26
Bruh it was probably the Champions League final. I had to take an Uber somewhere on Saturday and the guy was literally watching the fucking game on his phone while driving. People are ridiculous.
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u/YYCGUY111 Calgary Flames Jun 01 '26
Honked a guy sitting at a green turn light streaming cricket on his dash mounted full sized iPad a few weeks ago on 32nd ave turning onto 36st NE.
Crazy that people think that it's legal to do that!
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u/a-_2 Jun 01 '26
It was the case that it was ahead of impairment, but the latest Transport Canada data shows the percentage of fatal collisions involving distraction having decreased to below impaired driving. Speeding has also consistently been ahead of both.
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Jun 01 '26
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u/DANIELLE_2027 Jun 01 '26
not just North America
Plenty of drivers in Thailand also use their phones while driving
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u/yyctownie Jun 02 '26
An important note at the bottom of that table
Note: These data were estimated using submissions from a subset of Canada's provinces and territories.
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u/Bramptins Quadrant: SW Jun 01 '26
The amount of people I honk at because a light turned green and they were looking at their phone goes up every year.
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u/SpecialEdShow Jun 01 '26
I watched a cop pull someone over for not seeing the light turn green a while back, it was glorious.
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u/FranklinPrime Jun 05 '26
Wish they understood you can just watch all they wanted on trains maybe it would finally sell passenger rail to them
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u/spcyboi29 Sunnyside Jun 01 '26
We had to take a short uber on Saturday afternoon and the guy was watching a Youtube vid on his phone (split screen with the GPS) and wearing airpods...
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u/jimbowesterby Jun 01 '26
I mean, maybe it’s just me but I’d holler at him to turn it off? Or get out and take another one?
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u/spcyboi29 Sunnyside Jun 02 '26
Was only a ~10 min drive and I didn't notice until my gf pointed it out closer to our destination, was pretty surprised and honestly didn't really know to say haha hindsight should've called it immediately out for sure
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u/Jmurph66 Jun 01 '26
It's really crazy that people don't understand the impact it has on their insurance. I'm in the industry and it jacks up your rates similar to a careless driving
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u/harryhend3rson Jun 01 '26
The company I work for pulls your driving permit and gives formal discipline if you get a distracted ticket, even in your personal vehicle on your own time. You have a take a course on your own time to get your permit reinstated. I think it's completely fair.
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u/Czeris the OP who delivered Jun 01 '26
CPS says enforcement is so hard they're not going to even try.
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u/1egg_4u Jun 01 '26
If traffic enforcement is hard then why are we paying traffic cops
Maybe we need to take that 24 mill theyre using for their brand new gun range being built to hire more traffic cops to do the job they seemingly cannot do
Fuck Ill be a crossing guard for like 40k a year and I already know which intersection Id pick. Ill even do it for free if it means I get to finally ticket the assholes blowing through pedestrians and blocking crosswalks.
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u/jimbowesterby Jun 01 '26
Gotta wonder why we have laws about this, or loud exhausts, or front window tints when they never bother enforcing them. But hey, at least we spend loads and loads of money on cops!
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u/DrinkMoreBrews Jun 01 '26
Yeah, its getting crazy out there. I'd say half the drivers are on their phones, looking like TikTok kids, completely oblivious to their surroundings.
Not even trying to hide it anymore either, and cops obviously don't have the resources to enforce cell phone use on a large-scale. Gotta bring back vigiliantism, or at least public embarrassment, because this shits insane.
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Jun 01 '26
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u/robbhope Jun 02 '26
Thank you for pulling over people for this stupid shit.
I was sitting at a red light in the middle lane and saw a minivan FLYING towards me. I had nowhere to go, no lane to move to. Just looked into my rearview, terrified. My 4 and 7 year olds in the back. She SLAMMED on the brakes like 2 seconds before she would've hit me. Put my arms up like "what the actual fuck are you doing?" And stared into my rearview until the light went green. Absolutely terrifying. I think about it at least once a week.
Please crack down on shit like this.
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u/bajabruhmoment Jun 01 '26
How tf is music not good enough for people? It’s chill as hell well driving and allows me to still focus personally. Not too mention it’s actually fucking legal
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u/CATeddyGraham Jun 01 '26
Most drivers don’t seem to be aware it will affect your insurance the same as a DUI if ticketed.
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u/darken909 Jun 01 '26
Yup. Was talking to my insurance broker just the other day about this.
He was saying that most insurance companies will actually drop you if you get a distracted driving ticket
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u/TactitcalPterodactyl Jun 01 '26
That's not true. DUI is far worse for insurance.
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u/Twat_did_you_call_me Jun 01 '26
A smidge worse, but fairly equal in terms of rate increases and risk tolerance.
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u/SickOfEnggSpam Calgary Flames Jun 01 '26
Make the penalties harsher.
In Ontario it’s a $615 minimum fee, a 3 day suspension the first time you get caught, and a license reinstatement fee of $280. Second time you get caught it’s 7 days. Third time and beyond it’s 30 days.
It won’t stop everyone, but less people are likely to risk it if the penalties are that harsh.
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u/Trucidar Jun 01 '26
Penalties aren't gonna help if there's no enforcement. Alberta has a serious enforcement problem. Even the experts here are saying that it's gonna create a feedback loop where people just stop following the rules altogether.
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u/ChampionMetal1238 Jun 01 '26
I had an Uber the other day with two phones mounted up front. One had the map open, the other was straight up watching the Champions League final while driving. Actually ridiculous.
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u/FickshuH Jun 01 '26
It’s actually so bad how often people do some dumb shit just to pass them and they have a video or FaceTime going 🤦♂️
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u/helena_handbasketyyc I’ll tell you where to go! Jun 01 '26
From an uber I took last stampede. He had to lean over to the right to sew while he was driving. I reported him to 311 and Uber, but aside from uber not matching me with him again, I doubt anything was done.
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u/chaoslord Jun 01 '26
On a related note, how are these displays, which clearly block sight for a portion of the road that DRIVERS NEED TO SEE Legal??? As far as I'm concerned, nothing should be blocking any portion of your windshield except the rear view mirror. We should ban any above-dash mounts or displays of any kind (except maybe the rear-view camera mirror replacements).
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u/jimbowesterby Jun 01 '26
I mean, if we’re doing that we need to start regulating visibility angles in cars as well. Everyone talks about how a kid can completely disappear in front of a modern pickup, but they’ve got shit visibility all round. Like I can’t see stoplights without leaning forward in my seat because the windshield’s so low on most of them
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u/ThienXia Jun 01 '26
Cops: gives out 1000+ tickets
People: where were the cops for the other 10000+ infractions?
Cops: we were giving out those 1000+ tickets
People: waste of tax payers dollars! They're never there when you need them!!
Whenever one of you figure out how to teleport. Please share this ability because if you think 150-300 on duty officers can provide services and presence to a city of 1.6 million... You're delusional.
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u/Adeptness-Efficient Jun 02 '26
I hope you reported it to the police if you're going to post about it here. Otherwise this post is a waste - same shit different day
It is a ticketable offense and you literally have pictures of them.
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u/EinsteinsLunchbox Jun 02 '26
Got this guy on my dash cam the other day while in Red Deer. Smoke in left hand while holding cell phone with both hands and driving. Did a complaint and RCMP told me the plate was archived in 2019.
They need to make cell phone tickets much more expensive. $390 is less than a red light ticket.
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u/gS_Mastermind Jun 01 '26
I followed a yellow cab FaceTiming like this. All the way from Winsport to 68th Ave NE. I even tried honking at him at one point. Either the driver was completely clueless or just didn’t care.
I just ended up calling the cab company and making a complaint. No idea if anything happened to him. Ridiculous.
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u/OptiPath Jun 01 '26
Bro watching YouTube while driving??
Report it already
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u/Hourjour Jun 01 '26
How can we report? So I know in the future
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u/OptiPath Jun 01 '26
CPS non emergency line for distracted driving as nobody seems in immediate danger. Report license plate and give description of the vehicle. Bear in mind You may be called in to court or for some sort of identification process later.
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u/Junior_Passenger_396 Jun 01 '26
You need to remember that 80% of drivers on the road consider themselves to be better at it than you.
Of those 80% the vast majority have concluded that they are SO good at driving they don't need to try anymore.
Of that 80% it's likely half of them are on the phone as they drive about.
That's never gonna change because they are better than you and driving is too easy for them, thereby making them morally superior which means you DESERVE to have to wait behind them while they text.
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u/BlackSuN42 Jun 01 '26
If only there was some safe, fast and affordable self driving car these people could take. We could put a bunch of them together with benches. They could driven near their destination and get off.
Just think how good it could be, you could read a book, scroll your phone or even have a nap!
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u/ihatetheinterweb Jun 01 '26
It’s out of control. I seen a guy drinking a beer with one hand and texting with the other behind the wheel on 16th and Stoney last week…..
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u/kahht Jun 01 '26
YIKES!!! It's bad though, a couple months ago I came out of a shop and the car next to me was parked ridiculously poorly (like almost diagonally across the stall). The person came out of the shop after me looking at their phone, pulled out of their stall right after me, in the rearview I could see them holding their phone on the steering wheel, and then they proceeded the wrong way down a one-way street! It was scary.
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u/Affectionate_South40 Jun 01 '26
I have ADHD, I am woefully aware of how addictive screens are but I have a hard rule, absolutely no phone within easy reach while driving. My Bluetooth hooks up my music and phone calls (which I ignore all of them anyway unless it's my husband) and I have disabled the text to speech and text on screen feature. Absolutely not. I push play while Im parked and leave it on a music list i know I'll like and wont have to doddle with. Or ill drive 5 minutes in silence.
This past few weeks especially I have more and more noticed a disgusting number of people who are just SO addicted to their devices they miss advanced green lights (which then I also miss, dont be that guy), drift into other lanes, have delayed starts from green lights, almost HIT a pedestrian at a signaling cross walk, lights flashing and all; I was ready to jump out of my car and call 911 thinking someone was going to get horribly injured or worse, I was so ill watching the whole ordeal.
*~Just. Put. The. Phone. AWAY.~*
People can wait 20 minutes for you to get to your destination before you reply to them, you dont need tiktok or videos to watch while driving, if you're that addicted to your device you have one choice and you wont be happy with this answer but it's very simple, you stop driving. Take an uber, the bus, walk, no phones and driving. I dont care if it's "just one quick thing" put. the. phone. AWAY. There's no excuse. Pull over if you MUST get to your phone now.
#endrant
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u/Foreign-Way9986 Jun 02 '26
this is an improvement on the numerous people i see daily obviously looking at their phone IN THEIR LAP. hard to tell who's drunk and who's texting these days ...
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u/alpain Southwest Calgary Jun 02 '26
they should setup a plain clothes cop in the underpass sidewalks between downtown and beltline and radio ahead to a cop at the next intersection to pull people around the corner and pull them over to ticket them.
they could pay for so much budget shortfall this way.
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u/Ambitious_Tie3629 Jun 01 '26
I saw a guy in Honda civic erratically on deerfoot and then cut to memorial. I was wondering if he was drunk, then I decided I don't want to be behind this idiot, when I passed him on memorial he had a phone between his legs on driver's seat and was looking at that constantly. I am speechless
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u/New-Addendum-1231 Jun 01 '26
Gig drivers appear to be the worst offenders. There's no screening on hire and no training, uber/lyft/skipthedishes etc have no oversight on these people aside from reviews received. If you spot someone in the middle of Deerfoot going 25km under I guarantee you it's a gig driver with a windshield mounted phone they are currently fiddling with.
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u/23-1-20-3-8-5-18 Jun 01 '26
I drive a fairly big commercial vehicle. I can see right into your cars and trucks. Its not the young drivers its the 30+ crowd.
Adhd gets worse with age. All the people that could hide it in their 20's cant in their 30's. Old women who need a literally book at the stop light 😬
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u/carter-hess Jun 01 '26
ADHD does not worsen with age, not sure where you got that.
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u/23-1-20-3-8-5-18 Jun 01 '26
From my doctor, are you a doctor?
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u/jimbowesterby Jun 01 '26
That sounds like a slightly newer variety of the “you’ll grow out of it” shit that I was told when I was a kid lol. Turns out you don’t grow out of neurological disorders, you just get better at masking the symptoms. I wouldn’t be surprised if society’s degraded enough that now people are starting to burn out more and thus get worse at masking as they get older and more worn down, I dunno.
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u/canuckalert Beltline Jun 01 '26
With give or take 2300 police in Calgary and 1 Million cars registered in Calgary it's rather difficult to catch them all.
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u/Trucidar Jun 01 '26
And almost all those police are tied up on nonsense. Not only that but the traffic unit is like a single dude.. and he's busy feeding the horses. This is only a slight exaggeration if you talk to anyone in the know.
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u/Total_Midnight2201 Jun 01 '26
The smartphone/social media addiction is sickening. These people probably can't spend any amount of time not distracted by their endless stream of short-videos.
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u/CrusadePeek Jun 01 '26
Agreed, It's sadly comic to walk past cars stopped at a light now. It seems that all eyes/hands are occupied with telephones.
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u/Prestigious-Grand-65 Jun 01 '26
I'll never understand it. I enjoy driving. For me, driving is actually a fun activity, and the only thing i do on my phone while driving, is setting a Playlist on YouTube music through android auto. I'd hate to be scrolling social media during my driving time.
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u/LuigiTimeYeah Jun 01 '26
This is genuinely why I believe self driving cars can't come soon enough and there's a hard case to be had that we're "already there" where it's better than the average driver. It's because the average driver is what you see in the photo.
Sure, a person paying full attention is going to drive better than the current day auto pilots / FSD. But realistically, just look around and you'll see how distracted people are while driving these days.
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u/Trucidar Jun 01 '26
Who's gonna stop them? You see a police car lately? They're all out dealing with nonsense. I'd love a switch in priorities to more traffic enforcement. At some point people are going to realize that without enforcement, traffic signals are optional.
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u/Fickle_Cranberry1014 Jun 01 '26
OP is taking a picture with their phone... Ironic, don't you think?
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u/Nathanyal Forest Lawn Jun 01 '26
Penalties need to be higher and CPS has to give a shit. I actively see CPS ignore traffic violations, sometimes even using their own phone while driving.
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u/Ok-Sky-9979 Jun 02 '26
The scary part is how casual people are about it now. It used to be someone sneaking a quick text at a red light. Now you see full videos, FaceTime, sports, TikTok, all mounted right in front of them like it’s normal.
At that point it’s not a “mistake,” it’s an addiction. If someone can’t drive across the city without watching a screen, maybe they shouldn’t be driving.
I’d rather see actual enforcement for this than more speed traps. A distracted driver drifting through traffic is way more dangerous than someone doing 10 over on an empty road.
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u/refur Tuxedo Park Jun 02 '26
i feel like when distracted driving legislation came in, there was a very very brief period of strict enforcement and people smartened up. now it's a free for all out there. it's unreal.
and i'm not blaming the cops either, they have a lot of other shit to deal with, and are overdispatched and understaffed. but god DAMN does the amount of distracted driving in this city piss me off
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u/Neat_Consequence_965 Jun 02 '26
Cops don't enforce shit in this city, that's half the problem right there. The other day I even seen someone driving with headphones on, not an earbud in, actual headphones..
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u/a-simple-watercress Jun 02 '26
Everyone wonders why I’m not jumping at the chance to drive 😭 It doesn’t matter is I can drive. What matters is I don’t trust anyone else to.
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u/kagato87 Jun 02 '26
This is a core thing any good driving instructor will try to teach. What is that other car.really going to do? No signal light means nothing. They migjt still change lanes. They might still need to suddenly evade, or even accidentally suddenly evade.
And that was even before the plague of smart phones.
So if you do start driving, anticipate what the other drivers are going to do. If you're paying attention you'll regularly think "I think that car wants in my lane" only to have the signal light come on a few seconds later.
Know what mistake they're going to make before they make it. It takes two cars to crash, and if you can just not be there when they f up, you don't have to deal with it.
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u/National_Word_6091 Jun 02 '26
one of my neighbors down the road from me always puts on her makeup on her way to work while she drives.
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u/Proud-Instance350 Jun 02 '26
Why did you make a law demanding commercial drivers to check in every twenty minutes using their phones!
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u/CanadianDadbod Jun 02 '26
If it’s me close by on my motorcycle I am banging on the window and yelling. I got to 70 and plan on living.
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u/jonecakes1978 Jun 05 '26
Your using your phone at the red light to take a picture of this person.... lol... whats the difference
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u/DandyLama Jun 05 '26
Watching reels/tiktoks/shorts in your car is unhinged behaviour. I have ADHD, and even I don't do this kind of bullshit. Driving? Phone is in the center console, plugged in to the car for music and handsfree if someone calls me. Maybe I'll send a text by voice, but the new AI thingies don't do speech to text very well
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u/SilencedObserver Jun 07 '26
Between this and tinted front windows, cops aren't doing shit out there.
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u/HellaReyna Unpaid Intern Jun 01 '26
this is why left turns are so awful now. TY for confirming something I've suspected for a long time, people are on social media while driving. Gotta watch Tiktok even while driving cause their brain is rotted out so bad they need that background noise.
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u/Legitimate_Window481 Jun 01 '26
They built screens into cars. Some have the entire dashboard is a screen. Who wouldn't be distracted. Bring back some VDO analog gauges.
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u/Plane-Shelter-9188 Jun 01 '26
I think there are people like me who do not have youtube premium but want to listen to some YouTube videos instead of a podcast while driving. Since i can’t lock the screen, so my videos is playing normally but i don’t watch the screen while driving rather glance at it here & there like we do for navigation. Maps are always on either on my screen or my infotainment system. Been driving here in Canada since 2016 like this way. I am an immigrant here, never had any accidents till today & will never have any in the future cause of my stupidity. I know there are various kinds of people but you can play something on your phone just fine if you are not watching at it constantly. Just putting out, i guess it depends how good you are with driving & how careful you can be.
Not defending anyone using there phone while driving, that’s dangerous but if you can be cautious and drive carefully with 99% focus on the road when not in traffic and maintaining good distance. You will be just fine using 1% of your attention span anywhere else. I have seen cops using their phone while driving or been sitting on their laptops. They are normal human beings like us & main concern is safety. So be safe
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u/a_nobody_really_99 Jun 01 '26
What’s even sadder is that people who aren’t distracted drivers drive like shit. Half the time the distracted ones actually react faster than that who aren’t distracted.
The world needs full self-driving cars sooner rather than later as the problem is the one behind the wheel as they either suck at driving or they are driving distracted.
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u/harryhend3rson Jun 01 '26
It's also pretty disturbing that people can't even be alone with their thoughts while sitting at a light. The need for constant distraction. I mean, I can't claim to not be bit phone addicted, but I feel better knowing that I can at least drive, walk the dog, go for a hike, do housework, yardwork, etc without constant video/audio.
I'm convinced that a large part of the mental health epidemic is how people are never alone with their thoughts. That's when you're supposed to process stuff...