Distracted Driving Law in NB – It’s Effect On Geocachers
As most of us know, last year New Brunswick became another province to ban the use of electronic devices while operating a motor vehicle. This new distracted driving legislation was aimed at curbing the use of cell phones (and more specifically texting) while driving. However, with the introduction of this new law, it affected those who used a GPS unit in their vehicles. From Moncton, to Saint John, to Fredericton, to Miramichi, and Bathurst, everyone was affected. I thought it would be interesting to see how this new law has affected your geocaching habits while out in the wild. Since many of us might have our GPS units in hand while driving, this could feasibly be a problem should we be caught by the local RCMP.
For myself, I know that in many instances, I am a passenger in a vehicle with someone else so it hasn’t had that big of an impact on me. I have however been with other cachers who have installed mounts into their cars to prop their GPS or cell phone up while driving. I’ve been guilty a few times of continuing to hold my GPS while I drive, but I have found myself taking a bit more time to dial in a cache, figure out where it is, then drive to the destination. I also tend to not put the GPS in front of me but off to the side near my gear shift and only glance at it once in awhile. Another trick I have done is brace the GPS in between two parts of the steering wheel so the unit is directly in front of me and can be viewed with a quick nod down at the wheel. Not much different than looking down to check my speed.
In areas that I am not familiar, I have been known to program my road based GPS with my geocache locations so I can use the car based GPS to get close to a location, then park and go off road as needed. I admit that it’s been awhile since I have done this but I have found it to be very effective in areas I am unfamiliar with.
How has the new law affected you? Have you changed any of your in-car caching habits since this came out? What steps have you taken to be safer while caching with your vehicle?
When I go geocaching, I load 2 GPS units, my Oregon for the actual caching part and also my Tomtom car GPS with the same group of caches. I have the Tomtom set to beep when I get within 500 meters of any cache. (I have spoken to people who own Garman car GPS units and they are not able to use their units in this fashion but instead, they have to choose a particular cache in advance). At that point, I can start to look for a parking spot. Once I reach my location, I use the Oregon to do the search. I can also use the Tomtom to navigate to a particular cache in the same manner as any other Point of Interest. So as a result, the new law has not had a major impact.
Don’t go caching with Ron568 or Zonker, they still do it the old way and it was scary even before the law came into effect….lol
heh. i love this law.
i used to be one of the worst offenders. it’s really hard to stop but i am glad i have changed my ways. thankfully i quit smoking last summer so i have a whole arm/hand back to drive with as well.
the suction cup phone/gps mount over the dash in the minivan is totally worth the $30 i spent. keeps it up and easily visible. set it up ahead of time and go. so easy.
i found at times before the law, even I would begin to feel unsafe due to the amount of things i was trying to do instead of driving. foolish.
when i drive by others who are infringing i swerve away from/around them and chuckle. it’s only a matter of time…
I’m sure it’s not true, but I heard or read somewhere about a woman who was driving, talking on her phone, eating her lunch, putting her makeup on, breast feeding a baby, adjusting her stereo, and smoking, all at the same time.
It’s virtually impossible to do all of that at once, let alone safe for her, or her baby (smoking and breast feeding, while driving? really?) so I’m sure the story is fake, but everytime this topic comes up, I have visions of what this woman would look like trying to do all of that at once.
i’ll take that challenge! oh … wait…
I was passed once on the #1 between Lepreau – Saint John by a guy doing 130km/hr, shirt off, shaving with an electric razor, while his wife/girlfriend held the wheel for him.
I remember laughing at my Dad 30 years ago as we almost went in a ditch while he was smoking, taking a drink of coffee, going around a corner and trying to switch gears all at the same time and my uncle was going by and he tried to wave back at him but couldn’t and got mad at my uncle for waving while he was trying to drive “Couldn’t he see I was busy!” he said to me….lol
It’s a welcome law and it could have been worse. In Alberta, their distracted driving law was going to make it illegal to do anything that distracted you from driving – and that included eating or drinking. Tim Hortons would have felt a hit on that one, I’m sure. Thankfully for Albertans (and for common sense in general), they dialed back on that idea before passing the final version of the law.
I just set the next cache then drive to that site, I just don’t touch the GPS while out on the road.
Unlike a cellphone a cop can’t subpoena your records from a network for your GPS, so they are unable to prove the validity of the violation. If a GPS User turned off the track there would be no record on your sensor. With that said I don’t want to have those police issues to deal with.
Ahhhh, I do everything “Exactly” as the law states. Yeah, that’s it.
But really, I was never one to have big phone conversations while driving. And I hate and do not TEXT. So the phone thing for me was never a problem.
As for the GPS, I came close to a ditch a few times when I started caching. But I’m over that now. I program the next cache before I start driving and “try” not to touch and buttons while moving. I hold the gps in my hand and just glance at it when needed. Yes, I am one of those cool kids that drive with one hand. But because of the few close calls I had when I first started I am more award of what I am doing.
But have I really changed anything since the law came into effect. Yes, two things. I hold my gps lower so no one can see I am using it and my cache finds have increased.
See you all on the roads at Fundy.
The distracted driving law only worked for about the first month. Take a look around when you are driving, there are just as many people on cell phones now as there were before the law came into effect. The only difference now is cell phone users watching harder for cops. As far as using a GPS most people have purchased (or made if you are cheap like me) a mount which can be glanced at while you are driving. That is what I have found works best. If you have a passenger with you doing the navigating there will be a problem. The navigator will be watching the GPS and when you are near (or past) the cache will advise you of this and the first instinct is to slam on the brakes without looking in the rear view mirror… Sound familier? The only way to win is to cache on foot but then I would likely be watching the GPS and walk into a tree…
I have a Garmin NUVI in the car and I load it up when I load up my 60CX so it really hasn’t been an issue for me. When I get close to the park and grabs I stop, jump out and use my 60CX to get me the rest of the way (unless its really easy). This worked great for Belladan’s dog series.