As a cyclist, I see plenty of people on bikes doing stupid things, but its far harder on a bike to tune out the world, and almost anything you do is likely to rebound on you rather than do harm to someone else. And the list of ludicrously dangerous things I see drivers doing as a matter of course just gets longer and longer.

However the things that are much better in Canada over the UK (where I came from) is that people generally drive much slower and are a bit more polite here. Slower speed and some consideration make a hell of a difference.

Now when I eat in a car, I usually pick up whatever item, take a quick bite, and then put it down again. But I can see how it’d be a problem if people were just holding the wheel in one hand, clutching a Big Mac in the other the whole time.

This is one of those issues where they feel they have to target the lowest common denominator in the name of public safety, I think – I saw a guy the other day with a cell phone on one ear (held by his shoulder), a Blackberry in one hand and a pen in the other, writing down something on a pad which was being held against his steering wheel. I don’t know what magical appendage he might have been driving with. This was downtown Vancouver, one of the craziest places to drive that I’ve been so far in Canada.

But I’ve read multiple articles that state that, statistically, the ban on cell phones and GPS have not reduced accidents. I wonder how much of that’s because people who are bad drivers are still bad drivers regardless of whether they’re chatting or not, and how much of it is because most people don’t seem to care about the law change and continue on with old habits.

I feel like eating and driving produces worse results for me personally than talking on my phone (even though I do use hands free now). I feel that the legislation should have given police a little more leniency to pull people over for doing anything stupid while they are supposed to be driving, including eating giant sandwiches.