Smart signs meant to publicly shame stubborn drivers into ditching their phones

VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – After a month-long enforcement blitz that saw hundreds of tickets handed out across Metro Vancouver, officers admit there’s still a long way to go in getting distracted drivers to ditch their phones.

It’s a problem faced by police forces in many jurisdictions, but one county in the UK is experimenting with a different kind of approach: public shaming.

Sussex is testing cutting-edge smart-sign technology, designed to detect vehicles where the driver is using a mobile phone and then flash a very visible warning to alert other motorists and encourage the driver to put down the device.

Local driving experts like columnist and instructor Steve Wallace like the idea.

“Public shaming works and it works extremely well,” Wallace tells NEWS 1130 from his office in Victoria. “The reason people don’t drink and drive as much as they used to is because of the disdain that neighbours, family and others have for it. It’s not the law — they’ll pay the fine and take the suspension — it’s more the shaming they get.”

Wallace says the UK smart-sign project is an extension of that.

“It’s not new. It has been done in other locations and what they are attempting to do is get moral suasion to encourage people to have the proper driving habits.”

The pilot project is being funded by the Sussex Safer Roads Partnership, which says the aim is to “spark behavioural change” rather than issue fines and points.

Wallace has been trying an experiment of his own in Victoria, encouraging his readers to alert other drivers when they see someone on their phone while behind the wheel.

“When you’re a professional driver you toot your horn once and it means you’re driving forward; you hit your horn twice when you back up. What we’re doing now is when you are at a red light and you’re stuck behind someone checking their phone, people will honk their horn three times,” he says.

“That will have a head-jerking-up effect with a very public notification to get off their phone. ”

If the vehicle-activated signs are a success, they could be rolled out across the UK.

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