Comment & Analysis: Unless youre actually a sociopath, most people dont want to run over a child or cyclist or an old lady, yet if you walk past cars in traffic, youll likely find more than a few drivers looking down at their phones.If you cannot stop looking at your phone in traffic, you need to keep it out of reach. It doesnt matter if youre stopped or moving slowly people have been injured and killed because drivers were just quickly looking at their phone. Being stopped in traffic is still counted as driving, and its still illegal to hold a phone as its a distraction that could mean that youre not aware of a child, cyclist or old lady next to your car when you start off again.IMAGE: A van driver holds their phone up.Just a bit of background: While cycling into my local town centre yesterday, I let one motorist go ahead of me when I didnt need to yield, but it made sense to let them go ahead, I pulled in a bit to let another pass when I was cycling up a hill, and when another motorist drove out of a parking space and nearly hit me, I instantly accepted their wave and waved back.I try to be reasonable, and everybody makes mistakes, but I have a low tolerance for distracted driving caused by phone use, especially when motorists see nothing wrong with their actions.The level of distraction is demonstrated by the slow reaction of two motorists I encountered holding phones in their hands yesterday one when I directed a light towards them, and they were slow to react, and the other when I stood to the side of their van waiting to cross in front of them. With both, it took them way too long to realise what was going on.The distraction of a phone can really suck people in.And when they want to defend their actions, its amazing the different stages some drivers go through after you ask them to put their phones away.With the first driver mentioned above, it took them what felt like at least 20-30 seconds to realise somebody was shining a light at them. I was walking on, but they lowered their window, and, of course, as said, a night denial followed this. They were in denial that they were holding a phone, and then that they were even driving (they were in the middle of the road, with a gap of three car spaces between their car and the car in front, which was about to turn onto the main road ahead of them).Just put your phone away.And, sorry to be a stick in the mud about this, but using hands-free devices to make voice calls should also be avoided.Hand-free kits should also be banned. Its one of the car industrys little secrets enabled by governments around the world decades of research shows that hands-free phone use while driving is as dangerous as holding a phone. And if you have not heard of this before, youre not the only one.Our understanding of distractions and visibility is skin deep.