Victoria's new iPhone rules now in effect

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If you live in Victoria and haven't already seen them, make sure you're well acquainted with the changes to Victoria's road safety regulations, which went into effect on Monday and include explicit guidelines on the use of iPhones and other smartphones as GPS units.

The new road rules address a broad range of areas, but the area of most interest to iPhone users is the 'Using Mobile Phones and Visual Display Units' section.

These guidelines spell out the circumstances in which drivers can use mobile phones for GPS and entertainment purposes – previously a sticky legal area since GPSes have been legal but holding a phone for any purpose while driving was not.

Under the new guidelines, use of a phone while driving "is prohibited, except to make or receive a phone call or to use its audio/music functions provided the phone is secured in a commercially designed holder fixed to the vehicle, or can be operated by the driver without touching any part of the body of the phone."

Use of a phone as a GPS while driving is prohibited UNLESS the phone is secured in a "commercially designed holder fixed to the vehicle". All other uses are prohibited.

Learner and P1 drivers cannot use a mobile phone for any purpose while driving.

The guidelines also cover visual display units such as dash-mounted navigation devices, televisions or other units: drivers must not use such devices "if any part of the screen is visible to the driver or is likely to distract another driver." Driver's aids are permitted if they are integrated into the vehicle's design or, as above, secured in a commercially designed holder.

The full guidelines are available here and VicRoads offers a FAQ on the topic.