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Australia To Fight iPod Use By Pedestrians
Kilrah_il writes "In recent years the number of people killed on roads in New South Wales, Australia has dropped, but strangely enough, the number of pedestrians killed has risen. Some think it's because of the use of iPods and other music players making people not attentive to road dangers (the so-called 'iPod Zombie Trance'). Based on this (unproven) assumption, the Pedestrian Council has started a campaign in an effort to educate the people, but apparently it isn't enough. Now, some are pushing for the government to enact laws to help eradicate the problem. 'The government is quite happy to legislate that people can lose two demerit points for having music up too loud in their cars, but is apparently unconcerned that listening devices now appear to have become lethal pieces of entertainment,' [Harold Scruby of the Pedestrian Council of Australia] said. 'They should legislate appropriate penalties for people acting so carelessly towards their own welfare and that of others. ... Manufacturers should be made to [warn] consumers of the risks they run.'"
Who is RUNNING Australia?
I mean seriously, this is STUPID
http://lukeroberts.deviantart.com/art/You-won-t-hear-it-coming-16413967
Darn - Australia has gone to goodie two shoes fascists. Seems like all the news coming from there is about less freedom.
Boy, for every time a law passed that was from some unfounded statement...
Australia isnt the only one that does this, but it is still no less funny to read these.
However, I do agree iPods are dangerous in that they help support Apple.
As long as they're eradicated before they breed I see no reason to interfere in this natural and culturally benevolent phenomenon.
kartune85 : Incapable of reason, observation or learning. A kind of dim, drab, flightless parrot.
Warning: Being STUPID can cause injury or death.
Fascism: An authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government and social organization. See also: NAZI's
How hard is it to use your eyes when crossing a road?
Just last week, a kid nearly killed himself on my car while texting on the phone and riding a bike going from the parking lot of a strip mall across a main street, with his free hand on the front brake lever.
It was a 45mph zone and most cars zip through at 55mph at that point and it's not a place to expect pedestrians (nor was there a light). Luckily, I saw him and screech to a stop 10 feet in front of him, but he looked up and was so surprised and hit his own brake so hard that he flipped forward and took a total spill.
He was cut up pretty good, could have been much worse, but hopefully his self-inflicted wounds cured him of his dumbassery. He looked 15 too, hope he remembers that lesson when he gets into a car.
FYI, Harold Scruby is a nutter who's always on his high horse and jumping to short sighted conclusions..
It's largely because all the news is bullshit.
Australia does not have an internet filter.
Nothing is happening in regards to this story
Somebody making a noise about something, even if that person is a politician in government, is not the same as them actually doing something.
Boffoonery - downloadable Comedy Benefit for Bletchley Park
Having music devices around isn't the problem. Stupid overprotective mollycoddling laws are the problem. What you're probably seeing is the result of lowering the speed limit to 40km/hr around school zones while cutting back on educating kids about the danger of cars. The number of kids who should be old enough - in late highschool - to behave at least somewhat sensibly and look both ways, but instead blindly walk out in front of oncoming traffic because they know they won't be blamed if they or someone else is hurt is mind boggling. It is now way too RARE to see kids actually look both ways crossing a road.
This is just a prime example of how badly the Australian political system has gone off the rails. In Australia we're happy to throw away freedoms left right and center, and if anyone else is doing well or having fun, we like to put a stop to it. It's sad, because I've lived here all my life and while there was always an element of Tall Poppy Syndrome here it has gotten WAY out of hand. This country use to be a lovely place. In polite company manners counted. Now if you catch an (overcrowded hellish) Sydney train you're lucky not to get shoved out of the way or sworn at.
We don't need new laws. We need enforcement of the existing laws. There is already a law in NSW against pedestrians walking out in front of a car. My cousin while 12 was almost charged because he blindly stumbled out from behind a bus and was hit. I'm in 2 minds about this. On the one hand at least the driver wasn't penalised when he could have done nothing to prevent the accident. On the other, do you really think it is a good idea to charge the victim of an accident, who may have been mamed by it? Or penalise the parent who now has to look after a sick child? Is that really what a stretched police force should be out doing? And these are already existing laws. Do we really need more of the same? The "Pedestrian Council of Australia" needs to have it's head read. I can just see it now "Were you wearing headphones when you were hit ma'am?" "Ah yes but I..." "No buts ma'am. I'm afraid we're going to have to place you under arrest".
IDIOTS.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
You cannot legislate smarts. Apple users are stupid people, that much is well proven. That some of them get Darwinized, is that such a bad thing? I say, no, it is fate - their destiny.
For those outside Australia, The Pedestrian Council of Australia is a fringe element run by a media whore and general looney Harold Scruby. Their role seems to be one of self importance and can be found offering their opinion about 'road safety' to anyone who'll listen (mostly pseudo current affairs type shows that like to drum up controversy). The best tactic here is to ignore anything they say. Like with most crazies, arguing back simply provides them with more attention than they deserve.
Here I was thinking it was all the bad drivers from Victoria moving up to NSW and Queensland. All this time it was the hordes of iPod Zombie Pedestrians.
'The government is quite happy to legislate that people can lose two demerit points for having music .........
Demerits? Sounds rather childish. But at least you lose 2 demerits, which sounds much better to me than being given 2 demerits.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
If you ride a bike on a shared footpath in Victoria you are required to warn pedestrians before you approach them. You can do this with a bell or a verbal warning. But the vast majority of pedestrians wear earphones.
So whats the point requiring a warning if it is not going to be heard? The only problem I have with the proposed changes is that it won't be applied to the drivers of vehicles too. Headphones and telephone use should be outlawed entirely.
As a bike rider I don't want distracted pedestrians stepping into my path. Thats as dangerous for me as it is for them.
http://michaelsmith.id.au
Pedestrians aren't people! (?)
I just googled "harold scruby wiki" http://www.google.com.au/search?num=100&hl=en&q=harold+scruby+wiki&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=
first result I got was http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanker !!!
I'll see your hokum and raise you a boondoggle.
Need more data... drivers texting/surfing at red lights can gun and go and take out late crossers easy.
They should call the offense iWalking. Every modern country should reserve at least two letters of the alphabet for traffic offenses.
Electric cars emit much less noise. I think we will need to have a protocol whereby iPods can sense potential collisions and warn the listeners. Cars are getting anti-collision devices and software anyway in the coming years, they shoud expand the protocolls to iPods too. :).
Hmm - maybe I should patent that idea
[This Darwin award candidate] was struck and killed by a southbound Caltrain while crossing the tracks [...] Witnesses said at the time [he] rode his skateboard around a lowered crossing arm and was listening to headphones when he was hit.
Did you know that "FTW" ("for the win") is a direct translation of "Sieg Heil"?
A young fit healthy person gets hit by a car. Loss as a long term tax payer? Future dr, lawyer, teacher, arts person?
Vs the low donation rate
"Mr. Burns: I love children, particularly their young supple organs" (from FABF03 Marge vs. Singles, Seniors, Childless Couples and Teens, and Gays)
Think of all the productive people who will miss out. With safe cars for young drivers, this ipod bounce is good news for some.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
If you are watching TV or texting or screwing your girlfriend while you're driving, you risk hurting yourself AND innocent other people who are following the rules.
If you are listening to your ipod while you run across a street, you risk [mostly] hurting just yourself. I always thought it was my responsibility to look both ways and pay attention to what I'm doing. But I guess I need laws to remind me of that. This way, after I get hit by a car, I could get a ticket to boot. Sweet.
Just my $0.55 (US inflation, 1774-2008, for $0.02)
It would help if they didn't drive on the wrong side of the road here... (recent immigrant)
How about people who are deaf like me? Will we get written up for walking around in a dangerous fashion and relying only upon our eyes to stay alive on the streets?
I hear you brother. They should be totally enforcing the anti-Walkman law! Those things are killers.
Anything that diverts your attention while you're doing something potentially dangerous is asking for trouble.
Last week, a young woman was run over crossing the main road outside our office- she was on the cell phone, and looked in the wrong direction when crossing the road (it's a dual-carriageway split road). I don't know if she made it, she didn't look in good shape at all.
It's not the same as walking and chewing gum at the same time, when you're in a phone conversation,your mind is involved to a much greater degree, and people don't generally realize this.
So I think some public education is warranted.
For some reason, my earbud set came with only one earbud; annoying though this may be, as a side effect, it leaves the other ear open to hear normal environmental noise a bit better.
I listen to both RIAA and non-RIAA stuff if I like the music, tangential business/politics nonwithstanding.
I want to invoke DARWINS LAW.
If you're so completely retarded that you get yourself killed because you were listening to music/focussed on facebooking your ipod/updating your PING in iTunes - then SERIOUSLY YOU DESERVE TO DIE, the gene pool is better off without you.
Visit CryptoGnome in his home.
I saw the aftermath of what triggered this media coverage on Saturday night and it was not pretty, a 26 year old woman was jogging on Parramatta Road on the outskirts of the CBD with her headphones in her ears. An ambulance which had its sirens on was passing threough an intersection and she didnt notice it coming...she died at the scene despite the fact that she got instant attention from the occupants of the ambulance. For all the usual sardonic banter here on slashdot about natural selection et al it is sad to think that a young woman has been taken so early from her family and friends.
Despite this I dont think the government can legislate away every single risk in our lives, more people die from smoking than being hit by cars and we arent banning smoking yet...
No need to worry about that scenario. Third party injury insurance is compulsory for drivers in Australia. If your nephew does that here he'll be covered.
Can you be eligible for a Darwin award if you're the kind of person who wouldn't breed anyway?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
We walk so carelessly without being able to hear what is going on around...
You just can't legislate for common sense...
I've joked in the past that "geek" should be declared a religion for when the shoe finally drops. This almost makes me think that it might seriously have to be considered. I mean that's fucked up. They're essentially trying to make it illegal to have impaired hearing. They're trying to make deaf people illegal. WTF!
Everything will be taken away from you.
Darwinism does not apply because everyone knows that iPod owners are gay (Apple users) hence they can't reproduce and pass on their genes...oh wait (ducks!).
Right on, parent post. Here's what I wonder, though: if I always call out "on your left" as I'm passing a pedestrian, and one wearing headphones doesn't hear me and stumbles into my path, can I sue them and win? Seems like a biker should only be responsible for passing a non-zombie in a reasonable manner. I've had trail newbies step toward my path on hearing my call, but I think it's relatively easy to avoid a collision with someone that knows you're back there, even if they do make a somewhat danger-enhancing mistake. Or am I supposed to fall back behind the rocking-out jogger and scream my lungs out until they hear me?
I think there comes a point where you have so many laws on the book making so many things illegal that you cant possibly enforce any of them at all times, which is where our society is sadly headed.
Now, as for bicycleists and to a lesser extent pedistrans wearing headphones, yes i agree its a problem, but what about bluetooth earpieces? Much more distracting (although only in one ear instead of two, so you can atleast hear the truck sneaking up behind you as you swerve in and out of the bike lane, than act totally surprised when they sound their horn as they are about to pass...
I've found that biking around a little park near me is rather impossible because people get all zoned out on their music players. They can't hear you (and bicycles are usually audible, even if the rider doesn't say anything). Also people seem to get over focused on their music and ignore everything else. I noticed this when I got a new bike and tried it out in said park. It was getting dark, so the bike's automatic light came on. Pretty bright too, one of those Cree LEDs. Thus there was a visible indicator I was coming up on someone. However multiple times when I passed someone, with plenty of room on the left, I'd hear them go "Oh Jesus!" or the like. Shocked out of their trance as a bike whizzed past.
I see students the same way on campus all the time where I work. They'll just wander out in to the street, not looking, staring ahead. Perhaps they are just that way anyways, but all the ones I see doing it are listening to music.
I'm not the only one who's noticed this.
While this isn't a proper experimental test, it is plenty of observational evidence to think that a test should be done. People really do seem to zone out when they are listening to music on a portable player and indeed that seems to be what some like about it. They talk about the ability to just ignore everyone and live in their zone.
Well when walking in areas with traffic, that isn't safe. As a pedestrian you are very vulnerable, but very agile. You can quickly change direction and move, much quicker than any vehicle. Thus to me it makes sense to make sure your senses are sharp. Also since you aren't moving fast, you can hear much better than vehicles. Walking around I can get a pretty good idea of what is going on around me by listening.
Hell, same deal biking. I don't own an MP3 player because at home and at work I have computers to play music for me, and when I'm biking I want my ears available. I need to know what is happening around me, and my ears help with that.
Just to make sure I read this correctly...in Australia, the government gives people DEMERITS? What is this, summer camp? Boot camp? What foolishness.
Star Wars is WAY better than Star Trek
Why don't they just legislate a ban against people altogether???
Soon it will be illegal to breathe.
What happened to common sense?
Back in the late 90's it was Sony Walkmans -- Pretty much the same problems, except that the units were much bigger (just the batteries were bigger than an ipod nano), and a casette tape only held about 2 hours of music (non-random access.. although you could fast-forward at much peril to your batteries).
At the time a friend of my roommate volunteered for North Shore Search and Rescue, and a friend of his was a medical examiner who hated Walkman and like devices. He saw all too many fatal accidents, where the cause of the accident was a walkman preventing the victim from hearing the warning noises (horn, grinding machinery, evacuation siren and/or the desperate yells of onlookers, etc), but the official cause of death was always something else (smacked by a car, crushed by machinery, head ripped, suffocated, etc.).
Thus it was that the Sony Walkman was always the bridesmaid of death, but never on the certificate.
Then one day, a girl was hit by a train while walking on the train tracks, listening to a Walkman.
The interesting thing is that she wasn't actually run over by the train. She was bounced off the track by the 'cow catcher' on the front of the train doing it's job. The real problem was that she was wearing the Walkman on her belt around the back .. just over the spleen (a very normal place to wear a walkman, since they were a bit too large to fit in most pockets). As a result, when she was hit by the train, instead of the force of the impact being relatively evenly distributed over her body by the cow-catcher, a good bit of it was concentrated into the Walkman and directed into her internal organs. Much like is claimed to have recently happened to a girl in Crete.
Although she seemed to (more or less) walk away from the accident, she soon collapsed and died from her internal injuries.
Since the Walkman was a major contributing cause of the accident, and effectively delivered the killing blow, the examiner was finally able to put on a death certificate:
Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
Please be aware that the pedestrian council is not a council at all. Its a Commercial Business owned (and ceo'd) by Harold Scruby. They have been sprouting anti car and anti driver bullshit for years. There is no real reason to listen to this mob, and Im unsure why anyone does.
Listening to music on headphones and paying attention to what the fuck is going on around you are not mutually exclusive. The headphones I currently use with my iPod have better than average sound isolation, and in the time I've had them (some months now) I haven't so much as had a close call. Hell, in all the time I've been listening to a walkman/discman/iPod on the go, I've never come anywhere near being hit, because I'm not a fucking moron.
Yes, unless you are already sterile for whatever reason; you can otherwise accidentally knock someone up (or be knocked up), or, if you're of the same-sex persuasion, donate sperm/eggs (reproduction by proxy)--you're still in the gene pool, in essence, though an unlikely source for propagation.
I don't post AC. I like my -1, Flamebaits. Trump/Sheen 2012 on the Batshit Insane ticket!
Despit the above rant, the greens have the balance of power in the senate and would block any filter.
The NBN will be run by a private company NOT the government.
The poster also has no idea about how the NBN will owrk, it is wholesale and backbone only-any services sold will be by private ISP, all of whom will be able to acess the NBN at the same price.
All in all there was not a correct single fact in the whole post!
Almost seen a girl dying 20 years ago. A Walkman, not an iPod, was involved. She was pushed aside by the conical shape of the front of a street car. Two inches further and she would have been squashed like a ripe fruit and killed. No funny or comical remembrances here at all as the sight of it all was pretty horrific.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
the Pedestrian Council should do a podcast to inform people of this danger.
The government is quite happy to legislate that people can lose two demerit points for having music up too loud in their cars
I would have thought that demerit points are the kind you wouldn't mind losing anyway.
in other news, the association of seeing danger everywhere (famous for pushing legislation against children running) has found that last year, about 45% of all deaths occurred while people had fun and therefore concluded all fun should be banned. "it's just too lethal", a spokesperson said, adding that 63% of all lethal accidents happened outdoors, while 36% occured within walls. Efforts by the organization now focus on determining what the fuck happened to the missing 1%, so finally action can be taken to remove the deadly housing from peoples lives.
The best thing we ever did in .au was get rid of most semi automatic guns.
It seems only the US has the bizarro love of the gun.
I have lived here for 40 years and have not even once felt the need to own a gun, and have never even seen one in the hands of a private citizen on the streets. As they are extremely rare, only the worst criminals carry them, and usually only use them on other criminals-shootings involving innocents are virtually unknown. Possesion is treated very seriously.
To quote Yes Minister.
"We are not entirely convinced having loads of armed people on the streets make anyone safer".
just make a popup warning people if some other device comes closer at high enough speed. stop the music and display big arrow pointing toward the danger.
If this was actually related to "portable music devices" then it should have been trending upward since the widespread adoption of pre-walkman transistor AM radios... however given that most of the data tracking nanny state activities did not begin back in the 50s.. lets call it the "everyone has a walkman" era which would be at the latest the mid 80s.. have pedestrian deaths been higher since then? no.. does adding the word "ipod" to a story increase readership /noise/relevance in the world of blogs? yes.. end result.. nothing to see here move along..
However, had the article discussed "much more interactive portable electronic devices lead to more careless pedestrians getting themselves into accidents" then they could have had something to go forward with.. IE texting/webbrowsing/reading/etc while walking is a bad idea.. of course that further falls apart when you realize the sheer numbers of people who have been "distracted" while reading the paper for hundreds of years..
End result: news fails, if i didn't know better I would think it came from betanews.com or one of the other "lets stick ipod/iphone/ipad in the title of story so we can sucker people into reading it" blogs
According to an article I read in New Scientist some time ago, people listening to music are not significantly more likely to step in front of a vehicle than pedestrians without distraction. On the other hand, people talking on their phones were several times more likely to walk into the street without looking.
I imagine Paul Hogan saying, "You call that an iPod? THIS" - pulls out a Zune - "is an iPod!"
The " Pedestrian Council" is nothing but one crazy guy who thinks cars are evil. Ignore him.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
The Pedestrian Council sounds like one of the most dull and unimaginative councils in all of Australia.
09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 is the magic number.
just hate the notion of personal responsibility.
(BTW: Reading this post may cause cancer)...
I can't help but bring Penn Jillette's essay on Walkmans into this, which someone has posted here: Being Morally Opposed to the Walkman Carries with it Certain Responsibilities
Is this what has become of the once proud Australians who live and thrive in the land of the Outback?
Just about anybody you talk to or hear about from Australia is from one of 5 very small cities. Very, very few people actually come from the outback that people like to romaticise about. None of the city folk have any idea about country life and I shit you not have seen Aussies (the city ones) go absolutely berserk when they see an insect.
When I moved to the city I couldn't believe the attitudes exhibited by the city dwellers. The general assumption is that those not from the city are redneck, dumb and ignorant. Some cities will even slag off other city dwellers as the same. The irony is lost. As time progresses, these attitudes are worsening. It is really quite sad.
The funny thing is that a lot of the city folk will slag off Americans as stupid (again with the irony). Yet they don't realise that the attitudes they have learned originally came from American movies and TV shows that do the same about the 'deep south'. The Aussie city people somehow learned that it was ok to do this.
The city dwellers are those that advocate these stupid laws. They have their own little worlds and anybody outside that bubble is wrong about everything.
[/rant: for now]
.
How about a walking license with points? You lose a point whenever you do something stupid like crossing a street with iPod earphones in. When you have lost all your points, you are not allowed to walk the streets anymore. You can then only drive your car, like most americans do anyway.
I witnessed a teenage girl, just yesterday, walk right in front of a bus and never flinched as it hooted her down. She just kept on walkin.
It's a strange place, Australia. First cycle helmets, which also have no proven effectiveness, and now this. They really want everyone to drive everywhere.
They do on one - weight.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Mobile phones have been around for some time too. So have books and newspapers. Do I need to mention billboards? They have definitely cost lives, especially where they are of scantily clad women. What about daydreaming?
I once was in a car accident because the other driver was looking elsewhere while driving and didn't stop at the sign (can't remember if it was actually a stop sign or a give way sign though); we couldn't avoid it because we were already midway through the T-junction. Another time, I was driving on the highway and a guy who passed me (he was barely driving faster than me) kept looking at the sea on his right instead of looking in front of him. That was on a hill. My dad also does that, -_- which scares me a lot.
"The body may heal, but the mind is not always so resilient." -- Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Lets mother nature take care of the problem. Natural selection will eventually weed out those that walk with too loud Ipods
There's already a strong penalty for not paying attention as a pedestrian in areas of car traffic. It's called death.
Britain's world diving champion Tom Daley says he has no security fears ahead of Commonwealth Games 2010 Delhi next month, He feels India's going to be a great country, it's going to be full of colour, people go there on holiday all the time and really enjoy it and I think we're going to have a really great time, think it is going to put on a great show, with great colours and awesome food.”http://bit.ly/cLso7o
particularly when death is the penalty . darwin would be proud .
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Forget it. If you can't get people to realize that it is important to look at the road while driving, you'll never get people to realize that it is important to listen to their environment while walking. Thankfully if a non-listening pedestrian gets struck by a car out of their own stupidity it is nowhere near as great a magnitude of damage as some idiot driving their car into something they didn't see out of their own stupidity.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
This is just a little chlorine in the gene pool. If you're not smart enough to keep your eyes open when your hearing is impaired, you're going to have problems.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Zombies, violence in games, porn, now iPods... Australia was founded as a prison colony, and the recent hundred years of slacking off on discipline are now being reversed to return to the original island-prison roots. Expect more fun things to get banned soon.
There, fixed that for you.
Australian nazis at it again!
I'm not surprised people are being run over due to not knowing WTF is going on around them - I very often see people walk out into the road with no clue as to traffic.
The other week friends and I were sat outside the pub at about twilight and this guy cycles past with iPod buds in, no lights, eating chips (fries) with both hands - practically no control over the bicycle at all. A proper "accident waiting to happen".
Legislation won't make any difference; I think people are just turning stupid.
while (true != false) process_more_stupid_code();
The number of people who choose to walk in the street instead of on the sidewalks where I live is truly astonishing. Several times I've had pedestrians cross right in front of me while they've had a red light. I'm certain that most of these casualties are due to people just being idiots and randomly wandering onto the street without a care in the world, and that the walkman is a trivial, if non-zero, factor in comparison.
Don't mess with evolution. It works. No need to legislate.
Those fucking silhouettes in the crosswalk are so goddamned distracting!
God I hate it when I have to slow down when a ped is using a crosswalk. I don't mind slowing down if there is a 2 ton dump truck in my way though. I also hate it when I can't INSTANTLY take a right turn on a red because there is a goddamned pedestrian trying to cross!
I don't buy that headphone audio-only media players can be making such a drastic shift in deaths on the road. People have been running/walkng with cassette, CD, and MP3 players for decades and there hadn't been a shift. How about:
Texting (or headphones AND texting): The standard texting walk requires someone to look DOWN at a phone. This, oddly enough, decreases the pedestrian's field of vision from ~180 degrees along the horizon to 0 degrees at the feet. MP3 players, at the very least, allow people to keep that original field of vision, if potentially decreasing auditory warnings.
Inconsiderate Drivers: Drivers definitely fear other drivers on the road. They are sources of injury to the body, to property, and insurance payments. Most drivers, though, seem to forget that many people still walk around a city. I, for example, have been hit by cars at the same intersection, at the same time of day (just past 8am), on at 4 different occasions. The reason: "Look Left, Turn Right". Bad drivers, late to work, will look to see if there's any oncoming traffic from the left and turn right... while a pedestrian is legally stepping into the crosswalk to cross the street. Boom... pedestrian is hit by quickly-accelerating driver. The shorter the person is, the less likely s/he is lucky enough to be rolled onto the hood (as I have been) and more likely to be dragged underneath and run over.
A Combination of the Above: For those who would prefer to look down at their phones to text while crossing the street, inconsiderate drivers are more of a danger. But if the "cross" light is on, then all the fault still falls on the driver. So, in the end, there can be a multitudes of factors contributing to the deaths of pedestrians on the street, but since they're unlikely to be pedestrians NOT walking in a cross walk, the reasons can be summarized as such: Bad drivers kill people.
I see your point. If they can speak what most people think is unthinkable then what are they thinking?
On the other hand, they don't try to hide it on page 3,907 section IX subsection 3 paragraph xxvii of a completely unrelated bill like the twats in Brussels do.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
That is all.
Just ban humans. Or at least stupid ones...
Seriously, if a ped is not attentive enough to take the time to watch their surroundings and traffic, then so be it. Their risk.
On the other hand, every once in a while I enjoy listening with headphones while walking - but - I make a point of being extra careful when crossing at pedestrian lights and other potentially dangerous situations. This generally means checking all points of the compass visually and sometimes removing the headphones. It is just not worth leaving it up to visual alone.
However, I don't think this is something that requires legislation. Chances are that stupid people will continue to endanger themselves and others except that they would also be breaking the law if such a law were passed. Can we stop making new laws?
http://www.acetonestudio.com
The title is: "Australia To Fight iPod Use By Pedestrians" and it is tagged in "Apple". Why does every slashdot post now contains something related to apple when there is absolutely no need to?
Personally, I have a bluetooth A2DP (or whatever it is) adapter, that allows my smartphone to play music out to my car stereo. (Newer cars have a direct jack.. in my case, lacking one, I bought a device that listens to bluetooth and transmits FM stereo).. Anyway, 'texting' is illegal in my personal jurisdiction. I've often wondered if someone will try to arrest or fine me for changing the song I'm playing, (as it's coming from my smartphone), compared to the EXACT SAME DISTRACTION I'd experience (if not more) if I were putting a new CD in my stereo. Distraction is surely there. One must merely be careful.
---
the pen is mightier than the sword, the sword is mightier than the court, the court is mightier than the pen.
Why not first consider fighting stereo use by motorists?
It's far more important that the person in charge of a 4,000+ pound machine capable of killing is in charge of all of their senses than the person doing what human beings have naturally done for millenia - walking.
When it comes to cars, our society throws all logic out the window.
It would help if they didn't drive on the wrong side of the road here... (recent immigrant)
Why, are you one of those followers of Napoleon Bonaparte? He was Left Handed, and mandating driving on the right side of the road. Right-handed men carrying arms passed to the left of approaching men bearing arms.
As any automobile-driving knight knows; you have to sit on the RH front seat to wield your broadsword expertly out through the car window.
(David Bowman, EVA near HUGE Monolithic Win-PC in orbit around Jupiter) "My God - its full of Malware!"
While before that, it was the gi-normous Boombox being carried on one shoulder where it could even block the listener's vision to one side. First Officers from time-traveling starships could be relied on to deal with these types if they continued using such noxious devices on-board a bus.
(David Bowman, EVA near HUGE Monolithic Win-PC in orbit around Jupiter) "My God - its full of Malware!"
WARNING: The Sergeon General has determined that ciggarette smoke may cause cancer and increased risk of some birth defects. Warning: Use of this product may be hazzardous to your health. This product contains sacarin which has been known to cause cancer in labratory animals. There is a pleathora of warnings out there and people still ignore them, the point? You can not legislate common sense into people. Tray as you might there will always be that one moron that will think he's found a pack of chicklets in the box his new stereo came in.