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Honolulu Targets 'Smartphone Zombies' With Crosswalk Ban (reuters.com)
Templer421 shares news from Reuters:
A ban on pedestrians looking at mobile phones or texting while crossing the street will take effect in Hawaii's largest city in late October, as Honolulu becomes the first major U.S. city to pass legislation aimed at reducing injuries and deaths from "distracted walking." The ban comes as cities around the world grapple with how to protect phone-obsessed "smartphone zombies" from injuring themselves by stepping into traffic or running into stationary objects. Starting Oct. 25, Honolulu pedestrians can be fined between $15 and $99, depending on the number of times police catch them looking at a phone or tablet device as they cross the street, Mayor Kirk Caldwell told reporters gathered near one of the city's busiest downtown intersections on Thursday... People making calls for emergency services are exempt from the ban... Opponents of the Honolulu law argued it infringes on personal freedom and amounts to government overreach.
Meanwhile, the city of London has tried putting pads on their lamp posts "to soften the blow for distracted walkers."
Meanwhile, the city of London has tried putting pads on their lamp posts "to soften the blow for distracted walkers."
The problem with laws like this is that they're useless and backwards. Pedestrians looking at their phones while crossing the street aren't a problem. They cross the street, and they're done. The problem is people unintentionally crossing a street while looking at their phones. It's the sidewalk that's dangerous, because people who are looking down at their phones don't necessarily realize when the sidewalk ends and the road begins.
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(people) looking at their phones while crossing the street aren't a problem. .
the problem is people crossing a street while looking at their phones
. Wait. What?
It's the sidewalk that's dangerous, because people who are looking down at their phones don't necessarily realize when the sidewalk ends and the road begins.
Our council has installed flashing red lights embedded into the road right on the kerbside specifically to target screen zombies. It still doesn't help.
The problem is absolutely people concentrating on their devices instead of the potential danger around them. I ride a motorbike and I almost hit these people every_single_day. I've actually broken my horn button from using it so much to get these fuckwits to pay attention.
But I would be willing to gamble that 90% or more of cyclists who are killed by cars are actually in the wrong, per traffic laws. .
I'll take that bet. http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/... Sure this is from my neck of the woods, but I'm sure road user behaviour in your location isn't that much different.
The mayor of a local suburban city nearly mowed down a pedestrian who just stepped out onto the street in the middle between two cars. Without stopping, and then chewed out the mayor for nearly hitting her. She was on her phone and of course, never looked both ways to make sure her path was clear.
The mayor wrote up an "apology" on Facebook that garnered a lot of attention.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...
This was the middle of the street - an intersection with a crosswalk was only a few more steps away.
What I don't get is what is so damned interesting on the phone that one completely forgets the rules their parents taught them when they were young, like looking both ways before crossing the street. I mean, this is something so basic. Considering the potential risk - injury is extremely common. People have knocked out their teeth from walking into lampposts, benches and other sidewalk furniture. People have fallen down street elevator holes (they walk right into the raised door and fall into the basement), or into water fountains.
So what is so damn interesting that it's worth risking minor injuries that are quite preventable? Or major injury - I can't imagine anything on the screen being so interesting that would justify even spending a day in a hospital.
Yes, I've tried it - I wanted to look up something on my phone and I just couldn't do it and walk without the fear of running into something or someone. I stepped aside and finished looking up the information - there wasn't anything on it I could justify spending hours at a doctor's office getting fixed up for - it was cheaper time-wise to step aside, spend 30 seconds with the phone in relative safety, then resume walking to my destination. Quicker too, since if I got injured, it could be hours at a doctors office, or days at a hospital, or 30 seconds simply stopped safely out of the way.