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Honolulu Now Fines People Up To $99 For Texting While Crossing Road (theguardian.com)
An anonymous reader shares a report: The Hawaiian city of Honolulu has resorted to fining people up to $99 for staring at the devices, to try and force people to look up from their phones while crossing the road. The new law gives police the power to fine people up to $35 for their first offence, $75 for their second and $99 thereafter, perhaps expecting it to take quite some effort to get people to take notice. The bill, which comes into force today after being rubber stamped by the Hawaiian city's mayor in July, states that "no pedestrian shall cross a street or highway while viewing a mobile electronic device." Mobile phones are included as well as any "text messaging device, paging device, personal digital assistant, laptop computer, video game, or digital photographic device" but audio equipment is excluded. Holding a conversation on a phone while walking is still permitted, as is using a device in an emergency, but crossing the road while texting, reading or Facebooking -- as millions around the world do every day -- is not.
God damn Haole cocksuckers don't even know how to cross the road...
All us native Hawaiian welfare queens are paying the price!
Will they deliver these fines to people in their hospital beds if they are struck while crossing? Or are their immediate relatives on the hook to pay if the person is fatally injured?
In other news, Amazon reports that shipments of paperback books to Hawaii have increased by 80%.
road? what road?
Honolulu rolling in cash from fines, now plans gold plated police cars and universal six-figure income to spend money
Interesting that a government is having to go to these drastic lengths to try and get people to live in the real world.
I think it's kind of interesting that Millennials and other constant users of smart phones, especially singles, who walk around all day looking at a screen, complain that they can't meet any decent people, when in fact they likely pass decent and interesting people all the time, but nobody is able to catch anyone's eye anymore, so potential connections are missed. What a shame. Instead they rely on dating apps where as we know, everyone exaggerates, poses, lies, whatever. A really really odd way to live, giving up the real world for that which is completely fake.
Did you ever wake up in the morning, with a Zombie Woof behind your eyes? -- FZ
How about letting idiots disappear?
Just look at all of the criminals constantly speeding on the road, not to mention using phones while driving. These minor infractions need to come with a penalty that really impacts people's lives... One night in jail would be perfect. It needs to keep them from getting to work, picking up their kids, their friend's party... *something* that is really going to have a lasting impact besides just money. Monetary penalties are also extremely regressive and hurt poor people the most. That's not okay.
I'm glad they're doing *something*, but this is not an ideal solution.
To get to the middle.
For a split second I was afraid that I would not be permitted to keep my nose into the newest trashy/harry potter/scifi/etc. novel while crossing the street ...
Funny how new laws are generated, fully focussed on the gadgeteers, while forgetting other, much older (but as dangerous) stuff taking ones attention away from the road.
Even more funny as the new law bogus, as there is most likely already an "You will keep your attention on the road while taking part in traffic" (or something alike) law in place.
To me this kind of law-making always reeks as if the one coming up with them either does not know the first thing (and/or does not care) about the laws already in place, or just wants to score some "look at me being important!" (but still worthless) points. :-(
people don't have walking licenses and will this points to your drivers license.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Hard to give tickets to self-driving cars, so they gotta find a new way to fill the coffers.
...simply legislate that any such action makes it impossible to sue.
Take away peoples' right to sue the crap out of whatever driver hits them if they're texting while crossing the street, and they'll stop. Americans don't go where they don't have lawyer-armor.
-Styopa
But how will I fulfill my government mandated continuous Telescreen viewing obligation?
As someone who dabbles in urban photography as a hobby... *FUCK*THEM*
Running into the middle of the cross walk when the little person on the sign turns white, something that is perfectly legal, becomes ILLEGAL all of a sudden if you stop, take a pic, and continue on while still during the safe crossing time!?
You can't legislate intelligence and common sense into people. - Will Rogers
Why $99? Are they trying to sell as many as possible?
I get why stores would want to price products at $99.95, but since when did Law Enforcement need incentive for fines? Are they trying to reach a quota by having a sale? Is it this week only and then back to $129.95 a pop?
Two points:
1) google maps.
2) tv station camera crews.
Looks like this one is ripe to be overturned.
Let Darwin do his work. Stop interfering with gene pool cleansing.
Make it decriminalized to cross a road while texting, but indemnify any driver who hits someone crossing the road while texting.
In this way, natural selection will pare from among us the clueless people who are unable to self-entertain or stay alert to reality around them for even thirty seconds.
Attention spans will rise, as will average IQs. The many bodies that pave the streets will serve as a warning for others. Gradually, society will become more thoughtful and concentration will improve.
Too many of our laws try to protect the stupid, clueless, vapid and deceptive from themselves. We cannot do this, and it is not to our benefit to do so. Let them perish and have sensible people take their places.
Alternative Right.
...because apparently this is a stupid, targeted law to "do something" because a politician is bored or someone's idiot child got hit crossing the street because they weren't looking.
Hint: there's an unlimited number of distractions in life. This doesn't address the actual problem that people are easily ... oh look, shiny....
You can get rich if you own a politician, but you have to be rich to buy one in the first place.
Laws are born when common sense fails.
Honolulu has had a problem with inattentive drivers hitting and killing people in the crosswalks.
Many of these fatalities are people legitimately in crosswalks, a few not, but in most cases the driver claims to have never seen the pedestrian.
Rather than deal with distracted driving, and as a driver and a pedestrian in Honolulu I can tell you it's rampant, they've taken to punishing the victims. As with most political moves in Hawaii, this appeases the mass of drivers who can't be bothered to look up from their cellphones (Hawaii has more cars than licensed drivers). I can't think of a pedestrian fatality that was caused by a pedestrian lost in their cellphone. Yeah, they're annoying, but not the root cause of Honolulu's problem.
I suppose on the bright side; it seems people are reclaiming the roads from motor vehicles.
texter? what texter?
reading the newspaper while crossing the road is fine.
Serious question though: Does your phone need to be on, to get a ticket?
Follow up: Is an e-book reader "on" if it is drawing no power?
...I wasn't looking at that lady's mobile phone, I was looking at her body!
How do you avoid seeing a mobile electronic device someone else is carrying while you are crossing the street? Yes Officer, I did see that person carrying a mobile device; what that mean's *I* get fined when I wasn't carrying it? ....this isn't a mobile electronic device, I'm carrying a desktop computer with a long extension cord!
That was 20 years ago. I didn't own a car then, and I had several close calls with inattentive drivers.
It is a good pedestrian city.
Another person living in Honolulu here. I don't know if you can ever legislate stupid, but I see stupid here every goddamned day. People completely glued to their phones. I'll be waiting at a crosswalk, the light will change, and nobody reacts because they're all looking at their phones. So I walk around them and a few seconds later they finally realize the light has changed. so they walk into the crosswalk, still looking down at their phones.
A couple of months ago, I watched a teenage walk right into the side of a *stopped car* that was trying to turn out of a driveway. He hit the side *hard* and sent his phone and backpack tumbling. He scrambled back up, glanced around to see if anyone saw him, then limped around the car and went right back to looking at his phone. Jesus Christ.
Hawaii is already one of the worst states for pedestrian safety* and distracted walking definitely does not help. One thing I can't stand is that the pedestrian signals never change if you don't hit the button, despite the traffic lights taking the same amount of time. So you often find yourself waiting at an intersection with a "don't walk" signal while traffic is stopped and it's perfectly safe to walk for the full 45-60 seconds the "walk" signal should have been on. Many people therefore just ignore the signals and walk out into traffic... and get fined. (On the flip side, some of the homeless -- which Hawaii has thousands of -- just cross anywhere and any time they feel like it, often just strolling into moving traffic and screaming profanity at anyone who doesn't stop.)
*and god help you if you are disabled. The sidewalks here are unnavigable if you have a walker or wheelchair. The city recently completely redid a long section of sidewalk near my home and I thought, "Wow, finally they will fix everything so it is ADA compliant!" and... no. No they did not. The *new* sidewalk is not completely level, widens and narrows erratically, just like the old one, has light-poles and hydrants dead in the center, and worse. They left high non-ramped curbs at crossings, even though they installed yellow bumped safety plates, and in one place, the ends of the sidewalk don't line up and are at weird angles so that you often have to walk around cars to get to the other side of the road.
How about we pay people to text while crossing the street? The whole point is you can't fix stupid, so let's be done with these people as soon as possible.
Obviously, more Americans need to be raised with Der Struwwelpeter.
How do they know I am not trying to find my way?
A few weeks ago I noticed someone with her phone up to her face but had a white cane. She was obviously legally blind but was using the phone to be able to see where she was going. Perhaps they should add an exception.
I've wondered why countries that have universal medical coverage don't have the types of laws. As the 24x7 phone users start to get old enough that falls results in broken bones, walking while using a phone could be very dangerous and expensive.
I've also noticed that people using their phones while walking tend to walk much slower than others which increases congestion which results in more expense.
How do they know I am not trying to find my way?
Presumably you can do that before or after crossing the street. Since you are supposedly walking between two white crosswalk lines when you are crossing, you don't have a lot of choices as to where to go while crossing!
If I can be modded down for being a troll, can I be modded up for being an orc, or a balrog?
Hawaii is biting the hand that feeds it, tourists, with this law.
Cars and people really shouldn't mix. At least not where the people live.
If we really care about safety and politeness, then, rather than berating people for carelessness on foot and insisting on special privileges for those driving cars, at least within urban areas, roads should be built over or under the ground, and not blocking or obstructing foot traffic. Vehicles should generally not be able to access public surface paths (with the obvious exceptions for emergencies, maintenance, and construction).
Incidentally, based on what I get to see every day from my "high horse" [when I am not too busy contending for space], an awful lot of you people are insanely distracted and careless about your driving. In comparison, those on foot are quite innocent.
Jaywalking is illegal in Honolulu, and usually carries a fine of $150
Fucking HPD only enforce it when they've got nothing else to do. I got ticketed for crossing on red at night when there was no traffic in sight. And for some goddamned reason my ticket was $300, which would normally be for a repeat offender (I'm not). I only realized when I got the demand in the mail and I was overseas so couldn't contest it.
Fuck Honolulu PD.
j'ai découvert une démonstration vraiment admirable (de ce théorème général) que cette si
Hawaii has always had a strong connection with Japan and Japan is already more advanced in this discipline. See:
https://i.imgur.com/CUwlEl0.jpg
because the cops are too busy staring at their phones to notice. I'm pretty sure that's why I've never seen anyone get pulled over for texting while driving.
I lived with a true alcoholic for about six years. There is NO DIFFERENCE between zombiephone addicts and an alcoholic. They *can't* stop looking at it, never mind they're in a crowd, and blocking people, they act like it's a matter of life and death that they respond to every text immediately, if not sooner.
They're all fucking drug addicts. They're another opioid crisis.
But won't admit it, any more than any other addict.
Like Google Glass (heh) watches, etc?