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.

Comments

Faces in phones

[al0ha]

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.

better than fining them...

[argStyopa]

...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.