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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.
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?
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.
people don't have walking licenses and will this points to your drivers license.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
...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?
Hard to give tickets to self-driving cars, so they gotta find a new way to fill the coffers.
Self driving cars are not the problem, texting drivers are, but it's also hard to ticket texting drivers, so it's much easier to target texting pedestrians even though the drivers are the ones killing people.
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?
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.
Honolulu is a small but traffic-congested city, with lots of crosswalks over the streets that get busy during the rush-hours. Making idiots pay attention to crossing signs rather than their phones probably helps relieve some of that congestion.
I suppose on the bright side; it seems people are reclaiming the roads from motor vehicles.
texter? what texter?
More drunk pedestrians are killed by sober drivers (by far) than sober pedestrians killed by drunk drivers. (At one point it was something like 40% of pedestrians killed in crosswalks were drunk.) I'd expect texting to be the same.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
Obviously, more Americans need to be raised with Der Struwwelpeter.
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.
https://www.youtube.com/result...
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?
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
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?