States Wrestle with Legislation to Curb Distracted Walking, Running and Cycling

[The Straight Story]

States Wrestle with Legislation to Curb Distracted Walking, Running and Cycling

In their latest effort to save us from our own stupidity (the nice word is “distraction”), many state lawmakers are attempting to create legislation that will keep the users of hand-held digital devices like iPods and cell phones from hurting themselves and others as they walk, cycle and drive in a digital communications fog, putting their music, text or conversation first and their attention to the road or sidewalk second (or possibly third, after the cup of coffee). According to a new article in the New York Times, the ubiquity of these interactive devices has propelled the “science of distraction.”


New York State has been one of the first to try and tackle the problem with legislation. The New York state legislature’s transportation committee is considering a bill that would ban the use of phones, iPods or other electronic devices while crossing streets, particularly in cities of more than one million people. The bill was proposed by State Senator Carl Kruger, a Brooklyn Democrat who has seen too many alarming examples of injuries due to distracted street crossing: three people have been killed and one seriously injured in New York City since September due to crossing the street while fiddling with hand-held devices.

In response to the many outcries that the state shouldn't get involved in issues of personal choice and responsibility, Mr. Kruger told the Times, “This is not government interference,” he said. “This is more like saying, ‘You’re doing something that could be detrimental to yourself and others around you.'”

A similar bill is pending in Oregon that would restrict bicyclists from using mobile phones and music players. Proposed legislation in Virginia bill would keep such cyclists from using “hand-held communication devices.” A similar proposed bill was recently forced out of the Arkansas state legislature due to public unpopularity.

http://headsets.tmcnet.com/topics/headsets/articles/138401-states-wrestle-with-legislation-curb-distracted-walking-running.htm

[FreakinDJ]

1. A little too much "Nanny State" for me

some people can't walk and chew gum

[TheMadMonk]

5. Wait untill one of these dicks just up and steps in front of you.

I've had to go "off road" on my bike more than once because obliviots in "the zone" decide to jog a sweeping turn under my front wheel without looking behind. (Something which is no longer emphasised in traffic safety lessons for children is the need to walk against the flow of traffic when sharing the same road/path as wheeled vehicles.

A woman recently managed to kill herself by walking out in front of an ambulance. I work peripherally with the railways and I get regaled with plenty of horror stories at my annual track safety course, of obliviots walking on the tracks being cleaned up from behind. And not all of them are members of the public, a fair share have been card carriers in their own right.

Got the same sort of stories when I did a forklift driving course. Ditto OH&S general induction.

One thing was missing from all those courses. Over and above earbuds rendering the listener senseless to outside auditory input, music itself has measurable physiological and cognitive effects on them. Effects that are deliberately crafted to pull and hold the attention of listeners away from the outside world. Imersion is fine on the couch, but it's not at all fine in the middle of traffic or other environmental hazards.


Now we have fooking earbuds with built in active noise cancellation, so even "easy listeners" can render themselves utterly aurally oblivious to the world outside their skulls.

Just need some Joo Janta 200 Super-Chromatic Peril Sensitive Sunglasses to be complete.


And it's all well and good to say "Let Darwin decide". However, the problem is not the damage they do to themselves, and it can't be solved even by instructing cops to shoot injured obliviots on the spot rather than call an ambulance. <--deliberate hyperbole>

At a minimum they put an unnecessary extra burden on the hospital system. Long term injury/death causes all sorts of hurt to their family. More hurt is likely to befall the poor bugger who hit them. In the case of bike vs. pedestrian there's every chance the rider might be the one coming off second best given the physics of the situation.


At an absolute minimum. Any such individual (pedestrian, cyclist or driver) actually involved in an accident, should at a minimum be charged with a serious traffic violation and their access to civil remedy should be severely curtailed.

[FreakinDJ]

8. Call it the "Darwin Effect"

but if folks can't figure out their too distracted to walk ....

[TheMadMonk]

9. Did you bother to read down to where I said leaving it to Darwin...

...harms too many other people?

Harm to the family of the self selected "victim" and to the poor bastard who cleans them up?

[queenjane]

2. I know this seems an overreach, but . . .

I can't tell you how many times people have just walked right out in front of me while I'm driving (and not at crosswalks), or in parking lots. They're talking or texting on their cells, engrossed in music, or even reading a newspaper. Just in a "zone" and oblivious to everything around them. Good thing for them I'm hyper-alert behind the wheel, but many drivers aren't.

Plus, every self-defense class I've taken warns against the use of earbuds while walking/running/hiking, because you won't hear someone approaching you.

Sad that we have to attempt to legislate common sense, but obviously it's lacking in a large part of the population.

[Me.]

3. Here In NYC It's Becoming An Epidemic

People frozen in place on their phones seemingly unaware that they are blocking exits etc. I don't know how it can be legislated but it maddening when someone steps out in front of you or stops suddenly and you can't avoid crashing into them physically.

[BadgerKid]

4. No meeting in the middle?

As a pedestrian, I try to not get hit. As a driver, I try not to hit others.

Still, accidents still happen. Step out in front of a bus within its breaking zone, and the bus wins. It's too late for laws to work there.

[NYC Liberal]

6. What a stupid law.

"This is not government interference" my ass.

[Angry Dragon]

7. All citizens will be restricted to their residences

unless accompanied by a officer of the police state