Honolulu’s new ban on looking at phones or other electronic devices while crossing a street was slammed in an article appearing yesterday in Slate, the widely-read online magazine.
According to the article:
The law, signed by Mayor Kirk Caldwell on Thursday, is intended to lower the city’s pedestrian-fatality rate , which is among the highest in the U.S. In practice, however, it will inject police discretion into another routine of daily life—while perpetuating the media-driven myth that pedestrians are responsible for their own deaths.
Its major point is quite simple. This law is an example of blaming the victims of automobile-pedestrian accidents. Cell phones don’t kill people, cars and road design do.
There is precious little data to support the new law, according to the Slate article.
But the law is politically beneficial because it “enables city politicians to act like they’re responding to a safety problem without actually cracking down on the people who are doing the killing—drivers.”
Anyway, it’s worth a read.
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Not going to bother reading it. Too many people walking out in front of me without ever looking. Hate having another law but it is, unfortunately, needed.
Relax. The new law is mostly just a symbolic gesture to bring attention to another distraction that can be unsafe. I doubt very much you will see too many cops out there chasing someone down for a $15 ticket….
As someone who walks and drives, I’ve seen both – drivers and pedestrians – not paying attention to what they are doing while looking at their cellphones. But I’d also have to say that more of them are drivers and have the near misses to prove it. (Thankfully I was paying attention!)
I never cross a street without making eye contact with approaching drivers, which means I can’t be looking at my phone. Taught my son that lesson on our walks to kindergarten back in the day. Regardless of the law it’s up to you to make sure they see you because you are the one who ends up dead or in the hospital if they don’t.
It is certainly common sense that pedestrians are at least partially responsible for their own safety. I doubt this law will really help anyone who doesn’t have the common sense to begin with though. Doesn’t change my life because I won’t be texting and crossing anyway.
Most unfortunate that the Mayor and City Council spend their precious time and energy dinking around with a law like this that really could be handled by folks with a little common sense and situational awareness….
The worst part of this new law is that it is sold as an effective response to Hawaii having a high number of senior traffic deaths. Never mind that most seniors that are endangered by cars aren’t the ones texting while in sidewalks.
There’s something to be said for pedestrians putting down our cellphones and looking serious about crossing streets, but that doesn’t mean we can see into car windows. Making eye contact with approaching drivers depends on having pretty good vision. I try to assume that looking toward them will help.