From the Auburn News, a western-suburbs paper in Sydney, about a survey conducted by Guide Dogs Australia: “almost half of all people who use a white cane are walked into at least once every time they are out, with almost 60 percent of respondents reporting the instances were caused by people engrossed in their mobile devices.”
Not long ago, a hipster, on the phone, on a bike, on the sidewalk on Main St., was coming towards me. I stood in front of him. He crashed into a fruit bin.
The blind people issue hadn’t occurred to me, though I’ve often encountered these walking talking texting zombies – a danger and general pain in the ass. If they get whacked in an intersection, crossing in dark clothes at night, how sorry should we feel.
For drivers though, cellphones must be treated like open liquor. They should be powered down, and not accessible. That’s easy to enforce.
I agree that distracted driving is a whole lot more dangerous and is rightfully illegal, Arnie, but enforcement is actually quite difficult. Cops can’t be everywhere, traffic cameras aren’t equipped to capture phone usage within the car (specifically by the driver no less), and our cars don’t yet have the capacity to inform on us to law enforcement. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try, but until any of those things change, enforcement is going to be inherently very spotty and imperfect.
Wouldn’t engrossed cell phone users be just as likely to be bumped into by other engrossed cell phone users?
Funny and not so funny…