Because looking both ways before crossing the street is harder than following laws, Illinois has introduced a bill that would ban texting in intersections.
Ken Dunkin, the representative who introduced the bill, says texting in the street is no laughing matter:
“This legislation is not laughable. On the surface it’s like, ‘Oh wow, what is this?’ But it’s becoming more and more of a common problem with people haplessly crossing an intersection and almost killing themselves.”
He also sited two pedestrian deaths in New York city that might have been related to texting-while-walking. If New York wants to pick up the bill I hope they also ban staring-up-at-tall-buildings-while-walking and stopping-at-the-top-of-the-subway-stairs-to-look-around.
And in case you still wanted to laugh at the thought of the dangers of walking, I mean texting, the American College of Emergency Physicians issued a warning this week about the how its possible to hurt yourself when you’re not paying attention to where you are walking. And an ER doctor in Texas reported that she’s treated people who injured themselves texting while riding Segways. Oh wow, Segways!
photo care of GeekSugar
FLUNKIN DUNKIN! After reading the article I’m alarmed that a State Representative who’s district is facing so many serious problems is spending his time introducing such unnecessary legisltaion. It’s not laughable, it’s just plain irresponsible. Ken Dunkin should be more concerned with the children being killed on his streets and the state’s buget crisis rather than the texting habbits of Chicago’s walkers. What’s he going to take on next, J walking?!
-Dan Balanoff
FLUNKIN DUNKIN! After reading the article I’m alarmed that a State Representative who’s district is facing so many serious problems is spending his time introducing such unnecessary legisltaion. It’s not laughable, it’s just plain irresponsible. Ken Dunkin should be more concerned with the children being killed on his streets and the state’s buget crisis rather than the texting habbits of Chicago’s walkers. What’s he going to take on next, J walking?!
-Dan Balanoff
Dumb.
I think texting while driving should be out lawed, because all of your attention is on what you are typing/texting instead of on the road, pedestrians, or other drivers. Funny thing is though, the ones who text while driving are the first ones to complain about bad drivers. And when they get into accidents they blame the other driver(s). And then they wonder why theres accidents. Well, DUH!!!
I don’t think the families of the people who died doing this would think the legislation was stupid. Sometimes it takes a law for people to acknowledge that a behavior that has come to be commonly accepted as a norm is actually harmful. Sure, it’s common sense not to text while crossing the street. Isn’t it also common sense not to get behind the wheel if you’ve had too much too drink? Legislation covers a broad range of topics – human behavior included.
“Texting and walking” hmmmmm. Let see, when a person is reading they are basically tuning everything out except maybe a siren however. When a person is walking and gazes up at a building they typically slow their walk down and keep looking ahead for caution, this is a natural reaction to safty. There is NO natural reaction to safety with texting due to the absolute concentration of the action of texting and reading texts. The mere decoding itself of text messages takes 90% of your consentration where as a simple gaze up at a building takes 15% of your consentration. If you think that it is okay to text and walk on a busy sidewalk then you are in definate denial of the consequenses. When a person either is looking something up on a computer or texting they are in what I call a ROBO mode which is basically a robot performing the text. Look at peoples faces when they text, notice that their facial expression becomes null or void immediatly after they begin typing, that means they are totally focused and are blocking out everything around them. It isn’t safe at times. Please, why cant we just stop our feet for a second to respond to a text. Is it too much to ask for people to not bump into me on a sidewalk? It isn’t fair that I always have to walk around texters with their heads bowed down to their phones to avoid the collision between them and I. We share the sidewalk so lets all play nice and respectful. Just a thought.
this is ridiculous. people totally need to chill about the whole txting thing. if youre crossing a busy intersection and staring at your phone then you’re an idiot. life is hard. you’re gonna die. but dont punish everybody out there just because some dumbass didnt look twice.
wow.shes dumb