Ny Senator Wants A Ban On Texting While Walking

NY Senator Carl Kruger has introduced a bill to prevent New Yorkers from talking on their mobile phones while crossing the street. The bill aims at making it illegal for the New Yorkers to use their mobile handsets for calling, texting, scrolling through their emails, or playing with their iPod, while walking down the busy New York streets. Kruger said on his website: “You can’t be fully aware of your surroundings if you’re fiddling with a Blackberry, dialing a phone number, playing Super Mario Brothers on a Game Boy or listening to music on an iPod.”

NY Senator Wants a Ban on Texting While Walking

Under the bill, culprits would be fined $100. I am always amazed that lawmakers think a small fine will enforce a law. Think of all the people who drive without seat belts, even though there is a fine for not using them. Do you think a fine will deter people from talking or texting while walking? There are laws in place to govern how we use our cells phones. We have hands-free laws for driving. 19 states have banned texting while driving. Neither of these laws is very effective, fines or not. What makes Senator Kruger think his law will be any more effective?

Many pedestrians are unaware of their surroundings. We call it distracted walking… Remember the Fountain Lady from last month that was so busy texting while she was walking in a mall that she walked into a fountain. See my blog Hey Fountain Lady. There is an app for texting while walking. It’s called Road SMS. It uses your cell phone camera as a real time video camera with a texting keyboard overlay so you can see where you are going while you are texting. If the Fountain Lady had used this app, perhaps she wouldn’t have fallen into the fountain.

We live in a mobile communications world. Our lifestyles have to adjust to the technology. Texting while driving is hazardous to everyone. Holding your cell phone up to your ear to talk while driving is just a bad idea. And I can see how distracted pedestrians who talk or text while crossing a busy street can cause serious problems. The only thing I am unsure of is creating laws to prohibit these activities. Statistically it has been shown ineffective to make laws to push people into being smarter with cell phone usage. To me it just seems like a waste of time and effort. What’s your take on it?

By: CellPlaza

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