Honolulu bans texting while crossing the road

[bing101]

https://patch.com/hawaii/honolulu/honolulu-bans-people-texting-while-crossing-road

This is like Text while driving but this time its for pedestrians.

[kalvado]

https://patch.com/hawaii/honolulu/honolulu-bans-people-texting-while-crossing-road

This is like Text while driving but this time its for pedestrians.

Now it would be great if there is any enforcement action. I am not sure any cop would waste time writing $15 ticket...

[noelbotevera]

https://patch.com/hawaii/honolulu/honolulu-bans-people-texting-while-crossing-road

This is like Text while driving but this time its for pedestrians.

Now it would be great if there is any enforcement action. I am not sure any cop would waste time writing $15 ticket...

I'm pretty sure they just have cops standing at the street corners. They just watch every pedestrian and look for those who have their telephones out.

[kalvado]

https://patch.com/hawaii/honolulu/honolulu-bans-people-texting-while-crossing-road

This is like Text while driving but this time its for pedestrians.

Now it would be great if there is any enforcement action. I am not sure any cop would waste time writing $15 ticket...

I'm pretty sure they just have cops standing at the street corners. They just watch every pedestrian and look for those who have their telephones out.

And then sigh and pull over some poor sole for speeding...Since that is more cost effective, and procedure is well known.

[bing101]

http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/07/28/hawaii-news/texting-against-law-when-in-a-crosswalk/


http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/clip/13534660/mayor-signs-bill-that-makes-looking-at-devices-in-crosswalks-illegal


Here is local coverage of this distracted walking law in Hawaii. I can see states all over the nation having discussions on this.

[Bobby5280]

I usually laugh when I see news stories about someone taking a spill into a ravine or even walking off a cliff because the person was walking down the road with his head blindly embedded up his digital ass. But the situation with mobile phone abuse has grown extremely ridiculous. Laws like this new one in Hawaii just show how stupid our general public is becoming. None of us like what we consider government overreach. But if we can't act with the level of responsibility expected of normal grown ups then maybe we deserve to be treated like children just learning to get out of diapers. I have a nasty attitude about this sort of thing because it seems like at every other green light there's some idiot in front of me just parked there finishing a tweet before taking notice of the green light and other elements of the outside world. I'm stuck there behind this phone using fool, worried about getting ass-ended by other cars.

If someone is engrossed in his phone, walks blindly into moving traffic and is hit that's indeed his own fault. Unfortunately such an accident isn't cut and dry. Other people are affected. If you hit a person with your vehicle and do so with any significant speed there will be more damage than to just the pedestrian. I've seen a pedestrian hit and killed by a vehicle before. I was on a city bus at night, the passenger walked past me leaving the bus and didn't look both ways crossing the street; he was clipped by a delivery van. I really felt sorry for the van driver. He was really upset and scared at the time of the accident. The dead guy's family wanted to sue, but it was his own fault. He wasn't a kid leaving a school bus. I'll never forget that incident. It still plays in my mind as clear as a scene from a movie. That van driver will never forget it. I'm sure he was emotionally scarred by it.

It's sad we apparently need the government and other authority figures (such as a movie theater manager or usher) to tell us when it is or is not safe or appropriate to use a mobile phone.

[Brian556]

Quote from Bobby5280

I usually laugh when I see news stories about someone taking a spill into a ravine or even walking off a cliff because the person was walking down the road with his head blindly embedded up his digital ass. But the situation with mobile phone abuse has grown extremely ridiculous. Laws like this new one in Hawaii just show how stupid our general public is becoming. None of us like what we consider government overreach. But if we can't act with the level of responsibility expected of normal grown ups then maybe we deserve to be treated like children just learning to get out of diapers. I have a nasty attitude about this sort of thing because it seems like at every other green light there's some idiot in front of me just parked there finishing a tweet before taking notice of the green light and other elements of the outside world. I'm stuck there behind this phone using fool, worried about getting ass-ended by other cars.

If someone is engrossed in his phone, walks blindly into moving traffic and is hit that's indeed his own fault. Unfortunately such an accident isn't cut and dry. Other people are affected. If you hit a person with your vehicle and do so with any significant speed there will be more damage than to just the pedestrian. I've seen a pedestrian hit and killed by a vehicle before. I was on a city bus at night, the passenger walked past me leaving the bus and didn't look both ways crossing the street; he was clipped by a delivery van. I really felt sorry for the van driver. He was really upset and scared at the time of the accident. The dead guy's family wanted to sue, but it was his own fault. He wasn't a kid leaving a school bus. I'll never forget that incident. It still plays in my mind as clear as a scene from a movie. That van driver will never forget it. I'm sure he was emotionally scarred by it.

It's sad we apparently need the government and other authority figures (such as a movie theater manager or usher) to tell us when it is or is not safe or appropriate to use a mobile phone.

It really is ridiculous that grown adults don't know how to act. These people are the reason that we have so many laws, so of which go too far, such as school zones with excessively low speed limits.

Cell phone use at inappropriate times is just plain selfish.

I recently read that a city somewhere is Europe is installing traffic signal indications in the sidewalk for texting pedestrians. Talk about ridiculous.

[Henry]

As Jay Leno once said, what the hell were they thinking? We can't do anything nowadays, but in a sense, I think it's a good law, because you'd be just as liable to bump into things or be hit by drivers while texting and walking as you would driving.

[1995hoo]

Most of those people will ignore this sort of law, but that doesn't make the law a bad thing because this sort of ordinance is often persuasive evidence of the standard of care in a civil action for negligence (that is, the reasonable man of ordinary prudence would not read his phone while crossing the street in light of the ordinance passed precisely because of accidents involving phone users).

[Max Rockatansky]

Seems like a waste of a time to create an ordinance at the city level for something like this.  I can't imagine too many police officers will be too keen on wasting time on paperwork writing up citations for texting while crossing the road.

[Max Rockatansky]

Seems like a waste of a time to create an ordinance at the city level for something like this.  I can't imagine too many police officers will be too keen on wasting time on paperwork writing up citations for texting while crossing the road.

Honolulu takes up the whole island, which is about 70% of Hawaii's population. (People from the rural areas won't tell you they're from Honolulu, though.)

Still doesn't count as a state law though which is probably why the fine schedule is so low.  Really ordinances like this usually are to make a statement about something that has been an issue rather than actual enforcement. 

[jeffandnicole]

Honolulu takes up the whole island, which is about 70% of Hawaii's population. (People from the rural areas won't tell you they're from Honolulu, though.)

Wrong on all accounts.

Honolulu is less than 15% of the size of Oahu, and it's only about 40% of the population of that island alone, not even including the other Hawaiian islands.

[hotdogPi]

Sorry. I removed my post.

[vdeane]

Honolulu takes up the whole island, which is about 70% of Hawaii's population. (People from the rural areas won't tell you they're from Honolulu, though.)

Wrong on all accounts.

Honolulu is less than 15% of the size of Oahu, and it's only about 40% of the population of that island alone, not even including the other Hawaiian islands.

Depends on whether you're talking about the city or the consolidated city-county.  They're both named Honolulu, and the latter includes all of Oahu.

[Brandon]

Honolulu takes up the whole island, which is about 70% of Hawaii's population. (People from the rural areas won't tell you they're from Honolulu, though.)

Wrong on all accounts.

Honolulu is less than 15% of the size of Oahu, and it's only about 40% of the population of that island alone, not even including the other Hawaiian islands.

There's a place called Honolulu on the island of Oahu, but since there are no incorporated municipalities in Hawaii, the mayor of Honolulu is the mayor of the entire county, also known as Honolulu (to which this law applies).

[triplemultiplex]

Problem solved!  ....