JohnnyWalkerBlackLabel
02-20-2007, 07:00 AM
Most of us have already heard that using a cell phone (without a handsfree solution) while driving has been banned in some US cities. But while walking? That’s what New York state Senator Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn) is now looking to restrict. Kruger is introducing legislation today that would fine pedestrians in New York’s big cities $100 apiece for using their Blackberrys, iPods, cell phones, and other electronics while crossing the street. The legislation proposal is sparked by several recent pedestrian deaths in Kruger’s district—one of which involved a 23-year-old iPod user stepping out into traffic, only to remain oblivious to bystanders screaming “Watch out!” before being struck and killed.
Referring to a condition he aptly nicknames “iPod oblivion,” Kruger is focusing on the pedestrian tendency to use one (or several) personal electronic gadgets while walking down the street and therefore distracting themselves from potentially dangerous situations. “We’re talking about people walking sort of tuned in, in the process of being tuned in, [but] tuned out. Tuned out to the world around them, so they’re walking into speeding cars, they’re walking into buses, they’re walking into one another,” he said in a CBS News report.
Anyone who has ever experienced pedestrian life in a big city can probably already tell that this proposal would make it near impossible to have a phone conversation, or listen to even one full song on an iPod, if they had to drop everything every time they encountered a crosswalk. Kruger isn’t looking to completely ban electronics use in public, though. “If you want to listen to your iPod, sit down and listen to it,” he said to CBS News. “You want to walk in the park? Enjoy it. You want to jog around a jogging path? All the more power to you. But you should not be crossing streets and endangering yourself and the lives of others.”
Initial reaction to the bill is, unsurprisingly, mostly negative. Many of the pedestrians interviewed by CBS News said confidently that they could still keep a sharp eye on traffic while their headphones were in, but most people with a driver’s license know from experience that pedestrians don’t always pay as much attention to oncoming traffic as they often believe. The legislation’s intention, according to Kruger, isn’t to annoy pedestrians, but to protect them from themselves. Oh, and $100 a pop from violators can’t hurt the pockets of the local governments who choose to enforce it, either.
dude needs his ass kicked
Referring to a condition he aptly nicknames “iPod oblivion,” Kruger is focusing on the pedestrian tendency to use one (or several) personal electronic gadgets while walking down the street and therefore distracting themselves from potentially dangerous situations. “We’re talking about people walking sort of tuned in, in the process of being tuned in, [but] tuned out. Tuned out to the world around them, so they’re walking into speeding cars, they’re walking into buses, they’re walking into one another,” he said in a CBS News report.
Anyone who has ever experienced pedestrian life in a big city can probably already tell that this proposal would make it near impossible to have a phone conversation, or listen to even one full song on an iPod, if they had to drop everything every time they encountered a crosswalk. Kruger isn’t looking to completely ban electronics use in public, though. “If you want to listen to your iPod, sit down and listen to it,” he said to CBS News. “You want to walk in the park? Enjoy it. You want to jog around a jogging path? All the more power to you. But you should not be crossing streets and endangering yourself and the lives of others.”
Initial reaction to the bill is, unsurprisingly, mostly negative. Many of the pedestrians interviewed by CBS News said confidently that they could still keep a sharp eye on traffic while their headphones were in, but most people with a driver’s license know from experience that pedestrians don’t always pay as much attention to oncoming traffic as they often believe. The legislation’s intention, according to Kruger, isn’t to annoy pedestrians, but to protect them from themselves. Oh, and $100 a pop from violators can’t hurt the pockets of the local governments who choose to enforce it, either.
dude needs his ass kicked