Although I agree people should pay attention when they’re crossing the street, I’m not sure how effective an all-out ban on using electronic devices while doing so would be. But apparently, NY is considering just such a thing. From CNN:

New Yorkers who blithely cross the street listening to an iPod or talking on a cell phone could soon face a $100 fine.

New York State Sen. Carl Kruger says three pedestrians in his Brooklyn district have been killed since September upon stepping into traffic while distracted by an electronic device. In one case bystanders screamed “watch out” to no avail.

Kruger says he will introduce legislation on Wednesday to ban the use of gadgets such as Blackberry devices and video games while crossing the street.

I know personally from having driven and walked across campus with throngs of people on their phones, text messaging or listening to iPods, this is a problem. Even I’m guilty of paying less attention than I should when I’m on the phone and late for class or a meeting.

However, I don’t really see people holding a conversation on the phone walking a block, hanging up, calling back, coming to another intersection, hanging up, and so on. Likewise, I can’t imagine most iPod users would be up for mandatory pausing while they crossed the street.

But for that matter, let’s ban all forms of communication or distraction while crossing the street. Silence while you’re between sidewalks, people. Single file lines. You, put down that newspaper! And over there, stop reviewing those notecards. I don’t care if you have a test in five minutes. It’s for your own good.

I don’t have a solution for making people pay attention to their surroundings. Other than having parents reinforce to their children the importance of looking both ways before stepping off the curb. But that solution is so low-tech, it would never work.

I suspect this proposal would be nearly impossible to implement because it’s something nearly everyone does (including I suspect many of the legislators who’d be voting on it). I think it would be pretty much ignored by people too busy to care. Maybe I’m wrong. We’ll see.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 7th, 2007 at 1:48 pm and is filed under Technology, News, Ideas. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.