Should distracted walking be illegal?

Honolulu's 'Distracted Walking' Law Takes Effect, Targeting Phone Users

My favorite pass time multi-tasking in this case looking down at and otherwise engaging an electronic device while walking, like a cellphone.

Should distracted walking be illegal?

This week, Honolulu will start ticketing people who use their cell phone while crossing the street. It is a $15 fine for a first offense. The city says it is an effort to avoid accidents. The National Safety Council reports distracted walking injuries are on the rise. While Honolulu is the first major U.S. city to take action, there is speculation it won't be the last.

In Seattle, there are no plans for a distracted walking law, according to Seattle Department of Transportation spokesperson Norm Mah. Mah also said SDOT has no data that shows distracted pedestrians put other travelers at risk. He adds that all commuters need to pay attention. During Wednesday evening's commute, it was easy to find pedestrians with eyes focused on their phone. There were people talking, texting, and even snapping mid-street selfies. "People are distracted all the time," said Chris Levaughn. "Everyone is looking down at their phone."

"If I'm behind them, I hate it because they are going very slow," said a commuter. Other commuters said Honolulu is taking things too far. "If you are in the right of way already and you are looking at your phone, that shouldn't be illegal," said one man.

Honolulu's 'Distracted Walking' Law Takes Effect, Targeting Phone Users

Police in Honolulu on Wednesday will begin writing tickets for people who get distracted by their cellphones while walking in a crosswalk. Honolulu is the first major city in the country to pass such a law, citing a high rate of pedestrians being hit in crosswalks. "Starting today, texting while walking in a crosswalk can get you a ticket," Hawaii Public Radio's Bill Dorman reports for our Newscast unit. "In fact, a downward glance at a screen of any kind will cost you — a phone, a tablet, a video game."

Under the new law, the only legal reason for a pedestrian to use a cellphone while crossing a street or highway would be to call 911 to report an emergency. Minimum fines for breaking the new law start at $15; for repeat offenders, the penalty ranges from $75 to $99. Higher rates — up to $100 for a first offense, $200 for a second, and $500 for a third — had been considered earlier this year.

Mayor Kirk Caldwell signed Bill 6, also known as the Distracted Walking Law, in July. At the time, he said that Honolulu held "the unfortunate distinction of being a major city with more pedestrians being hit in crosswalks, particularly our seniors, than almost any other city in the county," as NPR's Miles Parks reported. According to HPD, more than 10,000 citations were issued last year for mobile electronic device violations. As the law took effect, the city of Honolulu cited a National Safety Council warning that when pedestrians use a cellphone, "this distraction can cause them to trip, cross roads unsafely or walk into motionless objects such as street signs, doors or walls."

After thousands of distracted walking injuries were reported, the NSC says, it added a new category to track the trend in its annual statistical report, Injury Facts. In the 90 days since the bill was signed, Honolulu police have been working to remind people of the risks of using an electronic device while walking across a street — risks that, as of Wednesday, also include a fine.

The Absurdity of Honolulu’s New Law Banning Pedestrians From Looking at Their Cellphones .or Anything Electronic

If the fusty sigh of “Kids these days!” were a law, it would look something like the new Honolulu ordinance making it illegal to cross the street while looking at a cellphone or looking down at anything electronic. The fines will start in October at $35 and increase to $75 for a second offense and $99 for a third. The law, signed by Mayor Kirk Caldwell on Thursday, is intended to lower the city’s pedestrian-fatality rate, which is among the highest in the U.S. In practice, however, it will inject police discretion into another routine of daily life—while perpetuating the media-driven myth that pedestrians are responsible for their own deaths.

"so what did you do before self-driving cars?"
"we just drove 'em ourselves!"
"wow, no one died that way?"
"oh no, millions of people died"
— Gregory Cat-Botherer (@cat_beltane) April 15, 2015

There is an epidemic of American pedestrians getting killed by drivers. But there is virtually no evidence that they are being run over because they are too busy reading Slate on their phones. There are a few reasons why the “distracted walking” narrative has taken hold. The first comes from a 2013 Ohio State University study that reported that the percentage of pedestrians visiting an emergency room for injuries sustained while using cell phones has risen, from less than 1 percent in 2004 to more than 3.5 percent in 2010. But the numbers of victims remains quite small—in the low four figures, according to Consumer Product Safety Commission data—and injuries related to cellphone use seemed to track neatly between pedestrians and drivers.

It is certainly true that overall, more pedestrians are getting killed by drivers. In March, the Governors Highway Safety Association projected the number of pedestrians killed on U.S. roadways would increase by 11 percent between 2015 and 2016, the steepest year-on-year increase since record-keeping began—and comes after a 9 percent jump between 2014 and 2015. If the projection holds true, 2016 would mark the highest number of pedestrian deaths recorded in more than two decades. Guess what has also increased by record numbers in the past two years? The number of total roadway fatalities in the U.S, just 15 percent of which are pedestrians. In 2015, road deaths jumped by 8 percent. The first six months of 2016 appeared to show a jump of more than 10 percent over the same period in 2015.

It’s almost as if the cellphones responsible for rising pedestrian death totals are the ones that drivers cradle in their laps as they steer their two-ton machines at high speeds through densely populated urban areas. (Other countries have figured this out. In the United Kingdom, for example, where people also use cell phones, fatalities largely held steady between 2010 and 2015.) Dig into the data and cellphones start to look like even less of a factor in pedestrian deaths. The Ohio State study (which, keep in mind, is four years old—a lifetime in cellphone use habits) reports that 70 percent of cellphone pedestrian injuries involved talking on the phone, which drivers are allowed to do in every state (though some require headsets). The more recent GHSA report also noted that 74 percent of pedestrian deaths occur in the dark, which suggests visibility, road design, and driver focus would have played a bigger role than pedestrian distraction. Furthermore, 15 percent of pedestrians were killed by drunk drivers, and more than one-third of pedestrian fatalities were themselves over the legal limit to drive. If Hawaii really wanted to police pedestrians to save their lives, it would ban drinking, period.

But this was not exactly a data-driven effort. While Honolulu does have one of the highest pedestrian death rates in the country, the city councilman behind the bill, Brandon Elefante, got the idea from talking to high schoolers who were worried about their friends wandering into the street. I get why distracted walking is an attractive target. As a largely unsupported trend, it’s a media darling, and it’s kind of funny to see people using phones walk into lakes—especially compared to the banal carnage of car deaths. It also enables city politicians to act like they’re responding to a safety problem without actually cracking down on the people who are doing the killing—drivers. In a study of more than 3 million drivers, the driving behavior tracker Zendrive found that drivers with smart-phones use them on 88 out of 100 trips. Devices like speed camera and red light cameras, which document and punish dangerous driving, are treated as unacceptable extensions of the surveillance state. But giving the police license to detain anyone crossing the street while looking at a phone? Sure, fine.

Like jaywalking, the offense of phone-walking will be selectively enforced according to the whims of the city’s police force. It will serve, as Angie Schmitt writes at Streetsblog, "as a pretext for arbitrarily harassing pedestrians.” The way to stop drivers from killing pedestrians is to make the roads safe. More than four in five pedestrian fatalities occur outside intersections, which is not surprising: Americans suburbs are designed for cars, and people without them are condemned to play Frogger. Too often, the response is to blame the victim—rather than reformin the system that puts people in danger in the first place.

Texting and walking could soon be illegal in this and other US cities

The streets of Stamford Connecticut could look very different in the near future. That’s because a new proposal could put an end to distracted walking. The kind of walking that gets people falling over, bumping into signs and looking clueless as to how to use their legs.

While harmless trips are sort of funny, texting and walking can be more dangerous. Pedestrian fatalities spiked 11 percent last year to nearly 6,000 according to the National Governor's Highway Safety Association. CBS New York reports if the proposed law passes it could be similar to the one already in effect in Honolulu. Offenders will be fined $30.

Not all are in favor of the proposal. One person took to twitter saying: Legislating common sense should never be gov't's role. Another twitter user wrote: If "distracted walking" is a crime, then bury me under the jail, fam. One user, however, is happy people will be safe, tweeting: Well thank the Lord we have someone to tell us how to be safe.

Chicago might be the next city to enact ‘distracted walking’ law

What’s the story?

Two Chicago aldermen introduced a proposal Wednesday that would make it illegal for pedestrians to use their mobile device while crossing the street. The ordinance would allow police officers to cite pedestrians caught in the act, and violators could face fines ranging from $90 to $500. According to Edward Burke, one of the council members who proposed the measure, the goal is to make Chicago streets safer. “The goal of the introduction of this measure is to reduce pedestrian deaths and injuries, especially at crosswalks,” Burke said.

“Passage and enforcement of this new law would increase safety by eliminating distractions for pedestrians at intersections and elsewhere in the city of Chicago,” added the other sponsor of the bill, Ald. Anthony Beale. If passed, Chicago will join Honolulu and San Mateo County, California, who have already enacted similar laws. The state of California also plans to consider legislation in January. Is there evidence to support the claim that this ordinance will make Chicago streets safer?

According to the World Health Organization, people who text and walk are almost four times more likely to engage in at least one dangerous error, such as forgetting to look both ways before crossing the street or jaywalking. Additionally, distracted walkers take 18 percent more time to cross the street than an undistracted walker. The city’s Pedestrian Advisory Committee reported that 27 pedestrians have already been killed in the streets of Chicago in the first half of 2017. Twenty-six pedestrians had been killed during the same time period last year.