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CNET Tech Culture Will this state ban texting while walking?

Will this state ban texting while

walking?
Technically Incorrect: A bill is proposed by a New Jersey assemblywoman that would potentially
send texting pedestrians to jail.

Tech Culture
March 27, 2016
1:00 PM PDT

by Chris
Matyszczyk
@ChrisMatyszczyk

Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech

that's taken over our lives.
When horses bolt from
stables, rampage
through the village
and trample a few
unsuspecting
chickens, is there
anything we can really
do about it?

Send him to jail?

National Geographic/YouTube screenshot by

Chris Matyszczyk/CNET
The minute humanity
got ahold of cell
phones, it rampaged
with them. It needed them all the time, regardless of location.

The living room, the restaurant, the restroom were all places where we whipped
out our cell phones in order not to miss the latest excitements on Facebook.
Then we taught ourselves to drive while texting and even walk while texting.
Now, one lone New Jersey Democratic assemblywoman is trying to be Queen
Canute to the oncoming tide of texter-walkers.
As Philly.com reports, Pamela R. Lampitt has proposed a bill that would ne texterwalkers $50 and, for persistent offenders, offer 15 days in jail.
I fancy that, soon enough, New Jersey's jails would be full of miscreants with their
heads bowed, wondering where on earth their cell phones are.

Essentially, Lampitt wants texter-walkers to be treated as jaywalkers. She told ABC

News: "An individual crossing the road distracted by their smartphone presents just
as much danger to motorists as someone jaywalking and should be held, at
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minimum, to the same penalty."

The texter-walker problem has been considerable for quite some time. The
Governors Highway Safety Association says that pedestrian deaths involving cell
phone use more than tripled between 2004 and 2010. The gure for 2010 was
estimated to be 2 million injuries to texter-walkers.
Of course, research -- the occasional home of codifying the obvious -- has shown
that texting inhibits a human's ability to talk in a straight line and slows you down.
For all the educational steps that might be taken to discourage texter-walkers -especially kids -- if you look at the world's streets, it's not having much of an effect.
New York, Illinois, Arkansas and Nevada have also seen legislators try (and fail) to
enact laws against texting and walking. In Hawaii, a bill has been proposed that
would ne pedestrians $250 for crossing the street while using an electronic
device. Fort Lee, New Jersey managed to occasionally embrace texting and
walking under its "dangerous walking" laws.
The truth, of course, is that we've all become increasingly unaware of our
surroundings, as we're all too entranced by our phones. Texters have been known
to fall into mall fountains, plunge into Lake Michigan and even disappear down
sinkholes.
It's entertaining, unless someone gets hurt.
MORE TECHNICALLY INCORRECT

Thousands sign satirical petition to

allow guns at Republican Convention
Louis C.K. says Internet news is
heroin
Man arrested for failing to return
video rental in 2001

However, the chances of Lampitt's proposal passing seem

slight. It's not even up for a vote yet. She herself admitted to
Philly.com: "If it builds awareness, that's OK."
Awareness, of course, is what we toss
away when we walk and text. And we
won't stop, will we?

Personally I nd it distracting enough

when I see people walking down the
street apparently talking to themselves -- and then I see their
headphones.
Several times, though, I've walked straight into them. Well, I
had an important text to send.
Tags: Technically Incorrect, Tech Culture, Mobile

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