Discussions

How often do you walk in the mall and someone almost walks into you?

There would be a lot of tickets issued.  
 
We have also seen people, listening to music (with earbuds), while walking being distracted as well. They miss sounds and things normally seen by the non-distracted. I wonder if this would soon follow.

Not being able to listen to music while crossing the street? Ridiculous!

the article says nothing about music and while you cant hear dangers as well you still can look around so thats a non issue imo  
 
as far as pedestrians contributing to near accidents I disagree that they dont play a part in near misses, yes drivers should be looking at crosswalks but pedestrians are supposed to make their intentions clear too and if they are looking down they can not do that nor can they see if a driver missed seeing them, or was in mid turn when they start to cross, say after mis-interpreting their intentions or missing seeing them altogether  
 
so while im not a fan of fines as far as fines goes $15 to $35 seems reasonable to get pedestrians to get involved in their own safety

A pedestrian should take some responsibility for their own safety. While a driver might be 100% at fault for hitting a pedestrian, of I were the person hit I would be pretty disgusted with myself for not watching and keeping myself safe. No point dying just because i had the right of way.

I have seen pedestrians not paying attention and walk directly onto the street without looking. If people cannot put down their phones for the 20 seconds to cross safely at a crosswalk they have some issues.

I can see the point of it, definitely if a pedestrian on their phone walks out into traffic on a green light when their not suppose to be crossing the street and they causes an accident or something along those lines. But at the same time are we going to start making laws and ticketing people for every little thing they do. Plus I`d rather see police focus on dangerous and bad drivers, than a pedestrian walking down the sidewalk on their phone.  
 
Lets do a better job of enforcing the laws that already exist, instead of constantly making new laws.  
 
Edited by The_Young_Man, 2017-11-09 16:03:43

We as a society we are absolving pedestrians of their responsibility. Around elementary schools we expect the unexpected with young bike riders.  
 
At upper middle schools, high schools or universities it is not uncommon to observe pedestrians cross a street without first looking. Yes drivers need to be vigilant. The point I understand the original poster to be making is pedestrians need to do their part.

Adam said " From the link below, I see Hawai’i is implementing a law that may ticket people for what they call “distracted walking”... aka crossing the street while buried in a screen.  There’s talk of Illinois considering the same. How would a similar law be received in Manitoba?   http://www.latimes.com/travel/deals/la-tr-hawaii-distracted-walking-tickets-in-oahu-20171108-story.html "

think law enforcement is still overwhelmed with distracted drivers and needs to focus their attention on this while out cruising our streets. Everyday in this city people are talking on their phones while driving.

GordonSchwindt said "We as a society we are absolving pedestrians of their responsibility. Around elementary schools we expect the unexpected with young bike riders.     At upper middle schools, high schools or universities it is not uncommon to observe pedestrians cross a street without first looking. Yes drivers need to be vigilant. The point I understand the original poster to be making is pedestrians need to do their part. "

should put more responsibility on pedestrians, they don't look. Drivers should pay attention so pedestrians as well should pay attention not only driver's part. I am sure a some accidents could have been prevented if pedestrians would be looking. Even walking on sidewalks I see a few looking at their phone while keep walking ahead. They do pay attention at all of their surrounding

I'm in favor of the idea however can it be enforced? I still see people driving while talking on their cell phones everyday, people jaywalking, people of all ages who are too lazy to press the pedestrian crossing button at a pedestrian crossing. As it is, I think enough of us shake our heads with some drivers in our city daily!

Sense seems to not be that comment anymore. But to create laws where our limited officers are going to be responsible for this seems to not make any sense to me. We have increased drug problems, increased crime, and increased attacks. Let our law-enforcement focus on those problems. Perhaps if there was a law that when distraction causes an accident, you can be fined, that may be legitimate but otherwise I think we are suggesting that government enforce common sense.

I was adding the fact that many who are listening to their Ipods or whatever are ALSO distracted (I know it wasn''t part of the article). As much as you can still look around, your mind/brain is the thing distracted and your actions and reactions are still slowed and you really are not paying full attention. You may also miss sounds that could alert you to possible dangers. I don''t know that it would warrant a fine unless an incident happened and it could be proven that the person was distracted.  
 
As far as a screen engulfing a person''s full attention...this could be seen already in the 80s when the arcade games were just out. People were glued to them and others waited around to pick their pockets. Often they missed that it even happened. It was an easy target. I suspect that this happened often just outside Safeway at the Shoppers Mall. Just one example. The only big difference is that it was too hard to carry around. lol Televisions/desktops/laptops engage the brain fully as well and do change brain function...but are generally also too cumbersome to lug around on a walk. If we could we would and in a sense we now do...it is now a miniature version called our phones.  
 
Marketplace just covered how cell phones...ringing, vibrating, and even suddenly not being around the user affected a person''s heart rate and distracted them from their primary activity. They did some experiments to show how addictive and distracting these devices actually are. It also went over how many years a person will waste looking at their devices. It was a lot.  
http://www.cbc.ca/marketplace/m/site/  
 
What gets me is how people think they can drive & text (and walking & texting really is the same as far as the brain is concerned). I walked around once a little in a store while just going over my list. I swerved here and there, almost running into others, noticed that I really didn''t take in what was around me. Also even when being a passenger in a vehicle, it was hard to spell correctly/get a proper sentence down, and when I looked up, I was disoriented, having to think about where we were and what direction we were headed. That was very unsettling.  
 
Edited by Flutterby, 2017-11-10 08:33:02