Posted on 07/13/2013 7:18:30 AM PDT by ConservativeStatement
THE TOWN of Fort Lee, N.J., has outlawed texting while jaywalking, issuing scores of $54 tickets to pedestrians who send or read messages while drifting out of crosswalks. Tiny Rexburg, Idaho, bans texting while crossing the street. Last year the Utah Transit Authority created a $50 civil fine for distracted walking across its transit tracks. Even in Nevada, where “Anything Goes” should be the official state song, legislators filed a bill this year making it a crime to read, write, or send data while crossing a public way.
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
I’m getting ready to go out and walk 4 miles. I’m taking my iPhone. Whether on the phone or not, I walk only on sidewalks or trails and when I have to cross, I stop the iPod or conversation and look all directions. I always yield to the right. Just a fact of life. When talking on the phone I use earbuds. I don’t know if that is better or worse. I usually only have one bud in so that I can hear stuff around me. I don’t crank it up loud. Just common sense. I’ve walked probably thousands of miles in the last five years.
Let us not be fooled....it has nothing to do with common sense or safety.
These government entities know that any person who can afford $50/month or more for a phone is good for getting hit with yet another stealth tax.
Recently I saw a guy, probably in his early 50’s riding a bike and texting with both hands.
It does amaze me how some people manage to survive as long as they have.
“Let us not be fooled....it has nothing to do with common sense or safety.
These government entities know that any person who can afford $50/month or more for a phone is good for getting hit with yet another stealth tax.”
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DING DING DING!!! I think we have a winner here!
There are a lot of stoopid people out there doing stoopid things, (can anyone say “Darwin Award?”) and this law is an example of nanny government protecting the stoopid from themselves and the consequences of their stoopid actions....and as you point out, a hidden tax on the financially well-off stoopid. And more freedom out the window.
When I was a kid, the community pool lifeguards would punish us for running or other offenses, by making us pick up litter. No judge, no jury, no money in their pockets.
SHEESH....the other day walking in the parking lot at Lowes, between cars, returning to my vehicle, I looked down at my key fob (as I was walking) and ran smack into some VERY extended side mirrors on a large pickup....just about had whiplash....cell phones are NOT the only distractions.
I’m generally ok with laws designed to protect people from being preyed upon by others, but laws intended to protect people from themselves are typically intrusive and inevitably lead to no good.
Per my response at #9, laws should generally be tailored to protect individuals from others, not from themselves. A better thought out law would be one indemnifying the drivers who might hit a clueless texting pedestrian from any criminal or civil actions. Let the morons text and play in traffic, just don't force others to pay for the injuries they will almost inevitably sustain.
Two years ago at Daytona Bike Week I was riding next to a guy texting while cruising down the road. Total insanity.
It seems to me it would also be a good way to flush the stupid out of the gene pool....
We live on bit of quite a long hill, and often see kidz skateboarding down....and more than a few have their devices up against their faces, thumbs a-racing.
I love the way your mind works!
If the law were just that, there would/should be no ‘fine’...community service would work wonders after a few incrementing failures.
No, MOST laws are to generate $$ and nibble away at Freedom/Liberty of everyone.
Darwin should be free to thin the herd.
It can be dangerous but also entertaining.
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