[Hooch Tan]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/t...distracted.html

"On the day of the collision last month, visibility was good. The sidewalk was not under repair. As she walked, Tiffany Briggs, 25, was talking to her grandmother on her cellphone, lost in conversation. Very lost. “I ran into a truck,” Ms. Briggs said. It was parked in a driveway."

It is becoming illegal in more places to use your phone while driving, without at least using hands-free and overall, I agree with the movement.  I see driving as a privilege, and I see people holding a handset, let alone texting, as very dangerous.  However, the war between drivers and pedestrians rages on, and pedestrians are far from innocent.  People not using crosswalks and paying attention to the traffic signs is bad enough, but then there are those that are completely oblivious to the world around them which makes them just as much a danger as distracted drivers.  If only there was a way we could impose or enforce the laws we currently have to encourage people to pay attention to the world around them, at least where safety is concerned.

[Hooch Tan]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/17/t...distracted.html

"On the day of the collision last month, visibility was good. The sidewalk was not under repair. As she walked, Tiffany Briggs, 25, was talking to her grandmother on her cellphone, lost in conversation. Very lost. “I ran into a truck,” Ms. Briggs said. It was parked in a driveway."

It is becoming illegal in more places to use your phone while driving, without at least using hands-free and overall, I agree with the movement.  I see driving as a privilege, and I see people holding a handset, let alone texting, as very dangerous.  However, the war between drivers and pedestrians rages on, and pedestrians are far from innocent.  People not using crosswalks and paying attention to the traffic signs is bad enough, but then there are those that are completely oblivious to the world around them which makes them just as much a danger as distracted drivers.  If only there was a way we could impose or enforce the laws we currently have to encourage people to pay attention to the world around them, at least where safety is concerned.

[stlbud]

The Darwin Awards

[Steve Jordan]

Heh... good luck with that.

The day this story came out, our local radio station went out looking for such people. They interviewed a young girl who said she's been so distracted walking while texting that she's walked into sign poles. Multiple times. And still texts while she walks. (She didn't even sound at all embarrassed to admit it, either!)

I think the day we'll be able to protect pedestrians from cars, and cars from pedestrians, is the day we put up unbreakable glass walls between every street and sidewalk, with doors at the crosswalks that only open when the signal lights activate them...

[developerzero]

I think we should just make it legal to run over people who jaywalk. That'll get their attention.


-Ryan


P.S. I'm serious, they REALLY tick me off.