Web Log: Texting while walking may soon be illegal

Last year, the Belgian city of Antwerp got a "text walking" lane. Shortly after this, a stretch of pavement in Washington, DC was given a phone lane, with the additional text "walk in this lane at your own risk". It turns out the former was instigated by a phone company and the latter was done for a TV show.

When officials in the Chinese city of Chongqing installed a similar pedestrian lane it was similarly done in a light-hearted way to make people aware of their walking and texting habits.

Now, texting while walking could be a criminal offence . . . in the US state of New Jersey. A bill has been introduced that would see offenders hit with a fine of $50 or up to 15 days in prison. This follows from a US National Safety Council report stating that there have been 11,101 documented injuries between 2000 and 2011 as a result of walking while using a mobile phone.

Ireland might be safe for now but we still feel the urge to push all those zombie-like shuffling phone-checkers into the gutter as we pass by.

[ http://www.nsc.org/learn/safety-knowledge/Pages/news-and-resources-pedestrian-safety.aspx ]