One of my favorite lines from the movies is Dustin Hoffman saying “I’m walking here”. In the scene that this famous line is said Dustin Hoffman’s character is crossing a street at a crosswalk and a taxi is trying to turn into the same lane at the same time and the two meet.
Now it has come to the attention of some legislators that some people are not able to walk and talk at the same time – at least not on their cell phones. Also, jogging with earphones on has become a problem too. Distracted walking has become a real problem.
In a recent article posted on NPR there have been a number of people that have walked into the way of oncoming cars or not heard trains coming because of talking on the phone or wearing headphones. In NY the response was to legislate.
What happened to the people in the article was very tragic but do we really need more legislation. We have legislated using cell phones while driving but have done nothing about screaming kids in the back seat or people who are eating in their car. Some states are now proposing that we get taxed by our mileage and that we have gps systems installed in our cars so that they can keep track of that.
In response to the distracted walking deaths the state of NY is proposing penalties and fines.
The question is when is enough enough? Wouldn’t a public awareness campaign be enough? A campaign like we have for smoking or for heart health or tolerance. More people die from heart disease each year than distracted walking but we are legislating heart disease.
