Text-Walking May Become Illegal in Illinois

[Robert_]

Thankfully a majority of you haven't had any walking while texting incidents, and knock-on-wood, I haven't either. Well in Illinois this past January, a bill was introduced that would ban people from using their cell phones while crossing the street.

    "This legislation is not laughable. On the surface it's like, 'Oh wow, what is this?' But it's becoming more and more of a common problem with people haplessly crossing an intersection and almost killing themselves."

Says Ken Dunkin, the representative who introduced the bill. Dunkin also mentioned that there have already been two deaths of two New York City pedestrians who were said to have been walking and texting.

The Chicago Tribune notes how the brain's ability to multitask makes text-walking possible, even though it's a delicate balancing act. I honestly don't know what I'd do if California banned texting while walking, because texting most likely consists of emailing too, which I love doing to and from work!

http://www.geeksugar.com/1824004

[rogueclown]

ugh.

i live in chicago, and it's been all over the news.  such bullshit.  seriously...not watching where you're walking when you text hurts only yourself, and people getting run over if they're too dumb to watch where they're going when they're walking down the street is called natural selection.

[rbcp]

Anyone remember earlier this year when some artist/prankster covered lamp posts in the UK with padding and got the media to believe that it was to prevent text walkers from hurting themselves when they run into the posts?  Here's an article about it:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-525785/Brick-Lane-Britains-Safe-Text-street-padded-lampposts-prevent-mobile-phone-injuries.html

[MattGSX]

I distinctly remember this being on Fark last week.