STARKVILLE – Of course, it has name that fits our self-absorbed society – it’s called “distracted walking.” Consider it a second cousin to “distracted driving.”
The latter concept is one that’s been around longer and is more familiar to a larger audience of Americans. If you drive while eating, talking on the phone, texting, surfing the internet, fiddling with something in the glove box, applying makeup, dealing with kids in the back seat, arguing with someone or one a hundred other things, you’re a distracted driver.
But “distracted walking?”
Sid Salter
Yes, Virginia, it’s a problem. Pedestrians who can’t hear because of ear buds, can’t see because of sunglasses, or who are talking or texting on cell phones or fooling with mobile devices – or otherwise engaged in some activity that takes their attention away from walking from Point A to Point B are now called “distracted walkers.”
And increasingly, governments want to help you with that by fining you or otherwise punishing the behavior.
Stateline, a new agency of the Pew Trusts, offered these statistics: “Pedestrian injuries due to cell phone use are up 35 percent since 2010, according to federal emergency room data reviewed by Stateline, and some researchers blame at least 10 percent of the 78,000 pedestrian injuries in the U.S. in 2012 on mobile device distraction. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting system attributes about a half-dozen pedestrians deaths a year to ‘portable electronic devices,’ including phones and music players.”
We’ve all seen the viral videos. People occupied with cell phones or other devices walk into fountains, trip over curbs, fall off bridges or subway platforms. Others simply walk in front of moving traffic.
Cities and states are beginning to float legislative efforts to punish distracted walking. There are now $50 fines in Utah for distracted pedestrian behavior near commuter rails. Major cities around the country are looking at incorporating the behavior into their existing jaywalking crimes and fines.
One piece of information I can offer researchers and legislators alike is the fact that “distracted walkers” is a generational thing that’s going to grow by leaps and bounds. I’m on a college campus each day and I’ve seen the future.
Kids hit the crosswalks and cross streets at random deafened by ear buds and with their vision buried in electronic devices. Their assumption is that the fact that pedestrians are assumed to have the right-of-way on our campus will protect them – that drivers will make allowances for their inattention and sense of total oblivion to the world around them.
It is essentially impossible to get a lot of the next generation of adults to disconnect from the universe. In movies theaters, they don’t obey directives to stop texting or talking on the devices. In restaurants, they talk to each other but look at their small screen while occasionally spearing a bite from the places of food in front of them.
But it’s unfair to blame this on college kids. Take a look at the drivers streaming toward you in traffic sometime and count the number who are on the phone or texting or eating or otherwise preoccupied. Trust me, the numbers will astound you – and frighten you a bit.
There is, thank goodness, an effective high-tech solution.
My father mastered it back in the 1960s. When my sisters and I were not looking where we were going, we would feel the not-so-gentle reminder of a class ring or knuckle rapping us in the back of our little skulls, followed by an easy-to-understand: “Hey, watch where you’re going!”
Unfortunately, as the statistics indicate, there aren’t enough overbearing fathers left out there to save us from ourselves on the “distracted walking” beat. There’s going to be a certain number of self-absorbed folks who walk into traffic – literally dying to know the content of the next “where r u?” text or equally mindless cell phone conversation.
But at least governments are figuring out a way to make some money from it, aren’t they?
Sid Salter is a syndicated columnist.
Contact him at 601-507-8004
or sidsalter@sidsalter.com.