Be careful with smartphone near traffic
There are few things more infuriating to a driver than having a pedestrian step off the sidewalk and into the street, head down, hands furiously typing away on a smartphone, sending off a text to a friend or, perhaps, tossing a virtual ball at a Pokemon demon.
It’s the sort of thing that not only provokes road rage, but also politicians to demand action. Let’s make it illegal to cross a street while texting a message, they say.
It’s illegal, after all, to text while driving. So why not while walking? Let’s fine these careless pedestrians, they say, before they kill themselves by walking into the path of a city bus.
That’s the feeling in Toronto City Council, which earlier this month voted 26 to 15 to ask Queen’s Park to change the Highway Traffic Act to prohibit using a hand-held wireless communication device … while on any travelled portion of a roadway.” Mayor John Tory was one of those in favour.
Apparently, Toronto council has the support of its electorate. A new Forum Research poll, published on the front page of Saturday’s Toronto Star showed that 56 per cent of 868 randomly selected Toronto adults supported their city council on the issue. Only 35 per cent disagreed with a pedestrian texting ban.
Interestingly, the same poll found that 69 per cent of Torontonians agreed with a council resolution to allow street hockey on city streets. It’s OK, apparently, for a kid to be on the street, head down, stickhandling his way toward the net. Everything is fine until the kid takes a cellphone out of his pocket to answer a call from mom. Then you can throw the book at him.
Why stop at texters? Any casual observer regularly sees distracted pedestrians trying to stop an ice cream cone from dripping down their arm. Or how about those moms bending down over a baby carriage, trying to stop their child from crying?
Not to mention those two guys in the cross walk having a heated debate over whether pitcher R.A. Dickey should be sent to the minors.
If we’re going to fine distracted pedestrians, let’s go for the gusto. There’s a fortune to made out there. Stick a bylaw officer at every crosswalk. Plain-clothes, of course, they’ll catch more bad guys.
The fact of the matter is that it’s up to the driver to be the alert one. It’s the driver who is at the control of the multi-ton steel behemoth turning into the intersection. The onus has always been on the driver. So it should be.
Yes, we strongly appeal to pedestrians to use some common sense. Put the phone down before stepping off the curb. Please.
But do we really want to make walking and texting illegal? Not yet it seems. Which is why provincial Transportation Minister Steven Del Duca quickly turned down Toronto council’s request.