Word: text
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...video hit the Internet in early March and was met with widespread media attention ("Britain's first safe text street has been created complete with padded lampposts to protect millions of mobile phone users from getting hurt in street accidents while walking and texting," the London Daily Mail proclaimed) along with much twittering in the blogosphere about the possible expansion of the Brick Lane pilot project. But it turned out that the lamppost-wrapping scheme was just a clever public-relations ploy mounted by 118118, a British directory assistance company, and Living Streets, a well-known charity dedicated to making...
...world where billions of text messages move through the ether daily - Filipinos hold the national record, having sent a billion texts per day in 2007 - it's no surprise that news of texting-while-walking accidents piqued such global interest. Though the lamppost bumpers were removed from Brick Lane after only 24 hours, the debate over such "nanny government" maneuvers and the rampant dangers of walking while texting rages on. It's a debate that New Yorkers joined last year when State Senator Carl Kruger of Brooklyn introduced a bill in Albany to combat "iPod oblivion." His bill, which...
Intuitively, the perils of texting while walking make sense. But George Branyan, pedestrian coordinator for the District of Columbia Department of Transportation, says that in most pedestrian accidents, neither text messaging nor iPod oblivion are major factors. "I am not seeing it in the crash data," Branyan says...
...might call it an avocational hazard. A recent ITN News video in the U.K. shows that some London pedestrians have become so preoccupied with e-mailing and text messaging on their BlackBerrys and cell phones that they can't make it down a city block without crashing into lampposts or trash bins. One of the most hazardous streets for "walking while texting," according to the Monty Python-esque video clip, is East London's busy Brick Lane, lined with trendy boutiques and curry shops, where people have been filmed walking head down, ricocheting off various stationary sidewalk objects. The solution...
...police recently conducted a two-month street-safety campaign, undercover cops at crossings and pull-over police units issued 6,000 tickets - two-thirds to drivers and one-third to pedestrians for jaywalking, Branyan said. Though Washington police, along with other law enforcement agencies, agree that the increase in text messaging endangers both drivers and pedestrians (many states have outlawed text messaging while driving, and Maryland and Virginia are considering banning cyclists from text messaging on the go), Branyan thinks that creating new laws to ban texting, particularly in urban areas where police already face many law-enforcement challenges...