Texting While Walking Banned in Fort Lee, N.J.

[Stoner4Life]

Avid texters beware: Fort Lee, N.J. police said they will begin issuing $85 jaywalking tickets to pedestrians who are caught texting while walking.

"It's a big distraction. Pedestrians aren't watching where they are going and they are not aware," said Thomas Ripoli, chief of the Fort Lee Police Department.

Ripoli said the borough, which is home to approximately 35,000 residents, has suffered three fatal pedestrian-involved accidents this year. He hopes his crackdown on people who display dangerous behavior while walking will make his town safer, but not everyone is on board with the idea of issuing $85 tickets.

"When I walk I still look around. I'm not like constantly looking down the whole time," said resident Sue Choe.

Another woman complained about the tickets were "a lot of money."

Officers handed out pamphlets during a short grace period in March before they began aggressively going after "dangerous walkers."

More than 117 tickets have been issued, according to the New Jersey Record.

Two professors at Stony Brook University in New York conducted a study on walking and texting. They found texters are 60 percent more likely to veer off line than non-texters.

"We want to raise awareness that a real disruption occurs because of texting," Eric Lamberg, co-author of the study, told Long Island Business News. "Texting disrupts your ability much more than does talking."

http://gma.yahoo.com/blogs/abc-blog...rsey-town-152720795--abc-news-topstories.html



I can't begin to imagine what's coming next.......

 

[Treetroit City]

If they just made texting in any form illegal, they would keep everyone a lot safer and raise even more revenue. Just a thought.
Ya know, to protect us.

 

[jessethestoner]

3 deaths this year c'mon
the world's lighter! we just lost a idiot!

 

[WelderDan]

Meanwhile in Florida, legislators refuse to ban texting and driving because it would affect them.

Common sense has left the building.

 

[Babbabud]

come on wheres the law about chewing gum and walking ?

 

[187020]

 

[resinryder]

Maybe if they text while running they would be harder to hit.

 

[amannamedtruth]

I thought this was an onion article at first...

 

[longearedfriend]

I know someone who got a ticket for walking inebriated

he had just enough to pop the .08

it's ridiculous

I figure it's better to walk after drinking 2-3 beers then taking your car

 

[longearedfriend]

you know

I started wondering about speeding laws in the last few weeks

I guess speeding can be dangerous in a 2 lane zone because some people have not realized yet that in a 2 lane.. one is for going faster and one if for steady speeds..

I dunno why they don't teach that in driving schools and no questions are asked about that in driving exams

I wonder about the necessity and use of putting police with radars on the roads

for one, it's limiting me as a human being, my full power, god power
putting limits on me makes me some sort of an idiot

two, repression does not work in the drug war, it does not work when raising kids, can it work with speed limits ?

people are still speeding even if they can get fines... they only catch a few... just like drug dealers

a 200$ speeding ticket can cost a poor person 10 hours of his work life

your going fast to save time, and then their taking your time

I somehow believe that you can drive fast and that you can drive cautionly at the same time

in germany they don't have speed limits on high ways... but from what i've been told by family who spent a lot of time there, and from the little experience I had there, people seem to be much better drivers...

I would like to ask a police officer (if I ever get stopped for speeding) if he really feels he is making a difference, if he or she really believes they are not wasting their time

sure they make their money, and they have a quota on the number of speeding tickets they need to give out

but I don't think this is the way society should be making money

this is off topic but slightly related

should we really be telling people what they should be doing ?

so your gonna stop doing stuff because you will be scared of losing money ?

but then the rich can do whatever the hell they want

 

[Hammerhead]

Might as well make reading a book while walking Illegal .. What a fuked up world we live in..

 

[Harry Gypsna]

Wait til they start on the officially sanctioned technique for wiping your arse.,
All bog roll(TP) will be embedded with a microscopic gps chip, and any deviation from a perfectly straight front to back motion will result in asset seizure.

 

[Snoopster]

I have almost run over a girl texting and walking, she just stepped out in the street against the light. I could have plowed her over and not even gotten a ticket.

I leaned out the window and said, "Watch out for death."
She flipped me off.
Shouda hit the bitch.

 

[flubnutz]

cha-ching! another bullshit reason to reach in your wallet.

 

[fukndenny]

sooooo... i wonder how they can prove you were actually texting? what if you were taking a picture or a video?

weird ban.

 

[GOOROO]

you know

I started wondering about speeding laws in the last few weeks

I guess speeding can be dangerous in a 2 lane zone because some people have not realized yet that in a 2 lane.. one is for going faster and one if for steady speeds..

I dunno why they don't teach that in driving schools and no questions are asked about that in driving exams

I wonder about the necessity and use of putting police with radars on the roads

for one, it's limiting me as a human being, my full power, god power
putting limits on me makes me some sort of an idiot

two, repression does not work in the drug war, it does not work when raising kids, can it work with speed limits ?

people are still speeding even if they can get fines... they only catch a few... just like drug dealers

a 200$ speeding ticket can cost a poor person 10 hours of his work life

your going fast to save time, and then their taking your time

I somehow believe that you can drive fast and that you can drive cautionly at the same time

in germany they don't have speed limits on high ways... but from what i've been told by family who spent a lot of time there, and from the little experience I had there, people seem to be much better drivers...

I would like to ask a police officer (if I ever get stopped for speeding) if he really feels he is making a difference, if he or she really believes they are not wasting their time

sure they make their money, and they have a quota on the number of speeding tickets they need to give out

but I don't think this is the way society should be making money

this is off topic but slightly related

should we really be telling people what they should be doing ?

so your gonna stop doing stuff because you will be scared of losing money ?

but then the rich can do whatever the hell they want

funny little rant here ya got.....

ha speeding tickets suck...and I don't know how I really feel about it....sometimes it seems right...sometimes it doesn't ....


got a 21 over ticket today....sucks...but i was going a bit to fast...
I was only layin into third in the turbo to see if the clutch was slipping....It was...ticket on top of that..weak.

 

[supermanlives]

gee another useless law designed to relieve us of our cash. i dont like nj anyhow.

 

[HempKat]

This law should be defeatable in court as pedestrians automatically have the right of way but going after the few drivers that hit a distracted pedestrian probably doesn't generate as much revenue as going after all the distracted pedestrians. Seriously though, because of the weight of a car, the speed it can reach and the force/momentum that is created a pedestrian doesn't stand a chance in a collision with a car, so most if not all states give pedestrians the automatic right of way. Therefore the obligation is on the driver to maintain complete awareness of the environment and full control of the vehicle. The only way a driver ever wins when hitting a pedestrian is if the pedestrian steps out from behind something at the last minute and the driver never had a chance to slow down or give the pedestrian right of way. Even then the driver still usually gets charged with involuntary manslaughter.

 

[Snoopster]

It varies by state law. A pedestrian crossing with a red light does not have the right of way in my state. A pedestrian must yield to cars when crossing a street, not at an intersection.

If there is a push button cross walk the pedestrian must use the button to gain right of way with the symbols.

In my situation the girl crossed in front of my car when there was a red light. If I ran her down she would have been issued a ticket.


I don't like the law. If you are dumb enough to text and walk and get run over, maybe we are all a little better off.

 

[megayields]

Finally a law that makes sense!