The Honolulu crosswalk-electronic-devices-looking-criminalization finally makes the national news at Reuters, Forbes, etc.
Note this from the Mayor in the Reuters article:
"We hold the unfortunate distinction of being a major city with more pedestrians being hit in crosswalks,
particularly our seniors, than almost any other city in the county," Caldwell said.
Honolulu data on distracted-walking incidents was not immediately available.You'd think for some guy in his position, arguing for the law (and signing it into law), and citing "seniors" in particular as the most endangered, that he'd have at this fingertips how many seniors were injured, and what percentage of those injured seniors were looking at their electronic devices when injured in a crosswalk. I call bullshit! He's making shit up. Or he's defining "senior" as "over 21 years of age". If he had real facts and data he would have said something along the lines of "80% of those people injured in crosswalks are over the age of 65, and 75% of those "seniors" injured were looking at an electronic device at the time they were injured. Seniors, those over the age of 65, are too stupid to apparently realize that looking at their electronic device while crossing the street is dangerous, so we are passing this law to protect them by fining them out of their social security money until the learn their lesson."
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hawaii-texting-ban-idUSKBN1AD2LSHonolulu targets 'smartphone zombies' with crosswalk banA ban on pedestrians looking at mobile phones or texting while crossing the street will take effect in Hawaii's largest city in late October, as Honolulu becomes the first major U.S. city to pass legislation aimed at reducing injuries and deaths from "distracted walking."