Smartphones Don't Kill Pedestrians, Cars Do

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I don't even know what to say about this. I'll let you guys tackle this one.


So stop blaming smartphones or “distracted walking” for the real problem: Cheap gas is putting more drivers on the streets than ever, and cities aren’t doing enough to keep the people on those streets safe.
 
I guess the phrase "ban assault vehicles" is no longer a mere joke to some people.
 
It doesn't matter what the pedestrian was doing. Pedestrians have right-of-way even if they are jay-walking, walking backwards, walking on their hands, standing in the middle of the road, or crawling on their hands and knees. Cars must ALWAYS yield to a pedestrian.
 
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whether its a car , smartphones, airplane , gun etc, objects don't kill , people in control or lack of control do .
 
It doesn't matter what the pedestrian was doing. Pedestrians have right-of-way even if they are jay-walking, walking backwards, walking on their hands, standing in the middle of the road, or crawling on their hands and knees. Cars must ALWAYS yield to a pedestrian.

You mean IF that car can yield in time. You know, like when that girl with headphones on, listening to music AND texting stepped off the curb directly in front of a car.

The right-of-way does not mean you can't be killed by a car by walking into traffic.

Also, under the law, pedestrians do not always have the right-of-way, even when in a marked crosswalk.
 
Pedestrians do not always have the right of way, if a pedestrian demonstrates they were not paying attention and caused an accident they are considered at fault.

IE - At a crosswalk a pedestrian still has to make sure cars are stopping/stopped before proceeding and not blindly walk out into traffic without warning, they have to give oncoming traffic a reasonable amount of indication they are going to cross etc.
 
You mean IF that car can yield in time. You know, like when that girl with headphones on, listening to music AND texting stepped off the curb directly in front of a car.

The right-of-way does not mean you can't be killed by a car by walking into traffic.

Also, under the law, pedestrians do not always have the right-of-way, even when in a marked crosswalk.


The laws DO vary from state to state. I come from the strictest state: Minnesota. Law states "Vehicle must STOP if a pedestrian is in ANY portion of the roadway". There is no leeway and you will get your license revoked for hitting any pedestrian.
 
It doesn't matter what the pedestrian was doing. Pedestrians have right-of-way even if they are jay-walking, walking backwards, walking on their hands, standing in the middle of the road, or crawling on their hands and knees. Cars must ALWAYS yield to a pedestrian.

A technicality at best.

Walk down the street at night, and when you reach a point farthest from a crossing, suddenly and without warning sprint across the street while placing your fingers in your ears and yelling "na na na na na"

Now if you live through it count yourself lucky. Right a way or not, a pedestrian's behavior on the streets can and does have a direct bearing on the chances of reaching old age. Do stupid things, win stupid prizes.

Now to the real story, this is neither a car nor is it a phone problem. This is a people problem. There is no doubt that logically if there are more drivers on the road then you will probably have more human error to go along with them. this simple fact no one should loose site of is, in a car vs cell phone fight, cars do not loose :D

Human beings are what they are. It doesn't matter what the root cause of the accident is or who winds up at fault. In a driver vs pedestrian battle you don't have to guess the outcome. The more people walking, the more people driving, the more activity you have is enough to ensure an increase in accidents.

And Steve beat me to it on some of what I said and he is correct, pedestrians don't always have the right of way.
 
A technicality at best.

Walk down the street at night, and when you reach a point farthest from a crossing, suddenly and without warning sprint across the street while placing your fingers in your ears and yelling "na na na na na"

Now if you live through it count yourself lucky. Right a way or not, a pedestrian's behavior on the streets can and does have a direct bearing on the chances of reaching old age. Do stupid things, win stupid prizes.

Now to the real story, this is neither a car nor is it a phone problem. This is a people problem. There is no doubt that logically if there are more drivers on the road then you will probably have more human error to go along with them. this simple fact no one should loose site of is, in a car vs cell phone fight, cars do not loose :D

Human beings are what they are. It doesn't matter what the root cause of the accident is or who winds up at fault. In a driver vs pedestrian battle you don't have to guess the outcome. The more people walking, the more people driving, the more activity you have is enough to ensure an increase in accidents.

And Steve beat me to it on some of what I said and he is correct, pedestrians don't always have the right of way.

As I said before, I come from the strictest state where pedestrians always have the right of way.
 
Minnesota statute 169.21.2a: Where traffic-control signals are not in place or in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall stop to yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a marked crosswalk or at an intersection with no marked crosswalk. The driver must remain stopped until the pedestrian has passed the lane in which the vehicle is stopped. No pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close that it is impossible for the driver to yield. This provision shall not apply under the conditions as otherwise provided in this subdivision.

Source - 169.21 - 2015 Minnesota Statutes
 
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I'm curious to see what comes of this. As a pedestrian, it's my own self-preservation responsibility to pay attention to my surroundings at all times regardless if I have the right of way or not.
 
Minnesota statute 169.21.2a: Where traffic-control signals are not in place or in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall stop to yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a marked crosswalk or at an intersection with no marked crosswalk. The driver must remain stopped until the pedestrian has passed the lane in which the vehicle is stopped. No pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close that it is impossible for the driver to yield. This provision shall not apply under the conditions as otherwise provided in this subdivision.

Source - 169.21 - 2015 Minnesota Statutes

Sorry I live in the city where there are traffic lights and cross walks. So I only partially "yield" to the paragraph quoted above. ;-)
 
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Minnesota statute 169.21.2a: Where traffic-control signals are not in place or in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall stop to yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a marked crosswalk or at an intersection with no marked crosswalk. The driver must remain stopped until the pedestrian has passed the lane in which the vehicle is stopped. No pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close that it is impossible for the driver to yield. This provision shall not apply under the conditions as otherwise provided in this subdivision.

Source - 169.21 - 2015 Minnesota Statutes
Yea that helps protect drivers from retards. One of my former co-workers is still battling a years long case in which a mother and two young kids blindly walked out from between parked cars jaywalking at night. Mother was killed. No criminal charges of course.
 
All I got to say on this is go wander about on I495 DC beltway while looking at your smart phone and get back to me on right of way
 
Yup, you're right. Totally my fault... but you're still a corpse. Maybe you should have taken the headphones out and looked both ways... but that ship has sailed.
 
The problem with both the Wall Street Journal Report and the Gawker Post is that both things are true. There are more cars on the road and there are more distracted pedestrians. Like all bad news stories they don't acknowledge that things aren't necessarily exclusive.
 
Look on the bright side, when cars are autonomous they'll probably do a better job of avoiding stupid pedestrians than stupid drivers can, and everyone will be able to stay glued to their ever so important twitter and facebook updates at all times.
 
I just read the article, along with a couple of related articles. Gizmodo's apparent solution is to ban cars in major cities. Yeah, no thanks.
 
Look on the bright side, when cars are autonomous they'll probably do a better job of avoiding stupid pedestrians than stupid drivers can, and everyone will be able to stay glued to their ever so important twitter and facebook updates at all times.

Yea, and cars will be able to track the pedestrians around them by their phones so it's even easier to know when someone is starting to walk out in front of them, or even the car three cars in front, they won't even rear end each other.

HEADLINE AT 7

Pedestrian ran over by autonomous car

Today a Denver man became the first pedestrian to be killed by a car since 2016. Police responding to the accident report that the man did not have a phone in his possession and assert that this greatly increased his risk and lead to his death. Mayor Deavers tweeted "When will people learn that they have to keep their phones with them always, it's so important".
 
While more cars implies more car related accidents, "distracted walking" poses danger all by itself. It wasn't that long ago where someone fall off a cliff and die all because of an electronic device.
 
Implying that "cheap gas" is somehow the culprit is every bit as stupid as blaming smartphones.
 
Minnesota statute 169.21.2a: Where traffic-control signals are not in place or in operation, the driver of a vehicle shall stop to yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a marked crosswalk or at an intersection with no marked crosswalk. The driver must remain stopped until the pedestrian has passed the lane in which the vehicle is stopped. No pedestrian shall suddenly leave a curb or other place of safety and walk or run into the path of a vehicle which is so close that it is impossible for the driver to yield. This provision shall not apply under the conditions as otherwise provided in this subdivision.

Source - 169.21 - 2015 Minnesota Statutes

Even beyond your highlighted section, that statute does not even come close to what bomni alleges it says. The "yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within a marked crosswalk or at an intersection with no marked crosswalk" is far more limiting and is doesn't apply, for example, to his example of "standing in the middle of the road".

Moreover, that is 169.21.2a. 169.21.3 states:

Crossing between intersections.

Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or at an intersection with no marked crosswalk shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

Any pedestrian crossing a roadway at a point where a pedestrian tunnel or overhead pedestrian crossing has been provided shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.

Between adjacent intersections at which traffic-control signals are in operation pedestrians shall not cross at any place except in a marked crosswalk.

Notwithstanding the other provisions of this section every driver of a vehicle shall: (a) exercise due care to avoid colliding with any bicycle or pedestrian upon any roadway and (b) give an audible signal when necessary and exercise proper precaution upon observing any child or any obviously confused or incapacitated person upon a roadway.
 
Jesus..........stupid is as stupid does.

Run Forrest run.......but leave your phone at home.
 
The author appears to have been raised to never take responsibility herself but to always blame others for her problems. I pity her children.
 
"looks at some potential tech-based solutions to keep walkers focused on walking. Like sending a notification to your phone telling you to pay attention when you’re about to step off the sidewalk."

What the F%^&?? I didn't realize people were so damn stupid they needed help walking. Or pay attention to a potential life and death situation. :confused:
 
The laws DO vary from state to state. I come from the strictest state: Minnesota. Law states "Vehicle must STOP if a pedestrian is in ANY portion of the roadway". There is no leeway and you will get your license revoked for hitting any pedestrian.


Apparently you don't know your own laws.

169.21 - 2015 Minnesota Statutes

(a) Every pedestrian crossing a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or at an intersection with no marked crosswalk shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway.
 
My car is loud as hell, so pedestrians know I'm coming. It's a little funny when I drive by a bus stop. Cause everyone hears my car and thinks I'm a bus. So they all stand up to get ready to board the bus, but find only a car driving past.
 
How did we get to 33 posts pulling apart what is the very definition of "strawman" ?
 
I don't even know what to say about this. I'll let you guys tackle this one.


So stop blaming smartphones or “distracted walking” for the real problem: Cheap gas is putting more drivers on the streets than ever, and cities aren’t doing enough to keep the people on those streets safe.

uh... people are responsible for their own actions, if you are distracted and walking in the street and get smacked you are partly to blame
 
It doesn't matter what the pedestrian was doing. Pedestrians have right-of-way even if they are jay-walking, walking backwards, walking on their hands, standing in the middle of the road, or crawling on their hands and knees. Cars must ALWAYS yield to a pedestrian.

It is reassuring to know that Newton's Law of Inertia and Newton's 3rd Law of Motion no longer apply to roads when a pedestrian is crossing. Right of Way is a concept, trying to stop a 2000 pound vehicle moving at 40 MPH in a couple of seconds is a law of physics. Drivers should always respect their environment (including pedestrians) but that won't help you stop if someone steps right in front of you.
 
This smacks of the twisted logic of a sjw... (don't cheat) was this written by a man or a woman?
 
This is some of the dumbest shit I've read.


Yes - of course - when there are more people on the road, there will be more accidents.

A more interesting metric would be "accidents per 100,000 miles traveled".

If you were to study this metric you can bet your ass that distracted driving (be it phone based, or trying to deal with a kid in the back seat without pulling over) results in MUCH higher numbers.

Another truth here is that "hands free" technologies don't help. The problem in most cases - is the mental distraction.
 
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