“Distracted walking” becomes illegal in Hawaii’s capital this week, enforced by fines of up to $99. With one of the highest pedestrian-fatality rates in the country, it is the first big American city to prohibit pedestrians from crossing the road while looking at phones or other gadgets. Pedestrian fatalities in America rose 11% last year, to nearly 6,000; mobile phones are blamed for more than 11,000 distracted-walking injuries between 2000 and 2011. Critics of the law worry about government overreach, and say that lowering speed limits, or cracking down on intoxication (of both drivers and pedestrians), would work better. Augsburg in Germany has tried another approach, embedding lights into pavements to catch the attention of downward-looking phone users and let them know when to cross a road. Before signing the bill, Honolulu’s mayor, Kirk Caldwell, lamented the need for such laws, but said: “sometimes we lack common sense”.
