Live data from Hacker News

Yamato becomes Japan's first city to 'ban' use of phones while walking

japantimes.co.jp

61–70 of 129 posts

Re: Yamato becomes Japan's first city to 'ban' use of phones while walking

#61

I find the best thing to do when someone's walking towards you, texting, totally oblivious to your coming towards them, is to play chicken with them. Just keep walking, see how close you can get to them before they notice you. It gets pretty close sometimes, almost had a couple collisions, but so far everyone's looked up in the knick of time, gotten embarrassed and quickly veered away. Gets that adrenaline flowing th…

So it looks like they’re not so unaware of their surroundings after all?

Re: Yamato becomes Japan's first city to 'ban' use of phones while walking

#62
post #57

Could we please do it in Sweden too. Sweden are too distracted in traffic for their own good, its like mobile phone zombies sometime, people staring at a piece of glass. This includes myself sometime. Also cell phones should be banned in traffic because it causes distractions. Attention in traffic is very important.

I had to have a very strong discussion with an employee yesterday, as I almost ran him over with a forklift. He was walking back from break, head buried in his phone. I don't care if he spends his break time on his phone, and truth be told I don't even care if he sends the occasional text while working. However, I definitely have a problem with walking around a hazardous warehouse environment and not looking as what you are doing.

For context, I was reversing with a fairly precarious load and saw him walking toward my path. The backup alarm was going, and I even honked twice to get his attention. I finally had to yell loudly to get him to look up and stop.

Thankfully I was paying attention (as I also expect all of our equipment operators to do), but I also expect anyone wandering through active working areas to also be paying attention to their surroundings. These requirements aren't because I want to be a jerk or make employees miserable, it is because I don't want anyone getting hurt. The warehouse I manage isn't a huge facility with 30 forklifts running around, but there is enough activity that I do expect people to be looking around for hazards, and that is a part of the employee handbook and training.

Re: Yamato becomes Japan's first city to 'ban' use of phones while walking

#63
I really don’t understand how you can walk around on your phone with zero situational awareness. Surely if you did it enough you’d have enough practice to develop it? When I was young I used to walk around reading books; I can’t see a phone being significantly harder than that to look past…

Re: Yamato becomes Japan's first city to 'ban' use of phones while walking

#64

My dream is that one day, everyone will see the imaginary lines down the sidewalk that I do. Keep to the right, just like you're driving, and even someone texting while walking won't run into. Sadly, these lines are imaginary and while people tend to keep right, don't take it very seriously. A deeper issue is how much of the space between buildings is dedicated to private vehicles. When the sidewalk is 6 feet wide an…

> Keep to the right, just like you're driving, and even someone texting while walking won't run into. Do you have different lanes for people who walk at different speeds? Is there one for runners? Am I still allowed to stop and take in the sights?

Families with strollers are the Hummers of sidewalks.

Re: Yamato becomes Japan's first city to 'ban' use of phones while walking

#66
post #57

Could we please do it in Sweden too. Sweden are too distracted in traffic for their own good, its like mobile phone zombies sometime, people staring at a piece of glass. This includes myself sometime. Also cell phones should be banned in traffic because it causes distractions. Attention in traffic is very important.

Sweden made it an offence to use a mobile while driving and then rescinded it when they discovered that the law made no difference to the accident rate.

Re: Yamato becomes Japan's first city to 'ban' use of phones while walking

#67

My dream is that one day, everyone will see the imaginary lines down the sidewalk that I do. Keep to the right, just like you're driving, and even someone texting while walking won't run into. Sadly, these lines are imaginary and while people tend to keep right, don't take it very seriously. A deeper issue is how much of the space between buildings is dedicated to private vehicles. When the sidewalk is 6 feet wide an…

One of my favorite things about NYC is the built-in etiquette of "pulling over" when you need to putz with your phone.

You could always tell who didn't live there by who stopped flat on the street and blocked traffic.

Re: Yamato becomes Japan's first city to 'ban' use of phones while walking

#68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people in Japan don't drive so they don't really think about "sides" like people who come from car cultures do.

Interesting! That’s a bit surprising to me. In Japan they have the yellow tiles with bumps near the center of most city sidewalks that I always assumed was a kind of lane system. If it’s not to create lanes, what are those tiles for?

They are tactile paving for blind and partially sighted people.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tactile_paving

Re: Yamato becomes Japan's first city to 'ban' use of phones while walking

#69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many people in Japan don't drive so they don't really think about "sides" like people who come from car cultures do.

Interesting! That’s a bit surprising to me. In Japan they have the yellow tiles with bumps near the center of most city sidewalks that I always assumed was a kind of lane system. If it’s not to create lanes, what are those tiles for?

Lanes for the blind.

Re: Yamato becomes Japan's first city to 'ban' use of phones while walking

#70

My dream is that one day, everyone will see the imaginary lines down the sidewalk that I do. Keep to the right, just like you're driving, and even someone texting while walking won't run into. Sadly, these lines are imaginary and while people tend to keep right, don't take it very seriously. A deeper issue is how much of the space between buildings is dedicated to private vehicles. When the sidewalk is 6 feet wide an…

I believe in Japan, people walk on the left side.

They drive on the left side because they walk on the left side. They say the origin for left-hand traffic in Japan comes from the Edo period where samurai, who wore their swords on the left side, would walk on the left side of the road to avoid clashing swords with each other.
Post reply on HN