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

japantimes.co.jp

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

#81

Post by andor »

jrockway wrote: post #39

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…

Where to walk is also a cultural thing. In many places in Asia, groups of people don't form lanes, but walk "through" each other.

A bit like how in some places there is less of a reliance on traffic rules, instead people watch out for each other more.

Friends have told me that in India you can just cross busy streets by foot and cars will let you pass. If you're from India, please chime in ;-) Here in Germany many would stop at the last possible moment just to make it clear you broke the rules.

If I could pick a skill for everyone out in traffic, I'd definitely choose empathy and patience over seeing imaginary lines.

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

#82

Post by jeffbee »

ghaff wrote: post #30
afarrell wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I still remember getting my phone swiped on the sidewalk across from my favorite restaurant on Chapel Market. (There are many words I've adopted since moving here. "Pavement" is not one of them.")

Anecdotally, for some reason, random swiping and lifting of electronics, laptops, etc. seems more prevalent in Europe than in the US. Whenever I've heard of a colleague's laptop of whatever being lifted at dinner, it's always Barcelona, Amsterdam, Brussels, etc. rather than San Francisco or New York City. I'm sure it happens in those places too but it seems less common.

People are always doing the snatch-and-run in Berkeley. Very common. It used to be that robbing undergrads was pointless but now they all have a macbook and an iphone so it's worth it.

https://www.berkeleyside.com/2019/03/19/berkeleys-caffe-stra...

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

#83

Post by netsharc »

vlod wrote: post #58
jrockway wrote: post #39

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, Do you then switch to the left when walking in the UK? :)

IMO (in my observation) natives actually instinctively do pick the side of the pavement to walk on as if they were cars on the road...

It's fun then when you have Chinese or American tourists in Japan (Japan is right hand drive)...

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

#84

Post by blueblisters »

andor wrote: post #81
jrockway wrote: post #39

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…

Where to walk is also a cultural thing. In many places in Asia, groups of people don't form lanes, but walk "through" each other. A bit like how in some places there is less of a reliance on traffic rules, instead people watch out for each other more. Friends have told me that in India you can just cross busy streets by foot and cars will let you pass. If you're from India, please chime in ;-) Here in Germany many wo…

You can cross busy streets in India on foot - it comes with practice. But doesn't mean drivers wouldn't be aggressive towards you. Pedestrians are almost never given right of way even on designated crosswalks.

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

#85

Post by laurieg »

catalogia wrote: post #46
jrockway wrote: post #39

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.

Japanese sidewalls are rather paradoxical: where rules and order are so valued, pedestrians are in chaos. People walk 4 abreast, walk in bicycle lanes, randomly change direction without looking etc.

Escalators are even stranger. There are signs everywhere telling people to stand on both sides. These are completely ignoreed. People fill up one side completely and leave the other side empty for the occasional walker.

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

#86

Post by chewz »

catalogia wrote: post #46
jrockway wrote: post #39

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.

It depends...

60-Hz AC in Osaka and 50 Hz in Tokyo. Standing on the left of the escalator in Tokyo and on the right in Osaka. Oh Japan..

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2011/07/19/reference/japan...

https://kotaku.com/its-hard-for-japan-to-change-its-escalato...

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

#87

Post by Sephr »

tw04 wrote: post #26
bartread wrote: post #10

In general I find people using their phones whilst walking to be a nuisance, but I'm still not particularly in favour of this. There are at least two legitimate use cases that don't cause too many problems: 1. Using your phone as an actual phone (i.e., an audio only conversation with the thing held to your ear, or with a headset). 2. Using it as a navigational aid. If I'm not too sure where I'm going I'll often use e…

>1. Using your phone as an actual phone (i.e., an audio only conversation with the thing held to your ear, or with a headset). There's no indication this bans audio calls, given it specifically calls out smart phones I'd wager that's not their intent. >2. Using it as a navigational aid. If I'm not too sure where I'm going I'll often use either Google or Apple Maps to set up directions before I start walking. I'll the…

Phones can be a real-time navigational aid for the blind[1]. This requires the phone to record your surroundings, which means either holding your phone while walking or making a holster for the phone on the front of your shirt/jacket.

1. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seeing_AI

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

#89

Post by aspenmayer »

amelius wrote: post #13
bartread wrote: post #10

In general I find people using their phones whilst walking to be a nuisance, but I'm still not particularly in favour of this. There are at least two legitimate use cases that don't cause too many problems: 1. Using your phone as an actual phone (i.e., an audio only conversation with the thing held to your ear, or with a headset). 2. Using it as a navigational aid. If I'm not too sure where I'm going I'll often use e…

> In general I find people using their phones whilst walking to be a nuisance, but I'm still not particularly in favour of this. Makes me wonder, if you bump into them and they drop their phone and break it, who is responsible? What if they were standing still and texting in the middle of the sidewalk?

Until the legal system adjudicates, it is ambiguous what responsibility is borne by the two parties; also unclear are expectations or assumptions regarding accountability, foreseeability, and preventability of actions or effects.

If I could not have reasonably prevented you from running into me, it isn’t my fault that I didn’t avoid it, but it may still be my fault for moving in a manner in which I can’t respond to situations outside my control. Likewise, if could have acted differently to forestall, reduce, or prevent a problem from occurring, and yet I did not act in a way which would avert known unwanted results, I am not necessarily culpable, but I may be found lacking in grounds to blame the other for also not acting differently.

Good Samaritan laws[1] try to embody this implicit social expectation, but enforcement of these laws can lead to its own sort of selective moral policing.[2][3]

Many of these same social undercurrents also seem relevant to the new focus on social justice and cancel culture. It seems that those being judged often feel that they are judged too harshly, and bristle at being judged at all. I hope we can find ways to stop pointing fingers and start linking and building. It’s far easier and quicker to tear down than to build, and its impact is just as fleeting, thus the need for more finger pointing. Outrage is a renewable resource, but we as moral agents are only capable of feeling so much before we become desensitized to it in some way.

I worry that one day people won’t be able to care about bad things happening in the world, because they don’t relate to a shared society at all. I hope for a future society[4] where social and civic participation at the individual level is collaborative and welcomed, and where all perspectives are judged on their merits outside an echo chamber.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Good_Samaritan_law

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duty_to_rescue

[3] https://www.policeone.com/police-jobs-and-careers/articles/a...

[4] https://web.archive.org/web/20170221125058/http://lareviewof...

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

#90

Post by Barrin92 »

kwhitefoot wrote: post #66
acd wrote: 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.

pretty difficult to know how high the compliance actually was. One of the first articles I could find was that the police found it difficult to apply.

So likely less of an issue of it not being dangerous but rather hard to enforce.

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