Yamato becomes Japan's first city to 'ban' use of phones while walking • Hacker News Board

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

#91

Post by Barrin92 » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 6:22 PM UTC

ravenstine wrote: post #33

Eventually more people will be moving out of cities after enough of them enforce one too many rules to appease some people. Obviously, not everyone will, but it rules like this seem counter to what the global system wants, which is to cram people into cities.

This is Japan, not the US. People in Japan don't balk at every regulation and are generally pretty accepting of putting rules in place in public spaces if it improves quality of public life, which is true for people in most cities on the globe to be honest.

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

#92

Post by willcipriano » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 6:35 PM UTC

saagarjha wrote: post #61

grawprog wrote: post #48

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?

The human mind is incredible, the sound of a car in the distance getting slightly muffled by the body now directly in front of you might cue the subconscious mind that something in the scene has changed triggering you to look up. My guess is all the talk of a sixth sense is just tiny cues from the other senses all getting subconsciously analyzed together.

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

#93

Post by tdeck » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 6:35 PM UTC

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…

Reminds me of this image from the London blackout [1]. They were more strict about walking on the correct side (in this case left) so people wouldn't run into each other in the dark.

[1] https://geographicalimaginations.files.wordpress.com/2017/09...

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

#94

Post by Grue3 » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 6:41 PM UTC

If you're proposing a law, and a study says that 12% of people would violate this law, it's a major indication that this is a bad law.

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

#95

Post by fzeroracer » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 6:46 PM UTC

Grue3 wrote: post #94

If you're proposing a law, and a study says that 12% of people would violate this law, it's a major indication that this is a bad law.

Is it?

Studies seem to indicate that around that many people admitted to or have drove drunk in America for example. Does that mean drinking and driving laws are bad?

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

#96

Post by calcifer » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 7:04 PM UTC

Grue3 wrote: post #94

If you're proposing a law, and a study says that 12% of people would violate this law, it's a major indication that this is a bad law.

By this logic murder shouldn't be illegal because most people don't murder anyway?

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

#97

Post by Someone » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 7:08 PM UTC

netsharc wrote: post #83

vlod wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>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)...

That makes sense, as it makes the pedestrians closest to the road face incoming traffic. That makes temporarily stepping onto the road when pedestrian traffic gets too busy for the available width of the sidewalk a lot safer.

(Some, possibly many, countries use the same logic for setting rules for pedestrians walking on the side of a road without sidewalks)

And you likely know it, but in Japan cars drive on the left.

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

#98

Post by Grue3 » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 7:11 PM UTC

fzeroracer wrote: post #95

Grue3 wrote: post #94

If you're proposing a law, and a study says that 12% of people would violate this law, it's a major indication that this is a bad law.

Is it? Studies seem to indicate that around that many people admitted to or have drove drunk in America for example. Does that mean drinking and driving laws are bad?

Drunk driving had to be banned because it's just too dangerous. It had to be eradicated at all costs even despite many people violating this law. On the other hand there's no indication that texting while walking is more dangerous than walking while drunk. Walking is a low-risk activity which doesn't require a license and people routinely do it while being under an influence.

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

#99

Post by Grue3 » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 7:13 PM UTC

calcifer wrote: post #96

Grue3 wrote: post #94

If you're proposing a law, and a study says that 12% of people would violate this law, it's a major indication that this is a bad law.

By this logic murder shouldn't be illegal because most people don't murder anyway?

My point was that this law makes 12% of pedestrians illegal, which is too high, not that nobody does this.

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

#100

Post by rayiner » Sat, Jul 04, 2020, 7:14 PM UTC

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…

> 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.

As someone from Bangladesh, I couldn’t disagree more. Give me rule following Germans any day of the week.