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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

#71

Post by bartread »

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…

Responding here because several people have brought this up: why are you assuming I'm not stepping out of the flow to both set up walking directions and to check my phone? Just because I didn't say it explicitly doesn't mean it doesn't happen, but I fail to see the reason why every HN comment I write needs to become a giant essay in order to cover every possible objection up-front. I've just moaned about people using their phones whilst walking: I'm hardly like to stand in the middle of a busy pavement whilst I set sort out directions in Google Maps. I also didn't say that I took a dump and a shower before I left the house today but, if you absolutely insist on making an assumption, it would be much more sensible to assume that I did than that I didn't.

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

#72

Post by zeeZ »

bamboozled wrote: post #55
catalogia wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

They come in contact with it though, from those driving around them. Then there are other customs, like standing on the left side of escalators (except for Osaka, where it used to be the right side, but now it's mostly the side the line is already on). From my personal experience people in the major cities seem to prefer dodging to the left, all things being equal.

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

#73

Post by kiliantics »

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.

These things require enforcement. I rarely see or even hear of people getting tickets for using phones while driving here but, as a cyclist/motorcyclist that has to be very aware of traffic, I am constantly seeing people texting while driving. I also see most cops texting/playing candy crush in their cars too, which might explain the lack of enforcement.

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

#74

Post by catalogia »

bamboozled wrote: post #55
catalogia wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

I didn't say anything about cars and as Hamuko has pointed out, it predates cars. Wikipedia supports this claim, though doesn't cite it.

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

#75

Post by kiliantics »

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…

Yes, I think putting restrictions in place on pedestrians is more likely to have an effect of encouraging more people into cars. Before worrying about what could happen to someone walking around on their phone, how about worrying what could happen due to all the drivers on their phones? Or, as you say, give pedestrians so much space it becomes a non-issue. Why have we given >90% of public space to cars? (I'm assuming your last sentence is tongue-in-cheek.) If we had to redesign society from the bottom up, there is no way we would have done it like this.

And cue the downvotes from everyone who can't imagine life without their car :/

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

#76

Post by avar »

fiblye wrote: post #34
ghaff wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I’ve lived in some really crappy places in the US, but the only place I’ve often seen and experienced people committing obvious crimes in broad daylight was Europe. It was pretty weird having someone struggle to unzip my backpack while walking down the street. I bound the zippers with a lock and they couldn’t get in, but I guess they didn’t notice because they really fought to get it open. Seeing obvious pickpockets…

I live in one of those places (Amsterdam). It's because this isn't a practical problem for anyone living there, so why should we care to spend our tax money and police attention on it instead of crime we ourselves are affected by?

Pick-pocketing in any of the places mentioned upthread isn't some general city-wide or societal problem. It's narrowly isolated to a few tourist-trap neighborhoods, and even there only then to people who're obvious marks. Such as slow-moving tourists swarming around in groups all wearing backpacks and oblivious to their surroundings.

If you look at actual statistics on crime petty theft isn't some rampant issue in these societies.

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

#77

Post by isoskeles »

zachware wrote: post #67
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…

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.

I live in the Bay Area and do that, but it definitely seems like a lot of people don’t here.

Usually I try to stay parallel to other physical barriers like mailboxes, trees, garbage cans, etc. so there is zero possibility I’m in the way of a normal walking path.

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

#78

Post by kiliantics »

jesseb wrote: post #59
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.

In my province in Canada there are hefty fines[1] for distracted driving, and yet I still constantly see people texting and driving. It's very frustrating, and as somebody who walks/transits whenever possible terrifying at times. I don't know how to get through to people. [1] https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/transportation/driving-an...

At least where I live, in NYC, all city officials and representatives have the perk of free parking anywhere -- to the extent that they don't even get fined for parking say in a bus stop or next to a fire hydrant or even on the sidewalk or bike lane. With these people in charge of choosing and enforcing the rules of the road, we will never see safety or consideration for non-drivers. I see cops pull over cyclists for harmless stuff all the time, but see drivers pull outrageously reckless stunts on busy roads with no consequence.

I think if people who are in charge of our safety don't know what it's like to navigate as a vulnerable pedestrian/cyclist/etc. on the road, and just see us as obstacles that are slowing them down, I don't think we will see change. (And this includes the average driver, who I believe should have to log some hundred miles or so of cycling before being given a licence to drive near cyclists.) The mayor of Paris cycles to work and has pedestrianised huge parts of the city and built massive numbers of cycle lanes. This is probably not why she was elected but it is probably something we should more seriously consider when appointing people who will have power over our public spaces.

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

#79

Post by beenBoutIT »

dehrmann wrote: post #64
Wowfunhappy wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Motorized mobility scooters are the ones to watch out for.

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

#80

Post by isoskeles »

anderspitman wrote: post #43

I finally figured out what bugs me so much about people walking while looking at their phone. Without phones, when people approach each other in a hallway or on the street, there's a lot of nonvocal communication happening. You don't even have to make eye contact to decide how everyone is going to maneuver around each other. Everyone is generally looking at a point far ahead and walking in a straight line towards it.…

For me, it creates excitement at the thought that I can inconspicuously shoulder check some inconsiderate jerk.
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