Should "distracted walking" be banned?

The pollster reads these results and tells the CBC “Maybe this is a good starting point to try to figure out whether we have mandatory regulation that makes you stop texting or using your phone before you cross the street.”

However, all the statistics on the number of injuries and deaths attributed to distracted walking show it to be negligible, perhaps 13 percent. Furthermore it hasn't changed in years, even as smart phones proliferate and more people complain about it. The other 87 percent were squished in the usual way. Why is it getting so much attention now? One could paraphrase Zero Mostel and ask: “What were those pedestrians doing in the intersection? Actually walking across the street?”

Read the entire article here:

http://www.treehugger.com/walking/should-distracted-walking-be-banned.html