Albany Reform

$100 Fine for Crossing the Street and Talking on the Phone

Fox News reports:

By Jason Varone

10:23 AM EST on February 7, 2007

There are laws on the books to stop jaywalking, but if one New York state senator gets his way, it will soon be illegal to bop along to your iPod while crossing the street.
Sen. Carl Kruger will propose a bill that would ban using an iPod – and any other electronic device that is a distraction – while crossing traffic, WCBS-TV reported Wednesday.
“We’re talking about people walking sort of tuned in and in the process of being tuned in, tuned out,” Kruger, a Democrat, told WCBS-TV. “Tuned out to the world around them. They’re walking into speeding cars. They’re walking into buses. They’re walking into one another and it’s creating a number of fatalities that have been documented right here in the city.”

photo: Fridaycafe/Flickr

Jason Varone

Jason Varone battles the streets everyday during a 9 mile commute on his bicycle from downtown Brooklyn to the Upper East Side. In addition to his efforts on Streetsblog, he is an artist making work related to the environment and technology. Examples of his work can be found at www.varonearts.org.