100 Phone Phools

I've been wondering just how many people walk into vehicle traffic while staring fixedly at their phones. It seems ridiculously common.

So I performed a thought experiment. As I was driving, how many pedestrians would walk in front of me, in a crosswalk or not, where I would have struck them if I hadn't been aware of their presence--while staring at and/or talking into their phones, and not giving a sideways glance in my direction?

My parents, from when I was very young, hammered into me the rule that I should look both ways before crossing the street and NEVER assume that a driver who might hit me could see me. In other words, don't cross until it's clear.

It seems like everyone is suffering from PIPDSPI, or Phone-Induced Poorly Developed Self-Preservation Instinct. In three days of maybe a total of two hours' driving, I counted ONE HUNDRED Phone Phools! Almost everyone crossing the street on foot was glued to their phone! I even saw four moms pushing strollers through a busy intersection and yakking away, with their eyes fixed firmly on their screens!

How come we haven't had several million casualties by now??

Might some insurance sites contain relevant data for your study?  Or a law enforcement, i.e. police/traffic enforcement, site?  Not likely to be easily accessed. 

You might try submitting a FOI request.  Newspapers, at least ours here at home, submit those all the time in developing stories.  Explain that you are researching this for an information piece in the interest of public safety.  

Candy

Cell phone addiction is so rampant and commonplace..digital leashes controlling people's lives. It's a bad pathology..and rather sad.

Hate to say it but it is making people and specifically kids dumber than a box of rocks. The best thing that could happen to America is the regulation of social media algorithms where engagement isn't the key metric. 

All I have to say to that is..........6-7!!

Agree with your post.  The attention span of students has deteriorated at an alarming rate the past 10 years, but especially since Covid.  

At least a significant proportion of the public and/or private elementary and secondary school systems have banned varying degrees of cell phone usage by students; that's a start. Yet there's a lot of cell phone addiction and overusage by multiple age groups..even seniors who might not have much else to do during the day. Some of my own family members in their forties / fifties are super-glued to these things. It really does represent a type of societal ruination for those that don't have control limits over these cramp-inducing digital soul traps. It's a bit worrisome but we scroll along as if there are no consequences. We'll see.

No, because only actual accidents where the police or other emergency services are involved would be recorded. Some idiot wandering into traffic while staring at his phone, and an alert driver slamming on his brakes--that wouldn't be recorded.

Likewise, if a Phool is in a crosswalk and he gets hit by a vehicle, that's automatically considered the fault of the driver--even if the Phool was crossing against the signal. But of course, it's really the Phool's fault, for not looking where the bleep he's going.

I haven't hit a Phool, or had a traffic accident at all in 45 years for that matter, because I always assume that a driver or pedestrian doesn't see me, even if he should. I guess that's what these Phools think: no one has run them down yet, so everybody must always see them. It's teenage immortality all over again.

In Oregon, cell phone usage is banned in schools statewide; it isn't up to the districts. But a lot of parents complain that they won't be able to text Sweet Woogums to let them know that they'll be ten minutes late with the taxi service. 

In order to accommodate that bitching, some schools allow students to check their phones at the office as they enter. So the school secretarial staff has to check in and keep hundreds of phones at the single busiest time of day.

And of course, the kids take two phones with them and check the dead one at the office. They think they're so bleeping clever. I auto-fail for the day anyone using a phone in my class and confiscate it as well. They actually think that I can't tell what they're doing with their eyes downcast and studying their laps.

I sometimes ask them, can you not live without your phones for half an hour? Most of the time, they're kind of sheepish, because the honest answer is "no"!

So the cell phone addiction of the kids is similar to your addiction for posting on this site.  About a half hour.  

Like your addiction to being an asshole?