Thursday, July 16, 2015

Well, Sure. Perfectly Reasonable.


Utah Valley University is giving its students a lesson about texting while walking.

Matt Bambrough, the school's director of creative services, is taking a stand against the multi-tasking trend that has been "sweeping the nation" by giving texters their own lane on one of the university' staircases, KTVU reported.

"You have 18-24 year olds walking down the hall with smartphones, you're almost bound to run into someone somewhere; it's something we're dealing with in this day and age, " Bambrough told Fusion. "But [preventing collisions] isn't the reason we did it -- we did it to engage the students. It's meant to be there for people to look at and enjoy."

Rest of the misery...


9 comments:

  1. This is why I carry a good, sharp stick, sharpened on both ends, everywhere I go.

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  2. The placement of the running lane next to the zombie lane will no doubt lead to much "enjoyment".

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  3. We also need a skateboard/skate/bicycle lane (and no, not only on flat surfaces). It's surprisingly hard to tell the speed or nature of an approaching wheeled object from the wheels-on-pavement sound alone, nor is it possible, I've found, to distinguish the sound of a skateboard from that of a wheeled backback or suitcase. Bicycles (though admirable vehicles in general) are even more of a hazard to pedestrians, because they're nearly silent (though the real problem, of course, as with the skateboards and skates, is with the person onboard).

    I'd also like to see some sort of marking on road vehicles -- perhaps the equivalent of one of those lighted "student driver" rooftop signs -- whose movements will be governed more by the driver's response to an electronic voice emerging from a GPS system than by the driver's observation of hir actual physical surroundings. I've been driving since long before such systems were available, and, at least to me, it seems that the behavior of other drivers is becoming increasingly hard to predict/understand, and that over-attention to electronic voices (and not only non-driving-related cell phone conversations) is part of the explanation. Road rage-type behavior is bad enough, but at least I recognize it, and have some sense of how to give it a wide berth. Maybe I'll learn eventually, but right now I don't even know how to interpret, and thus avoid the dangers of, some of what I'm seeing.

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    Replies
    1. If I had a lawn, I'd probably also be telling people to get off it (of course, if I had a lawn anywhere near a road, it might well be full of stray pedestrians, and cars, that landed there while paying too much attention to their smartphones).

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  4. Try dealing with texters when you're in a wheelchair. After a collision, they're affronted, and I refuse to apologize. I have to constantly watch out so I don't get hit in the head. Ducking is really physically painful for me. So I end up being a little less careful than I should be.

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    1. Sounds like you need *2* sharp sticks, mounted so the tips travel a foot or so in front of the chair proper. Or maybe a pair of cattle prods. Or a cowcatcher. Do they make cowcatchers for wheelchairs?

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  5. The work you are looking for is pinball.

    http://collegemisery.blogspot.com/2011/09/ladies-and-gentleman-we-introduce.html

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