City asks for crosswalk phone ban

Motion ‘seems silly’ to some but council sends text message of its own, calling for province to bar pedestrians from using their devices while crossing road.
Pokemon GO players, texting addicts, and avid Instagrammers beware — city council wants to crack down on you.
At the end of a lengthy debate on the serious subject of the city’s new road-safety plan on Thursday, councillors passed a motion that had some of them laughing in the aisles. It formally asked the province to look into a ban on pedestrians using cellphones.
The amendment, moved by Councillor Frances Nunziata, requested the Ontario minister of transportation consider making changes to the Highway Traffic Act to prohibit “actively using a handheld wireless communication device or handheld electronic entertainment device while on any travelled portion of a roadway.”
It was approved by a vote of 26 to 15, with the support of Mayor John Tory.
Even some councillors were amused that it passed. “It wasn’t even a serious motion!” one member shouted. Councillor Mike Layton suggested many of his colleagues had made a mistake because they had been looking at their phones when the vote was called.
Nunziata protested as her colleagues jeered. “It’s a very serious motion!” she insisted.
“I didn’t vote for it,” said Councillor Josh Colle. “Because it seems silly to me.”
Earlier in the debate, Nunziata, the veteran councillor for Ward 11 (York South-Weston) explained her reasoning from the council floor.
“There is a fine for texting (while) driving, but there isn’t a fine for texting and walking on a roadway, and I don’t know if members of council have experienced this, but especially downtown when you’re driving and you’ve got a green light or a red light and a pedestrian is in the middle of the roadway texting and won’t move, and it’s just constantly,” she said.
“If you’re texting and driving and texting and walking across an intersection, it’s, in my opinion, the same.”
There is some evidence that using a phone while walking is a safety hazard. Ontario’s chief coroner reviewed accidental pedestrian deaths in 2010 and determined people on foot were more likely to be killed if they were using electronic devices. The review found about 20 per cent of people who died may have been distracted in some way, by using a mobile device, wearing ear buds or walking a dog.
Edmonton and Toronto have launched public awareness campaigns to address the issue of the dangers of people texting while ambulatory.
It’s also been studied by academics and insurance companies. In 2014, a Calgary councillor tried to make the practice a ticketable offence. The proposal apparently went nowhere.
Although it had council in stitches, Jared Kolb, executive director of Cycle Toronto wasn’t amused by Nunziata’s motion. Kolb has been advocating for improvements to the city’s new five-year road safety plan, and said there’s no equivalency between distracted drivers and pedestrians or cyclists who use their phones.
“Again, it’s blaming the victim,” he said, adding that “fundamentally the focus needs to be on drivers.”
“With great horsepower comes great responsibility. At the end of the day drivers of this city have got to wake up and pay attention to the roadway, cut down on their speeds, really cut the distracted behaviour out and be watching out for vulnerable road users.”