A law in Honolulu that bans looking at your phone while crossing the street went into effect Wednesday, making Hawaii’s capital the first major city to enact a “distracted walking” law.
The law, which allows police to write tickets for people looking down, even briefly, at any kind of screen, is intended to address the city’s high fatality rate for pedestrians. The only exception to the rule is when pedestrians need to use phones to call 911 or report an emergency, according to NPR. The minimum fine for using your phone on a crosswalk is $15, and for repeat offenders, breaking the rule can cost up to $99.
“We hold the unfortunate distinction of being a major city with more pedestrians being hit in crosswalks, particularly our seniors, than almost any other city in the country,” Honolulu’s mayor told Reuters in July when the law was passed.
The reference to seniors, not considered the heaviest smartphone users, is confusing. But as Slate’s Henry Grabar wrote at the time, the reasoning behind the new law does not fit neatly with the data on pedestrian fatalities. The total number of pedestrian deaths involving cellphones is relatively small, he wrote, and while pedestrians are being killed at an increasing rate, that can be blamed more fairly on the drivers’ cellphone use. Focusing on road design, speeding, drinking and driving, and driver focus would more effectively combat the problem, he argued. Instead, the new law “will inject police discretion into another routine of daily life—while perpetuating the media-driven myth that pedestrians are responsible for their own deaths.”
Regardless, politicians in cities and states all over the country have tried to introduce their own distracted-walking bills, almost always unsuccessfully. (According to the New York Times, there is legislation pending in two states.) But there’s already some sign others are going to be watching Honolulu to see how the law plays out. One town in California has also passed an unenforceable prohibition on cellphone use while crossing streets, according to the Times. San Diego police are trying to penalize distracted walkers by hitting them with fines for jaywalking and failing to yield. Meanwhile, other cities have tried public information campaigns and signs to remind pedestrians to look up.
Questions remain about how Honolulu will enforce its new law. Many assume it will have to be irregular and, as Grabar wrote in Slate, “according to the whims of the city’s police.”
