Hey, there! Log in / Register
Massholes on the phone
By adamg on Fri, 02/20/2009 - 9:59am
Jessica Lipnack decides she wants a sandwich board to use while walking in crosswalks to tell Massholes to get off their damn phones and pay more attention to the intersection. She says she got the idea after an encounter with a phone-using Masshole in an SUV in a Newtonville crosswalk.
Neighborhoods:
Topics:
Free tagging:
Ad:
Support Universal Hub
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
Comments
I'm so annoyed...
...that I consider buying a cell phone jammer about once a day. (Yeah, yeah, "illegal"...)
my pet peeve of all time...
Pedestrians with cellphones are just as clueless. Kids brought up on Windows-based computers think that EVERYTHING can be done while multitasking. Stepping into traffic while engrossed in a call is as common as Masshole drivers. In a time of financial meltdowns, why can we not give a few jaywalking tickets to deserving miscreants? Or is this like flagmen, we're just "different" here?
pedestrian to pedestrian "collisions"
And it's more than just kids and traffic. Heaven help you if you're walking along and cross the path of someone yammering away on their cell, completely oblivious to anyone else on the sidewalk.
And when you catch snippets of their calls (impossible NOT to in view of how freaking loud some of them talk), it's clear that most of the conversations are about absolute nada.
Windows-based computers?
Multitasking happens on Linux and Mac computers too...
In the good old days
In the olden days when kids had to use punch cards for their computers, they focused on one thing on a time, and they liked it.
You forgot the Amiga
It had multitasking, too. :-).
always wanted one
When I was looking to move up from my Commodore 64, I really really wanted to get an Amiga. But even I could figure out it had little future. Alas.
Sorry for the digression.
When I was looking to move
Oooooh, look at Mr. Fancy Computer bragging about his high-end Commodore 64!
When I was a kid, all I had was a Commodore Vic 20.
And I liked it!
You had a VIC-20?
I took home my elementary school's Commodore PET 4032 for the summer.
that c-64...
...was a pretty remarkable little 'puter! Best games around!
Except for ...
The TI 99/4A, which had better graphics (still have mine up in the attic somewhere).
I was thinking
Perhaps the entire state fiscal crisis could be alleviated if jaywalking was a real crime and police gave out tickets. Yeah, probably not. But not only would it have the additional benefit of making traffic flow, but who knows what real criminals they'd catch?
"different"
yea, people are different here. Jaywalking is one of those crimes where the cops have to ask people to identify themselves, usually with an ID. This gets into the 4th ammendment game with many boston citizens and the police and governments don't want to (and can't) deal with these problems.
Jaywalking is a $1 fine in MA by the way, and not identifying yourself to a police officer in this situation is arrestable. Next thing you know, some wiseass ends up breaking his nose because he resisted arrest and the article comes out about police brutality regarding jaywalking....they simply don't want to deal with the crap from massholes.
Clarification
You do not, however, have to present a driver's license unless you were driving. Or any other photo id. They can ask for it, but you can simply say "don't have it on me".
I don't always have mine on me when I'm biking to work.
Stop and identify
MA isn't a stop-and-identify state. They need to ask you for your name, but they can't require an ID even if they think you're lying. Of course, the new biking law changes actually make it almost a stop-and-identify for bikers (can arrest you for lying), but still not for pedestrians. You have to give them a name (and an address, I think) but not an ID.
exactly
and there are so many massholes that dont want to give their real name or refuse to show an ID or play the "you don't have the right to know that" game.
So thats why these types of laws aren't enforced because its the honest people that have to pay.
Aw, man
I hate having to pay for other people's jaywalking tickets.
"Stop!" the cop will say.
"What?" I will innocently ask.
"Did you just see that pedestrian over there cross against the light?"
"I'm afraid I didn't."
"Well, he told me his name was Puddin Tame. I'm pretty sure it wasn't his real name."
"Yeah, you're probably right."
"But you're an honest person, aren't you?"
"Um, sure, Officer."
"Then I'm writing you his $1.00 ticket."
"Aw, Jesus! Not again!"
IT HAPPENS EVERY SINGLE TIME
Laugh while you can
You should see all the jaywalking tickets that get mailed to my house!
You think you get tickets?
I win this contest.
Why there are no jaywalking tickets here -- and shouldn't be
Unlike in many other US cities, Boston streets predate the automobile and are designed for the pedestrian. We were here first. The cars are a recent intrusion into the city, and their drivers should recognize that fact and be careful around pedestrians.
That's bullshit
The Fourth Amendment protects people against UNREASONABLE search and seizure. Asking a civil offender to present their ID is not UNREASONABLE.
If you don't wish to be accosted by a police officer, don't break laws. It's really that simple. More bullshit excuse making for lawbreakers, as is the Boston way.
Especially unwritten laws
Like cycling near a cop who doesn't even know or understand the law, but thinks he can make one up about "all bikes have to be on the sidewalk and not the roadway" out of his rump end to harass you.
That's the problem: not everybody a cop wants to harass is actually breaking a law. Driving is a privilege, but walking around is a right.
Funny, isn't it the rightwingers who are fearful of having to carry a national ID card?
That's fair
Let's test the cops every year on the knowledge of basic criminal law which we pay them to enforce. Establish a failing score, and terminate the ones that don't meet it.
That's agreed, aging cynic.
The world is full of clueless people.
State and local cops have
State and local cops have become useless in enforcing cell phone driving laws.
Common-sense pedestrians need to take the law into their own hands if they want to protect themselves. Pedestrian vigilantism...
Perhaps such laws are not being enforced because
they don't exist yet, at least in Massachusetts.
snowball season was great
snowball season was great for that. There are 3 or 4 intersections where its is instinctual now on my morning walk... there are always 1 or 2 gabbing away and running the red light after the sign tells me to walk. POW right in the side window, that gets their attention.
Dangerous idea, pierce:
This:
is dangerous, because it could cause a driver to lose control of his/her car and get in an accident, hence exacerbating a minor situation into a major one. A shout would probably suffice.
Detail?
Just to clarify: She never actually said she was in a crosswalk. Not that she becomes fair game to be run down if she wasn't, but it does possibly make a difference in determining the level of massholeism being displayed by the driver.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com
Likelihood
Just checked out that area on Google Maps. Looks like a nice area. There's a crosswalk pretty much right in front of the coffeehouse AND the bookstore. It's pretty likely that she was in one of the two crosswalks. One of them also has a ton of the "yield to pedestrian" signage. This is all on Walnut St which is a pretty heavily used N-S connector for the "inside 128" region so I imagine uncaring, fast-moving cars is already a big problem there with or without being in one of the crosswalks.
Thanks, Kaz
I actually drive that stretch every day to and from work. I often encounter folks not using the crosswalks in that area, and thus the question. I, like you, assume she was doing so, but it would make her story stronger if she stated it.
Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com