在火奴鲁鲁，过马路时看手机请交35美元
他们行走在拥挤的街头，眼睛却绝不离开手机屏幕，这样的人无处不在。但是边走路边发短信可能会非常危险——对此，美国和欧洲的城市已经开始采取行动了。
Honolulu has passed a law, which will take effect Wednesday, that allows the police to fine pedestrians up to $35 for viewing their electronic devices while crossing streets in the city and surrounding county. Honolulu is thought to be the first major city to enact such a ban.
火奴鲁鲁通过了一项将于周三生效的法案，它允许该市及周边郡县的警察对过马路时查看电子设备的人处以35美元罚款。该市是第一个制定这种禁令的大城市。
“This is really milestone legislation that sets the bar high for safety,” said Brandon Elefante, the City Council member who proposed the bill. Pedestrians, he said, will share the responsibility for their safety with motorists.
“这是一个立法里程碑，为安全树立了高标准，”提出该法案的市议员布兰登·埃莱凡特(Brandon Elefante)说。他说，行人与机动车驾驶者应当共同为安全负起责任。
In the United States, pedestrian deaths in 2016 spiked 9 percent from the year before, rising to 5,987, the highest toll on American roads since 1990, according to federal data. One reason may be the sharp rise in smartphone use, “a frequent source of mental and visual distraction” for both drivers and walkers, a report by the Governors Highway Safety Association found.
根据联邦数据，在美国，2016年行人在交通事故中的死亡人数比上年增长了9%，上升到5987人，死亡率为1990年以来最高。智能手机使用的急剧上升可能是原因之一，美国州际高速公路安全协会(Governors Highway Safety Association)的一份报告说，智能手机是“导致司机和行人精神和视觉分心的常见原因”。
“I’m guilty myself,” said Charles Chan Massey, chief executive of Synaxis Meetings & Events, a management firm, who uses the time walking to and from meetings and business lunches to catch up on calls, texts and emails.
“这种事我也会干，”从事企业管理的辛纳克西斯会议与活动公司(Synaxis Meetings&Events)的首席执行官查尔斯·钱·麦西(Charles Chan Massey)表示，他总是利用外出吃商务午餐来回步行的时间打电话、发短信和处理电子邮件。
“A lot of people do it; they know it’s risky and do it anyway. They convince themselves that ‘this text is important,'” he said. “It’s something we need to be aware of.”
“很多人都这么做。他们知道这是有风险的，可还是这么做了。他们说服自己，‘这个短信很重要’”，他说。“我们需要注意这件事。”
There is a dearth of data directly linking distracted walking to pedestrian injuries and deaths, but it seems to be a global problem, too. Preliminary studies “give a hint to unsafe behavior,” said Dr. Etienne Krug, director of the Department for Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention at the World Health Organization.
关于行人注意力不集中同他们在交通事故中受伤或死亡的关联，目前尚不存在直接证据，但这似乎是一个全球性的问题。世界卫生组织非传染性疾病、残疾，暴力和伤害预防司(Department for Management of Noncommunicable Diseases, Disability, Violence and Injury Prevention at the World Health Organization)司长艾蒂安·克鲁格(Etienne Krug)博士说，初步研究“表明这是一种不安全行为”。
People who text and walk, for example, are nearly four times as likely to engage in at least one dangerous action, like jaywalking or not looking both ways, and take 18 percent more time to cross a street than undistracted pedestrians. Solutions, Krug said, are “hard to legislate and even harder to enforce.”
例如，边走路边发短信的人做出至少一个危险行为的可能性要高出四倍，他们可能会乱穿马路，或者过马路时不左右看;而且他们过马路的时间要比注意力集中的行人多18%。至于解决方案，克鲁格说，“立法很难，执法就更难了。”
A number of other cities have come up with creative ways to help protect cellphone zombies, who talk, text, listen to music, check their email and even snap selfies. Initiatives include low-tech efforts, like edgy signs in Hayward, California. (“Heads Up! Cross the Street. Then Update Facebook.”) and no-selfie zones in Mumbai, India, and specially designed traffic lights in Europe and several pieces of legislation in reaction to Honolulu’s new law.
其他城市已经提出种种创新方式来保护这些一边走路一边打电话、发短信、听音乐、检查电子邮件，甚至自拍的手机僵尸们。其中包括一些低科技举措，比如加利福尼亚州海沃德市一则激动的标语。(“抬头!过马路。然后再刷Facebook”);印度孟买设立了禁自拍区;欧洲有了特殊设计的红绿灯，还有一些地方提出了与火奴鲁鲁新法规类似的立法。
Last month, the Board of Supervisors in San Mateo County, California, unanimously passed a resolution prohibiting pedestrians’ use of cellphones while crossing streets. It’s not enforceable, as state law governs such issues, but David Canepa, who introduced the measure, said it was an important springboard; the resolution is expected to go to the California Legislature for statewide consideration in January.
上个月，加州圣马特奥县督察委员会一致通过了一项决议，禁止行人过马路时使用手机。这是无法执行的，因为这些问题属州法范畴，但是该措施的提出者戴维·卡内帕(David Canepa)说，这是一个重要的跳板;该决议预计将于明年1月提交加利福尼亚州议会，考虑在全州实施。
Critics are concerned about personal freedom and slow to adjust to new ideas, Canepa said. “But at the end of the day, people understand the value of public safety,” he added. “This legislation is practical and is common sense. It will save lives.”
卡内帕说，批评者们担心人身自由方面的问题，他们对新想法的适应很慢。“但人们最终会了解它在公共安全方面的价值，”他补充说。“这个立法很实际，而且符合我们的日常认知。它是能救命的法。”
At least 10 states have debated similar legislation dealing with distracted pedestrians or bicyclists; none of it has passed, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Legislation is pending in two states, the group said, and in September, New York passed a law that directs New York City to study its efforts to educate the public on the dangers of distracted walking.
至少有10个州已就行人或骑行人注意力不集中进行了类似的立法辩论;然而根据全美州议会联合会(National Conference of State Legislatures)统计，没有一个州通过类似法案。该联合会表示，相关立法在两个州内尚待表决，9月份，纽约州通过一项法律，要求纽约市研究如何让公众明白，在行走时注意力不集中是有危险的。
Municipal laws are not tracked, but Rexburg, Idaho, may have been among the first to adopt a citywide ban, in 2011. The city recorded five pedestrian deaths in a short period in a concentrated area. It was a high toll, given the city’s size: about 35,000 residents.
市级法律是不受追踪的，但是于2011年通过相关法律的艾奥瓦州雷克斯堡可能是最早在全市范围实施禁令的城市。该市一个人口集中地区在很短时期内就有五名行人死亡。对于一个大约只有3.5万名居民的城市来说，这个死亡率相当高 。
“It was a shock to our system,” said Stephen Zollinger, Rexburg’s city attorney.
雷克斯堡市检察官史蒂芬·佐林格(Stephen Zollinger)说：“这对我们的系统来说是一种震撼。”
Distracted walking was suspected. Along with other safety measures, Rexburg barred pedestrians from using hand-held devices — except while talking — while crossing public streets, he said, and “we’ve not had a pedestrian fatality since.”
人们怀疑行走时注意力不集中是罪魁祸首。除了采取其他安全措施，雷克斯堡还禁止行人在过马路时使用手持装置——除非是正在打电话，佐林格说，“从那以后，我们这里就再也没有行人在交通事故中死亡。”
Bodegraven, a small town near Amsterdam, tried a different approach. This year, it embedded LED-illuminated strips in the crosswalk at a busy intersection — right in the line of sight of people staring at their phones. When the traffic lights turn red or green, so do the lights at ground level, alerting pedestrians when it’s safe to cross.
博德赫拉芬是阿姆斯特丹附近的一个小镇，它尝试了另一种做法。今年，它在一条繁忙的十字路口的人行横道上嵌入了条形LED灯，盯着手机的人过马路时也能看见。当交通信号灯变成红色或绿色时，地面上的灯也会随之变色，还能在马路可以安全通行时提醒行人。
The pilot program aims to anticipate trends, not reverse them, said Dolf Roodenburg, the project leader and a traffic engineer in the Netherlands. If it’s successful, the town hopes to install the lights at more intersections and on bike paths, and offer them to other cities.
该项目负责人、荷兰交通工程师杜尔夫·卢登堡(Dolf Roodenburg)说，这个试点计划旨在预测趋势，而不是扭转趋势。如果取得成功，该市希望在更多十字路口和自行车道上安装这种LED灯，并将它们提供给其他城市。
In Augsburg, Germany, similar lights were installed last year after a teenager using her smartphone was struck and seriously injured by a tram when she walked onto the tracks.
在德国的奥格斯堡，去年曾有一个年轻人在横穿电车轨道时使用智能手机，结果被电车撞倒，受了重伤，之后该市也安装了类似的LED灯。
There are, of course, contrary points of view on the effectiveness of legislating pedestrian behavior.
当然，也有人认为，对行人进行立法约束并不会产生成效。
Janette Sadik-Khan, a former commissioner of the New York City Department of Transportation and now transportation principal at Bloomberg Associates, which advises mayors around the world, said laws against texting and walking were not the answer. They have no basis in any research, are poorly conceived and distract from the road design and driver behavior issues that are responsible for most crashes, she said.
前纽约市交通运输部(New York City Department of Transportation)部长、现任彭博合伙人公司(Bloomberg Associates)运输主管的珍尼特·萨迪克-汗(Janette Sadik-Khan)表示，立法禁止边走路边发短信不能解决问题，该公司专门向世界各地的市长提供咨询。她说，这样的立法没有任何研究作为依据，设计欠佳，把人们的注意力从道路设计问题和司机行为问题上引开，而这两点才是大多数交通事故的原因。
“It’s an easy way out. Engineering is a lot more difficult, but a lot more efficient,” Sadik-Khan said. “Traffic safety is very serious business in government, based in sound analysis.”
“这是一个偷懒的办法。进行工程改造更为困难，但效率更高，”萨迪克-汗说。“对于政府来说，建立在可靠分析上的交通安全是一件非常严肃的事情。”
