Does society have a responsibilty to help prevent stupid people from getting killed ?

[Platapus]

Germany may think so

German city puts traffic lights on the ground -- for you phone gazers



http://www.cnn.com/2016/04/27/europe/germany-smart-phone-traffic-lights/?iid=ob_article_organicsidebar_expansion


Worried about people glued to their phones while they walk down the street?


Two German cities were concerned enough to install traffic lights that face up at pedestrians ... on the sidewalk.


The southern city of Augsburg recently installed the system at two crowded train stations after a manager saw something similar in Cologne.
Cologne installed similar devices in 2011, according to the German transportation research institute STUVA (http://www.stuva.de/en/about-stuva.html).

Lights on the ground alert pedestrians looking down at their phones.




The lights cost about 10,000 euros ($11,313) each. Some have complained about the price, said Jurgen Fergg, a spokesman for the Augsburg municipal service, but the cost is "justified compared to the damage that can be prevented."


"We will keep an eye on the results and see if less people will walk over the red light," Fergg said.


A 19-year-old man was seriously injured March 8 in Augsburg when he walked into the path of an oncoming train while wearing headphones, according to police. Other cities in Germany have had fatal accidents involving distracted pedestrians, according to Fergg.


Though the solution seems simple -- just look up, people --

distracted walking has become a dangerous problem in recent years.
A 2013 study from Ohio State University (http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/distractwalk.htm) found that the number of people injured while walking and using their phones more than doubled from 2005 to 2010, when more than 1,500 went to the emergency room.
A professor involved in the study, Jack Nasar, said he "wouldn't be surprised if the number of injuries to pedestrians caused by cell phones doubles again between 2010 and 2015." Sometimes you just gotta shake your head ruefully.

[Oberon]

I guess you've got to try and keep the younger generation alive somehow, if you're going to not rely on immigration to counteract the aging population problem. :hmmm:

[Platapus]

Natural selection. Nature tries so hard to do her part. But we keep on interfering:nope:.

[Buddahaid]

In this case I would say no. It would enable victims to sue if they were injured at another location without the system.

Out here we have some cross walks, which are not at traffic light controlled intersections, with a signal system that the pedestrian can activate to alert and stop traffic so they can cross safely. Good idea until a pedestrian decides not to use the signal after traffic has gotten trained to expect it.

[Skybird]

:dead:

Let natural selection have its ways. Thats what genes are there for.

[August]

Natural selection. Nature tries so hard to do her part. But we keep on interfering:nope:.

To the detriment of our entire species...

[Nippelspanner]

German city puts traffic lights on the ground -- for you phone gazers
Ugh.
We used to invest so cool stuff...:shifty:

[em2nought]

Natural selection doesn't work so well for a warrior culture. We need some deadly activities for politicians and lawyers to participate in so as to keep their future numbers down. I think that's our problem right now, too many valiant guys have died without heirs, and too many scum buckets breeding in their place. It's why there are so many ready to vote for practically a communist in the USA. :har:

[HunterICX]

Like those ground traffic lights would help, people are so focused on their 5'' screen that they won't even notice even if the light flashed constantly. They still walk on and get run over a by a car or train as they're that blind and deaf to their surrounding that nothing will help.

I rather see that money spend on cameras placed on those cross overs so whenever one of those stupid idiots walk through red because he's too busy worrying about the latest twitter feed and gets hit by a car the stupid idiot if he's lucky to even have survived gets charged with the damages inflicted onto the car or in case of a train the therapy costs for the driver who went through such horrible experience! :stare:

[Catfish]

I see so much young girls on their bicycles, one hand at the handlebar and one holding a smartphone, looking at that instead on the road.. sometimes freehand and both hands on the phone.. i am really astonished there are not more accidents.
You also see it on the motorways, people driving at a hundred miles while texting.. It is forbidden, but no one cares. :-?

[Jimbuna]

I'd have thought this was a good idea....visual and audible warnings should help keep injury/fatality rates down and at the very least lay the burdon of any incident on the individual concerned.

[Oberon]

I'd have thought this was a good idea....visual and audible warnings should help keep injury/fatality rates down and at the very least lay the burdon of any incident on the individual concerned.

Yes, but then you don't get the opportunity to do the whole "Ugh, young people these days" thing, Jim.
Come on man, get with the program! :O:

[Jimbuna]

Yes, but then you don't get the opportunity to do the whole "Ugh, young people these days" thing, Jim.
Come on man, get with the program! :O:

Twenty years ago perhaps but now I'm just an oldie :)

[Oberon]

Twenty years ago perhaps but now I'm just an oldie :)

Exactly, you're supposed to be all "Young people these days" and "Back in my day kids had more respect!", not to mention that every doctor, fireman and police officer now looks like a kid just out of school.
It's tradition, Jim!

[Jimbuna]

Exactly, you're supposed to be all "Young people these days" and "Back in my day kids had more respect!", not to mention that every doctor, fireman and police officer now looks like a kid just out of school.
It's tradition, Jim!

Yeah, something like that :yep:

[Mittelwaechter]

The system needs stupid people in masses: cheap workers, willing consumers of any crap, deceivable debtors, submissive soldiers, gullible, uncritical followers...

Better try to care for them!

[vienna]

Yes, but then you don't get the opportunity to do the whole "Ugh, young people these days" thing, Jim.
Come on man, get with the program! :O:

Exactly, you're supposed to be all "Young people these days" and "Back in my day kids had more respect!", not to mention that every doctor, fireman and police officer now looks like a kid just out of school.
It's tradition, Jim!

Damn smartass kids! Always trying to tell us what to do... http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/angry/angry-old-man-smiley-emoticon.gif

You!! Get off my lawn!! And, no!, you can't have your ball back!...



<O>

[Oberon]

Damn smartass kids! Always trying to tell us what to do... http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/angry/angry-old-man-smiley-emoticon.gif

You!! Get off my lawn!! And, no!, you can't have your ball back!...



<O>

But Mr Wiiiiiiilsoooooon!

http://cdn.moviestillsdb.com/sm/34061f029921ebfa4efeb066e8a45d35/dennis-the-menace.jpg

[Peter Cremer]

It will probably be like most other things invented to make life safer. It will work until people get so used to it that they will just not notice it anymore and go back to doing what will probably get them killed. If you want to protect people from themselves, put them in a padded cell and once a day put a leash on them and take them for a walk. :yeah:

[u crank]

Mom used to say, "don't run with scissors", she didn't give us rubber scissors.

A species that cannot keep itself from injury or death is a species on the way out.:know:

[fireftr18]

Mom used to say, "don't run with scissors", she didn't give us rubber scissors.

A species that cannot keep itself from injury or death is a species on the way out.:know:

So then we shouldn't protect stupid people and strengthen the gene pool. :Kaleun_Goofy:

[Jimbuna]

Damn smartass kids! Always trying to tell us what to do... http://www.sherv.net/cm/emo/angry/angry-old-man-smiley-emoticon.gif

You!! Get off my lawn!! And, no!, you can't have your ball back!...



<O>


http://i.imgur.com/g5fu5ko.gif

[MaDef]

So then we shouldn't protect stupid people and strengthen the gene pool. :Kaleun_Goofy:Pretty much, There seems to be a lot of people out there that are nothing more than a waste of oxygen.

[Skybird]

http://www.stevecutts.com/uploads/2/6/3/8/26381140/3098639_orig.jpg

http://www.stevecutts.com/uploads/2/6/3/8/26381140/3596626_orig.jpg

http://www.stevecutts.com/illustration.html

[Platapus]

Mom used to say, "don't run with scissors", she didn't give us rubber scissors.

A species that cannot keep itself from injury or death is a species on the way out.:know:

So then we shouldn't protect stupid people and strengthen the gene pool. :Kaleun_Goofy:

When I was going for my Intermediate EMT certification, I was assigned to this one paramedic working the inner city squad. He had been on the streets way too long and was burned out. He treated me (and everyone else) like crap, but honestly I learned more about the street from him than anyone else.

But I remember the first time we rode together. He told me that EMS was working contrary to nature. In order for our species to survive, the stupid ones need to die and in EMS most of the time we are saving stupid people.

:o

Hmm not exactly what they taught me in the class room.

But damn, he was a good paramedic. :salute:

[Jimbuna]

^
Similarly in the LEO business here in the UK.

When explaining to new colleagues how it was often the stupid people we would remove from the streets the response would occasionally be "But surely it is the criminals we remove?"

His response was always....."Nope, they're stupid, otherwise we wouldn't be catching them."

[Dowly]

I applaud the Germans.

While these people might seems idiots (and to some extend, they are), they might still be mothers/fathers/daughters/sons/etc.

If this is what it takes to protect them, so be it.

And as HunterICX pointed out, there is the damage done to the one who runs them over.

I hate this smartphone culture, but it should not be punishable by being run over.

I hope this helps.

[August]

Eh it's all temporary. As soon as they come out with a direct connection to the brain you won't be able to tell who is distracted and who isn't. Think of it as a hands free mode for the visual part of a smart phone.

[em2nought]

http://www.stevecutts.com/uploads/2/6/3/8/26381140/3098639_orig.jpg


Oh, that would make a good movie. Like the Halloween one where kids sit down in front of the tv in their halloween mask, and it turns their brains to snakes and bugs. "The Zombie App" :up:

[u crank]

I applaud the Germans.

While these people might seems idiots (and to some extend, they are), they might still be mothers/fathers/daughters/sons/etc.

If this is what it takes to protect them, so be it.


I think that the principle behind this thinking is somewhat admirable but there is a catch. The more you protect people from themselves, the more dependent they will become on that protection. Where will this lead?

[Schroeder]

Where will this lead?
To speed limits of 70km/h on country roads with trees at the road side...
We just got that here at some of my favorite motorcycling roads.:wah:
There was the normal limit of 100km/h there until recently and I really fail to see how anyone could crash his vehicle into the trees by accident at that speed but obviously some did and since 90 or 80 km/h is still waaaayyyy toooooo much to handle for the average driver we had to go all the way down to 70...on a wide road with mild curves where there was nor danger to driving at 100km/h unless one was a complete retard who doesn't know what the steering wheel or handle bars are good for....:/\\!!:/\\!!:/\\!!

[Rockstar]

I think that the principle behind this thinking is somewhat admirable but there is a catch. The more you protect people from themselves, the more dependent they will become on that protection. Where will this lead?

More lawsuits

[u crank]

As it is written " lawyers shall inherit the earth". :smug:

[fireftr18]

^
Similarly in the LEO business here in the UK.

When explaining to new colleagues how it was often the stupid people we would remove from the streets the response would occasionally be "But surely it is the criminals we remove?"

His response was always....."Nope, they're stupid, otherwise we wouldn't be catching them."
Yep! I've seen more people go to jail for the sheer reason of being stupid than anything else. Yes, they broke a law. The LEO just simply wanted to tell them to not do it again, or just go home. But Mr. Stupid had to get an attitude and argue, or be a jerk about it.

[HunterICX]

I hate this smartphone culture, but it should not be punishable by being run over.

Yes they should.
Not because I hate the smartphone culture but because the cause of the problem is the use of the phone which makes you completely ignore your surroundings not the lack of safety measures that have been installed at crossings.

[Wolferz]

Set the traffic lights up to broadcast a signal to the cell phones to flash the screen for a red light, don't walk sign etc.

Ultimately, I'd just call it cleaning the gene pool when your Angry Birds becomes more important than your life and limbs.:doh:

Safety course...

THE CORRECT SPEED FOR USING A PHONE IS ZERO MPH /KPH
Remember, it won't kill you to pull over to answer that call or text!

[Catfish]

Set the traffic lights up to broadcast a signal to the cell phones to flash the screen for a red light, don't walk sign etc. ...

:up: Yes, write an app that makes the cell phone screen flash red, and yell "STOP YOU MORON!" at you.

Also, add a small arrow to tell you where to go, to avoid obstacles in real life while looking at the screen all the time.
God there are thousand ideas Google and Appple will make money with :haha:

In the future, the phone will take a blood sample of you before or short after a fatal crash, so they can clone you, and replace your memories with Google Brain (tm)

Almost sounds a bit Philip K. Dickish

[Oberon]

I think if it will lead to anything it will just be the extension of pavement barriers so that people can only cross the road in set regulated areas, and these areas will have barriers to prevent people from walking out into the road accidentally when the traffic is flowing. Not particularly a bad thing really, since it will also stop young children from bolting out in front of cars too. Won't stop idiots from climbing the fence though. :nope:

[August]

I think if it will lead to anything it will just be the extension of pavement barriers so that people can only cross the road in set regulated areas, and these areas will have barriers to prevent people from walking out into the road accidentally when the traffic is flowing. Not particularly a bad thing really, since it will also stop young children from bolting out in front of cars too. Won't stop idiots from climbing the fence though. :nope:

What do you mean by pavement barriers? You mean like a fence or railing along the side of the road only broken at road crossings?

[Oberon]

What do you mean by pavement barriers? You mean like a fence or railing along the side of the road only broken at road crossings?

That's the one. :yep: You can still vault them if you're feeling athletic, but would discourage small children and accidental walking into traffic. I've seen a lot of them in London, I must admit they do irritate me sometimes since if you want to cross the street at a certain point then you have to go to the nearest crossing, but that's just laziness on my behalf. :03:
Then at the crossings they'd put gates up like they have at railway crossings, so if someone does vault the gate and then gets mowed down by a car, then it's clearly not the car drivers fault.
It's a lot of work for infrastructure though, so not really plausible except for perhaps blackspots. :hmmm:

[Mittelwaechter]

CCTV + Taser + Monitor + Cheap Worker + Trigger + Paytube Best Of