Don't walk through traffic staring at a smart phone

I found out what happened a couple of weeks later.

I was driving my mother home. We were on a four-lane divided boulevard with a bus stop in the island in the middle. There were police cars, fire trucks and ambulances blocking the street. It was night so we couldn't see what happened which was just as well. But I could guess what it was.

My mother heard from someone at the senior center. A young woman got off the bus and set off across the street staring at her smartphone. I don't know who was at fault in the accident. It might not have helped her if she'd been aware of her surroundings but it couldn't have hurt.

I live in the university area and it's amazing how students wander through traffic staring at these things.

At least they might be reading something useful or at least interesting.

In my day, college students were all riding bikes. They had ten-speeds that they could ride without their hands on the handlebars. They would sit back pedaling, often with their hands in their pockets so they couldn't brake if they had to, and they would ride through stop signs and red lights without slowing down or even looking.

Then there were the joggers. There are jogging trails now, but back then they'd run on the sidewalks and run through intersections without looking.

The author of a pro-jogging book appeared on a local radio talk show. Someone called in and asked about this. It seemed incredibly stupid. He explained that when you're running you have a lot of endorphins and you don't even think about that.

"Well don't you think you SHOULD?" the host asked.

And he repeated that when you're running you have a lot of endorphins and you don't even think about that. Like that was a perfectly reasonable.