拿什么来拯救你亲爱的"低头族"？

20160727ou 一中两外锵锵三人行 今日话题：拿什么来拯救你亲爱的"低头族"？ MB: In Austria, it seems that some people need to be reminded how to cross the road safely. Wu You, tell us more. WY: A recent report shows that in Austria, people are being offered workshops focusing on how to cross the street safely in the smartphone age. It is initiated by the Austrian Road Safety Board. The workshops warn people that there can be legal consequences for pedestrians, and also the workshops highlight other possible distractions such as smoking, eating or drinking while you’re crossing the street. MB: OK, so the implication here is that people are glued to their smartphones to such an extent that they are stepping out into the middle of the road and not being safe at all. OK, I don’t really quite know what to make of this. This is rather silly, isn’t it? NL: It does seem a little bit like an overreaction. I think if people need to be having a workshop on how to cross the road safely, they don’t really deserve to have a phone at all MB: This reminds me – back in the 1960s and 70s, when cars suddenly sprung up on the roads in great numbers, people needed to learn how to react to them. In the UK, there was this big campaign – stop, look and listen – which was teaching kids how to cross the road safely and making sure that you stop and that you look both ways and that you listen for the traffic. In the 60s and 70s, people needed to do this, because people were unfamiliar with the concept of many cars on the road, and that’s all well and good. But now, 40 or 50 years later, to have to go through this again. I mean, I’m all for adapting to technology and to new environments, but this seems like we’re pandering a little too much to the smartphone and to how it’s dominating people’s lives. Wu You, what do you think about this? WY: I think they do have numbers to back it up. They have asked about 2,500 pedestrians, and surprisingly, 29% of them were being distracted while crossing the road, and then people were talking about the fact that now is the smartphone age, everyone is so eager to quickly respond to text messages or scrolling down the Wechat moments, Twitter, Facebook, whatever can be so interesting on their smartphone, they’re focused on that. This can be so dangerous, because they’re risking their life responding to cellphones. MB: The figures you just mentioned there, Wu You, 29% 2,500 pedestrians – that’s nearly one-third of them being distracted in some form or other while they’re crossing the road. I wonder if there’s a certain degree of complacency here? You know, that people just assume that road crossings now are so safe and that the drivers are going to stop, and that you can just weave in and out, wandering around on your smartphone or anything like that. Maybe people aren’t paying enough care and attention.