"We have a public safety concern," said Ricardo Munoz, another council supporter, "of people being immersed on their phones walking, especially downtown with all these bike lanes and the traffic, that people should be paying attention."
As with many such feel-good rules and regulations, however, there is absolutely no data to support any link between the problem and the proposed solution ‐ pedestrian deaths and distracted walking. It does sound good, though. Why let lack of actual evidence spoil a silly idea that can get a City Hall pol on local TV?
So far in 2017, 27 pedestrians have died on Chicago streets, a whopping annual increase of one.
This statistic has likely changed in the last few minutes. But at last report, so far this year Chicago has experienced 569 homicides. That’s down slightly from 2016’s full-year murder total of 762.
So, perhaps officers will indeed have extra time to patrol each city crosswalk, four for every single intersection in Chicago’s 234 square miles.