I have always been a walking reader. Except when I’m being a reading walker. You CAN learn to switch contexts rapidly. And never cross traffic while reading.
I recall being at the Grand Canyon, walking along a cliff side trail and two business men looking types walking towards me. Both had their heads down, essentially looking at their shoes while discussing business while this magnificent wonder of nature is just to the right of them.
I use Google Maps when driving on a long trip or a short trip in congested areas. The phone is placed out of view and I listen for verbal instructions. Thus, I am able to concentrate on just one task: driving the car.
This already happens on every road and interstate in Merica. YouTube has thousands of videos of distracted drivers going off road, into other vehicles (in both directions), and even ones where they hit police vehicles. Unfortunately, just like drunk drivers, they kill others who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Proof that driver licensing laws do not work.
My phone has an option called city mode, It feeds the view from the rear camera to the background.The city has adapted too, the pavement at street crossings lights up green for walk and red for don’t walk
I just LUV folks out walking who are looking at their phones and not the natural beauty around them. A friend of mine watches tennis on the telly, and she swears that half the people in the stands are watching the game on their phones.
Two other examples of ‘neglect’. A mother pushing a stroller through a suburban garden street. She was texting/reading while her baby was pointing and chattering about all the flowers. A father at a restaurant table, texting while ignoring his 6-year-old daughter, who was trying to talk to him. Opportunities forever lost.
As a cemetery guide, I am required by law to warn visitors about groundhog holes, which are, typically, “about the size of a human foot”. Visitors who are not staring at their phones usually comply.
This kind of behavior pre-dates the cell phone. Decades ago, a friend of mine got a concussion after stepping backwards off a boulder trying to frame a nature photograph.
random thought: between cell phones and the pandemic, we might actually eliminate some of the evolutionary dead ends we have proliferating around the globe.
eastern.woods.metal over 2 years ago
Wiley does the dailies in black and white. Someone else does the colours, hence the red hat
eastern.woods.metal over 2 years ago
I wonder if they even notice the sudden stop at the bottom
C over 2 years ago
A joint venture by Darwin and your community
Cactus-Pete over 2 years ago
A special trail is not needed. That’s what makes it Darwinism.
Wilde Bill over 2 years ago
These people are slightly better at walking and chewing gum.
sirbadger over 2 years ago
A boring nature trail might cause people to look at their phones. Maybe a walkway through a flat muddy area.
Concretionist over 2 years ago
I have always been a walking reader. Except when I’m being a reading walker. You CAN learn to switch contexts rapidly. And never cross traffic while reading.
parforden over 2 years ago
Who’s gonna clean up that mess! Ick!
Baslim the Beggar Premium Member over 2 years ago
The fine print:
This trail and sign brought to you by your local Wiley Bears™.
It’s a long drop because the bears like their meat tenderized…
Walrus Gumbo Premium Member over 2 years ago
I recall being at the Grand Canyon, walking along a cliff side trail and two business men looking types walking towards me. Both had their heads down, essentially looking at their shoes while discussing business while this magnificent wonder of nature is just to the right of them.
baddawg1989 over 2 years ago
Kurtwood Smith’s Red Forman character has a name for these folks. :-)
JosephShriver over 2 years ago
Surprising that they noticed the sign
SNVBD over 2 years ago
2018
mottyg over 2 years ago
I would have preferred the trail goes to a giant sinkhole instead of a canyon.
For a Just and Peaceful World over 2 years ago
I use Google Maps when driving on a long trip or a short trip in congested areas. The phone is placed out of view and I listen for verbal instructions. Thus, I am able to concentrate on just one task: driving the car.
Isenthor1978 over 2 years ago
This already happens on every road and interstate in Merica. YouTube has thousands of videos of distracted drivers going off road, into other vehicles (in both directions), and even ones where they hit police vehicles. Unfortunately, just like drunk drivers, they kill others who are in the wrong place at the wrong time. Proof that driver licensing laws do not work.
Say What? Premium Member over 2 years ago
Yikes, don’t install this type of trail near a high school. Those kids always seem to have their noses in their phones.
Skeptical Meg over 2 years ago
I’m guessing there are another bunch of hikers at the bottom who pulled out their phones to video the fall(ing) colours.
keenanthelibrarian over 2 years ago
But, if he’s staring at his phone, he wouldn’t have seen the sign. Go figure …
Fklimko over 2 years ago
I bet the bears are at the bottom of the reavine, waiting.
Doug K over 2 years ago
There should be a bench (or bleachers) set up for spectators.
jvo over 2 years ago
My phone has an option called city mode, It feeds the view from the rear camera to the background.The city has adapted too, the pavement at street crossings lights up green for walk and red for don’t walk
dflak over 2 years ago
I’d like to see a Wiley Bear cartoon similar to this except that there is a sign pointing into the woods that reads “Free WiFi.”
Painted Wolf over 2 years ago
There should be a slight change in the sign. The trail should be renamed to “The Sir Issac Newton/Charles Darwin Species Improvement Nature Trail”.
And, at the bottom of the cliff, there should be a way to recover the cell phones for further service in the betterment of humanity.
HOTLOTUS1 over 2 years ago
what’s the address. I can send a lot of people there you know, for sightseeing.
Redd Panda over 2 years ago
The threat is real … https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/backstories/1818/
MS72 over 2 years ago
Don’t need a phone. Just drink enough alcohol near an Interstate highway…
timbob2313 Premium Member over 2 years ago
in attention to being unable to open some editorial cartoons, several daily cartoons have the same problem
A Hip loving Canadian... over 2 years ago
Too easy.
1953Baby over 2 years ago
I just LUV folks out walking who are looking at their phones and not the natural beauty around them. A friend of mine watches tennis on the telly, and she swears that half the people in the stands are watching the game on their phones.
oakie817 over 2 years ago
there goes the neighborhood
david_42 over 2 years ago
I truly enjoy videos of people running into things while on their phones.
sandpiper over 2 years ago
Two other examples of ‘neglect’. A mother pushing a stroller through a suburban garden street. She was texting/reading while her baby was pointing and chattering about all the flowers. A father at a restaurant table, texting while ignoring his 6-year-old daughter, who was trying to talk to him. Opportunities forever lost.
stringer831 over 2 years ago
As a cemetery guide, I am required by law to warn visitors about groundhog holes, which are, typically, “about the size of a human foot”. Visitors who are not staring at their phones usually comply.
Bruce1253 over 2 years ago
Here in San Diego several years ago we had a young person staring at their phone walk off a cliff into the ocean. Yes, he did get a Darwin Award.
calliarcale over 2 years ago
For extra points, put a Pokestop there.
Steverino Premium Member over 2 years ago
This is a real cliffhanger.
thelordthygod666 over 2 years ago
One can only hope.
mistercatworks over 2 years ago
This kind of behavior pre-dates the cell phone. Decades ago, a friend of mine got a concussion after stepping backwards off a boulder trying to frame a nature photograph.
ameka Premium Member over 2 years ago
First time I’ve seen a Wiley strip repeted. :(
ragsarooni over 2 years ago
A man stepped off the curb practically in front of my car while staring at his phone…..thank God I was able to stop!
LEOKEV over 2 years ago
Before I read the strip, I thought the feet were the shadows of two guys in hats talking to each other.
Robert Craigs over 2 years ago
A few years ago a woman in Toronto walked into the side of a moving truck at an intersection.
BeniHanna6 Premium Member over 2 years ago
At first quick glance I thought the chasm was a fence across the path, then I saw the legs.
raybarb44 over 2 years ago
When will they ever learn?…..
SrTechWriter over 2 years ago
https://miami.cbslocal.com/2017/06/09/woman-phone-falls-basement-opening/
https://deadstate.org/guy-staring-into-his-smartphone-walks-off-a-cliff-and-falls-to-his-death/
https://www.wired.com/2009/07/girl-falls-into-manhole-while-texting-parents-sue/
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-25426263
paranormal over 2 years ago
I’d always laugh when someone staring at their phone would walk into a pole…
Bookworm over 2 years ago
The last words you’ll ever hear: Siri: “You’re walking of a cliffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff. . . .”
(thud)
Mediatech over 2 years ago
The collision of artificial intelligence and natural stupidity.
brucer31245 over 2 years ago
So that’s how the Serendipity trail ends. ;-D
198.23.5.11 over 2 years ago
Adorable.Haven’t you EVER wanted to sneak up behind one of these “absorbed in their phone” geeks and yell“LOOK OUT!THE TRAIN!”???
KEA over 2 years ago
Oh! it’s a canyon, I thought at first glance it was a fence.
KEA over 2 years ago
random thought: between cell phones and the pandemic, we might actually eliminate some of the evolutionary dead ends we have proliferating around the globe.
Pisces over 2 years ago
LOL ………………. bloody good one, Wiley!
pflutke59 over 2 years ago
Now we need a similar solution for drivers looking down at their phones!
Bilan over 2 years ago
Another example of dogs being smarter than humans.
Night-Gaunt49[Bozo is Boffo] over 2 years ago
Not called Darwinism any more than in physics is called Newtonianism.
Sailor46 USN 65-95 over 2 years ago
Or it is also known as the cleaning of the gene pool trail.
julie.mason1 Premium Member over 2 years ago
Known as a selfie shelfie.
tee929 over 2 years ago
Again, where are the bears who planned this?
JH&Cats over 2 years ago
We can bring back an old word: the poor SAP (= Staring At Phone).
bakana over 2 years ago
Well, that would be one way to fill in the Grand Canyon.
aussie399 Premium Member over 2 years ago
Should be one in every town, city and suburb