At Home: Texting While Driving . . . Bicycles?
It’s common knowledge that texting while driving is an unsafe practice, and several regions in the United States have even made it illegal. But texting while operating other modes of transportation is also a bad idea, even when the vehicle isn’t motorized. As a teenage boy recently discovered, texting while bicycling has consequences?both physical and legal.
As The Globe and Mail reports, a 16-year-old boy was charged with careless driving after allegedly texting while cycling.
Last weekend, the teen apparently collided with a parked car while simultaneously texting and riding his bike in Owen Sound, Ontario. He was thrown from his bicycle into the rear of the car, ?striking and smashing the vehicle’s rear window.?
Although the boy sustained only minor injuries, he’s being hit with the careless driving charge, which previously hadn’t been applied to texting cyclists. ?This is the first time I’ve heard of somebody being so enthralled in texting that they’ve actually lost control, and weren’t watching where they’re going and hit a parked car,? police spokesperson Inspector MacKinnon told reporters.
Texting while driving, texting while biking?but what about texting while walking? According to Inspector MacKinnon, That’s not a good idea, either: ?You need to . . . have your wits about you . . . because you can walk into things as well as ride into things,? MacKinnon told reporters.
In Foreign News: Plastic Sails
Plastic bottles recently floated across the ocean?but this time, it wasn’t environmentally hazardous waste. As National Geographic reports, Plastiki, a sailboat composed entirely of ?recycled and repurposed plastics? like water bottles, recently completed a pioneering four-month voyage across the Pacific Ocean.
The expedition, which traveled 8,000 miles between San Francisco, California and Sydney, Australia, set out to ?show how smarter use of plastics can turn today’s trash into a viable, and valuable resource.?
Along the route, Plastiki stopped to visit several highly polluted ocean sites, including the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch, ?a swirling vortex of discarded and degrading plastics twice the size of Texas.? The expedition also noted the occurrence of floating plastic garbage ?even [in] the most remote seas.?
The group hopes to highlight the increasing concern over the short- and long-term effects of oceans littered with plastic trash. By using recycled plastic to create a viable form of transportation, it also showcases the possibilities of what normally is a single-use product.
As Plastiki creator and expedition leader David de Rothschild told reporters, ?Plastic is not the enemy,” adding that ?It’s our understanding of disposal and reuse That’s to blame.?
