I walk my dog nightly, and there are a couple of things that annoy me:

People that call to my dog without asking
People that touch my dog without waking
People that wander into my path because they're not paying attention

While the first two are straight up disrespectful, the third is just as annoying. Whether people are talking on someone walking with them, talking on the phone, or texting, my dog has almost been crush by the raggedy sneakers of some idiot.

However, fining for texting is just stupid. It doesn't discourage the activity, and I damn sure don't want cops spending their time looking for people walking as opposed to solving real crime.

I know I've been guilty of texting while walking. To be fair, I try to be good about it - I tilt my phone in such a way that I can see what is ahead of me. However, I lose the sense of feeling when people come up either behind me or directly on the side of me. I've definitely been surprised by people, especially bikers and joggers, that come up quickly behind me as I'm trying to share my latest joke with the world.

Texting is an amazing piece of technology that let's you stay connected with friends without having to have an actual phone call. No excuse to walk into other people though.

The good news is that I remember several annoying high school kids from Fort Lee, so that's a plus. Ticket them like crazy!