Will texting while biking be banned in New York?

You’ve heard of texting while driving and texting while walking. Now there’s texting while biking. The former manager of the Boston Red Sox, Bobby Valentine, was slightly injured when biking in New York City’s Central Park. He was reading a text on his cell phone from a player when he looked up, saw that he was about to hit two pedestrians walking with umbrellas, and swerved to avoid them.

As he swerved, he lost his balance and flipped his bike down the hill. He said, “At least I was wearing my helmet.” He further admitted that he knew it was wrong to text while riding his bicycle.

A serious bicyclist, Valentine was known for riding his bike in Boston traffic on his way to games at Fenway Park. When the team travelled, he frequently took his bike with him and rode when not working with the team.

Texting while biking is apparently becoming a problem, so much so that a sign on a Washington, D.C., bike path reads, “No Texting While Biking.” It appeared on the Capital Crescent bike path in the summer of 2012. The Chicago City Council banned texting while biking in 2011, and imposes fines, albeit modest ones, for violators.

In fact, several states have banned texting while biking or are considering it as of this past summer. Will New York be next?

Source: Gothamist, “Red Sox Manager Injures Himself Texting While Biking In Central Park,” Oct. 3, 2012.