Having just spent 2 weeks touring in Europe on my trusty FJR, the problem has spread just about everywhere. Even the illegal migrants that haunt some cities in Italy all seem to have a mobi & new trainers, even when they don't appear to have a pot to pi** in.
It has to be said that the mobile phone, since G3, has so absorbed the human psychy, that it has created a huge set of obsessive-compulsive individuals. I understand most users check their phone over 100 times each day, to address their Inbox anxiety & may even be suffering from FOBO - Fear of being Offline. When my wife had a spell on crutches recently, did other pedestrians help by holding doors & making space on pavements - no, they were too busy to notice & would simply walk straight into her, such was the life & death importance of their phone/social media.
The result is what we all witness on every ride/drive/walk. On the other hand, we have been cutting Traffic Police, along with many public services to the bone. The Aussies are known for trying to take a hard line, but elsewhere enforcement is patchy. Personally I am sick & tired of these idiots - it used to be watching for drunks, then it was loading the CD, then SatNavs, now it's smart phones. But then again many of us have media connections in our helmets, which must absorb our powers of concentration too. There is no easy solution - we have to find a way to stop these devices controlling our lives first. They are a useful tool that is causing universal OCD.
Meantime, & it will be a very long time, ride safe ..................... KEN ::002::